Medals continued from page 3 Alvan’s battalion was sent to Canford Cliffs on the craft guns. General Bradley wanted the planes to fly south coast of England, where on June 5 the invasion the length of the target to reduce the danger that short fleet assembled at his feet in the Solent, the large bay releases might strike General Joseph Lawton Collins’s between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Brits front-line troops. History says that despite an aborted likened it to Piccadilly Circus because the traffic was so first attempt, the flyers still did it their way, but that is heavy: battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, not true. transports, scores of Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs, also Alvan was near Saint André-de-Bohon on an obknown as Large Slow Targets), and hundreds of Landservation post built by the Germans atop a tall pine ing Craft Infantry (LCI). It was an unforgettable sight. tree, several miles north of the target area, with an The next morning they were unobstructed view in all direcgone. Normandy was their tions. He watched as the planes target. came hour after hour, one When it was time for after another in single file, at a Alvan’s unit to go into the vulnerable medium altitude. As troop marshaling area, a they approached Saint-Lô, they storm came up. They sat swung right and, with incredible in pyramidal tents for courage, they flew Indian file three days playing bridge the entire length of the target and watching the barrage dropping thousands of bombs. balloons over Southamp German flak batteries ton sway in the downpour, near Saint-Lô took a deadly toll, while others fought in and Alvan saw many medium Normandy. When they were B-25s and B-26s go down. landed at Omaha Beach, However, no heavy B-17 Flying the enemy had been forced Fortresses were struck within back, and Alvan’s unit was his view. The explosions threw not under direct fire. up an immense cloud of smoke Beyond the beach was and dust over the target, obscurThe Croix de Guerre awarded Alvan by General the Bocage—farmland ing all landmarks, so the folCharles de Gaulle. divided into thousands of lowing bombardiers simply released their loads into the small fields by hedgerows composed of entangled rocks, cloud. Unbeknownst to them, a light breeze had drifted dirt, bushes, small trees and vines three or four feet that cloud over our forward lines, and Alvan heard later high, making a natural fortification every 50 yards or that there were many casualties from our own bombs. so. This made progress difficult and slow and cost many Cobra opened the door for the VII Corps to break out, casualties. Beyond the Bocage was a range of low hills and when Alvan went through Saint-Lô he saw that running from Saint-Lô to Périers, where much stronger only a few broken chimneys remained standing, and resistance was seen. Nevertheless, the First Army had to every square yard in the target area was marked with a break out of its small beachhead. bomb crater. General Omar Bradley requested, and General After repulsing a very serious counterattack at MorDwight Eisenhower approved, Operation Cobra, the tain, which could have cut the supply line to General unprecedented aerial saturation bombardment on an George Patton’s Third Army and most of the First, the area five miles wide and one mile deep along this high Allies had trapped the German 7th Army and its 5th ground. Every available bomber was to participate. Panzer army in the Falaise Pocket. To close the gap the Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory proBritish were to attack from the north while the Amerposed that the approach to the target be perpendicular icans attacked from the south. To avoid a dangerous to its width in broad formations at high altitude to min- clash between friendly forces, each was given a boundimize exposure to the deadly German 88mm anti-airary at which to halt. Bradley’s troops reached theirs as
4