Battle of Saint-Lô

Part of Operation Overlord (The Battle of Normandy)

Saint-Lô, 95% destroyed after the 1944 bombardments, known as The Capital of Ruins.

Date	July 9–24, 1944
Location	Saint-Lô, France
Result	Allied victory

Belligerents

United States

Nazi Germany

Commanders and leaders

Casualties and losses

3,000

The Battle of Saint-Lô is one of the three conflicts in the Battle of the Hedgerows (), which took place between July 9–24, 1944, just before Operation Cobra. Saint-Lô had fallen to Germany in 1940, and, after the Invasion of Normandy, the Americans targeted the city, as it served as a strategic crossroads. American bombardments caused heavy damage (up to 95% of the city was destroyed) and a high number of casualties, which resulted in the martyr city being called "The Capital of Ruins", popularized in a report by Samuel Beckett.

France was invaded in 1940 and the 7th Panzer Division, commanded by Erwin Rommel, entered Normandy, with the objective of capturing Cherbourg Harbor. Saint-Lô fell under German control on the night of June 17, 1940. During the occupation, the statue of la Laitière normande (the Norman milkmaid), created by Arthur Le Duc was dismantled and melted down to make cannons, despite opposition from local politicians.

In 1943, the Germans began digging an underground hospital, which remains today, using the slave labor of the STO.

A German soldier was shot in January 1944, and many Saint-Lô residents were detained. The movie theater, theater, and bars were closed, radios were confiscated, and the curfew was moved to 8 p.m.

Due to its strategic importance as a crossroads, a bombardment by the Americans, focusing on the railway station and the power plant, began on the night of June 6, and lasted into the morning of June 7. The objective was to cut off German reinforcements in Brittany from the front.

Warning leaflets were dropped the day before, but high winds dispersed them to neighboring communities, failing to alert local residents. Over two hundred prisoners were killed at the local prison, including seventy-six imprisoned French patriots (all that remains of the prison today is the gate). Over one thousand of about twelve thousand citizens were killed.

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