| And Monsieur le Mayor with his
cutaway and stripped pants and his trimmed moustache waving frantically for
quiet so he could make his speech. And then you moved on to the next town and the same
thing happened everywhere you went, only sometimes the welcoming committee
was a little put out because the Americans wouldn't stop long enough to
receive the keys to the city formally.
Louvigné-du-Désert and Landivy fell to the racing 90th. This was
blitzkrieg of such power and speed never imagined by the German High
Command. On August 5th the XV Corps ordered the Division to take
the city of Mayenne, 37 miles away. Task Force Weaver was formed to
accomplish the mission, and by noon it had reached the outskirts of the
city. By mid afternoon, after a brief skirmish, Mayenne had been liberated
as had all the intervening towns and villages. Thirty-seven miles in a
single day. Unheard of !
Here again there were welcomes and speeches and drinks and kisses and
flowers. Here again Frenchmen opened their arms and their hearts. And here
the mademoiselles were even better than before, simply because there were
more mademoiselles. There were the bearded Frenchmen who insisted on
bestowing wet and whiskery kisses on the cheeks of each and every American
who came within range. The mademoiselles were shy and coy, but not too shy
and not too coy.
But hospitable Mayenne was soon left behind. The following day Le Mans was
designated as the new objective. Now two task forces were dispatched to
seize the city which lay almost one hundred miles south-east. One task
force, under Brigadier General William G. Weaver, was to take the northern
route; the other, commanded by Colonel William B. Barth, traveled the
southern route. The mission of the remainder of the Division was to follow
the forward elements, mopping up pockets of resistance.
Resistance in the shape of road blocks was encountered along the route. Here
and there pitched battles took place. Prisoners were taken in unprecedented
numbers. And on the third day, Le Mans had fallen to American troops. In ten
days the Division had advanced 140 miles, taken more than 1,500 prisoners
and had suffered less than 300 casualties.
No longer a Division of unknown quality, no longer merely an anonymous unit
with a numbered designation, the 90th had emerged from its
baptism of battle as a force to be reckoned with, a force which the enemy
had learned too well to respect, to avoid and to fear.
On August 10th the 90th Division made its plans to
move northward. And so another phase of battle began, a phase which was to
end only when the German Command had learned to fear the 90th for
additional valid reasons. |
