THE BATTLE OF NORTHERN FRANCE
Under the command of Lt. Connor, the company moved with the division to a new concentration area
in the vicinity of Avranches on the 2nd of August. Traffic was heavy. The going was slow. Then, at 0100, enemy
planes zoomed out of the sky. The slow-moving convoy had been sighted, and was their target.
As flares sprouted in the heavens, turning the night to daylight, men leaped from the halted convoy,
burying themselves in the surrounding rain ditches, diving into holes in the fields, seeking every minute bit of
cover and concealment. The white flares were succeeded by green ones marking the target.
We were the target.
The Heinie planes made a wide circle, started in on their bomb run. Strangely enough they came cross-
wise to the convoy, cutting through it, instead of running along the length of it. This was a tactical error which
saved the convoy tremendous damage.
While the bombs dropped, men crawled into their helmets, doubling up like so many snails creeping into
shells. The fields resembled a brilliantly lighted arena. Overhead the planes were enjoying target practice.
Seconds, minutes ticked away – and seemed like so many years. The planes swept off into the distance,
momentarily in the range of ack-ack fire, and were back again on another bomb run.
It lasted about fifteen minutes. Ordnance trucks miraculously remained untouched. Directly behind them
were the QM trucks which received the brunt of the attack. Several of, their trucks were damaged, and
personnel suffered shrapnel wounds. The flares died out, the roaring motors dimmed in the distance, and men
climbed out of their helmets and back into trucks. The convoy proceeded as though nothing had happened. It
was all in the day’s work.
The days which followed were filled with movement loading, unloading, setting up shop, digging
foxholes, camouflaging, packing up again, moving … moving … moving. St. Osvin …La Mauccilicre …
Landivy … St Germain le Fouilloux … Laval … LeMans, There was
a two day break at Le Mans . , . and then the company moved five limes in five days. It arrived at Chailloue on
the 15th of August where it remained in close support of the division during the closing of the famous ‘‘Falaise
Gap”.
Here the 90th Division made history. We quote from the Division Historian who described, in terse,
concise sentences the overwhelming might of the Division: “The great Falaise pocket, sewed up on the south
and east by the capture of Le Mans and the subsequent swing north, was closed only by fire. No firm line of
troops sealed the mouth of the trap in northwest France. Until the Shooting was over, there remained an escape
gap through the valley where the little village of Chambois is located. So much fire was poured into the
bottleneck that a large part of the proud German Seventh Army was annihilated in its struggle to withdraw.
“The 90th Division took 12,335 prisoners and killed an estimated 8000 from August 16 to 22. In
addition, 30 German tanks, 248 self-propelled guns, 164 artillery pieces 3270 motor vehicles, 649 horse-drawn
vehicles and 13 motorcycles were destroyed.”
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