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Battle of Saint-Lô 1944

Battle of Saint-Lô: Saint-Lo 1944 - Capitale des Ruines - couleurs
Image: The original uploader was Saire at French Wikipedia., Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Date24 July 1944Wikidata
Year1944Wikidata P585 (point in time)
EraWorld War II era (1939–1945)derived from year
LocationFranceNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentEuropeNatural Earth
War / conflictWorld War IIWikidata P361
ParticipantsUnited StatesWikidata P710
Coordinates49.1200, -1.0900Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of Saint-Lô was one of the three conflicts in the battle of the hedgerows which took place between July 7 and 19, 1944, in Saint-Lô, Manche, Normandy, France, 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 bombardment 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.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Saint-Lô (revision 1370588039), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

49.1200, -1.0900 · France

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Further reading