Saturday, August 5, 1944
The days that marked the Battle of Normandy
The General Staff of the German Armed Forces is informed by its generals in Normandy that Commonwealth forces attack south of Caen. Moreover, to the east of Avranches, in the Cotentin, the Americans continue their advance towards Mortain, south of Vire, defended by the 7th German army commanded by general Hausser. In Brittany, part of the 3rd Army of General Patton (two of the three corps of the 3rd Army) is now attacking towards the east. Patton was in fact ordered to attack in the direction of Laval, Sainte-Suzanne and Mayenne and he immediately went to work.
The German troops between Thury-Harcourt and Mortain were worried. They fear an Anglo-Canadian encircling by the North and American by the South. The German headquarters decides to counter-attack massively before being submerged in Normandy and it develops an operation that must begin in the coming days.
The British, conscious of the bad German position between Mortain and Thury-Harcourt, decided to continue the Bluecoat offensive some time before concentrating the offensive south of Caen to accelerate the phenomenon of encirclement.
