Operation Cobra 1944: Breakout from Normandy

The Allies, for most of June and July, had fought a punishing battle of attrition without making a lot of progress in Normandy. Bocage country was especially terrible for the Americans. General Bradley and his staff could not let this costly stalemate continue and thought up Operation Cobra to break the stalemate. I've always considered that for many authors writing a book with a 96 page limit could be difficult; this is one such example. I suggest that additional coverage could have been mentioned but the author has done a great job of writing this story under the limitation. This book has the traditional Osprey format of WWII books; the brief introduction of stating the strategic situation and the competent two page chronology is good in setting up the story that follows. The commanders are well represented. For the Germans Kluge, Rommel, Blaskkowitz and Hausser are presented. For the Allies Patton, Collins, Middleton, Bradley and indirectly Eisenhower and Montgomery. Following the commanders, a 14 page description of opposing forces was excellent, covering all the units involved in the operation as well as an abbreviated Order of Battle which included four American Corps and two German Corps. The description of the Allied offensive and the German defensive plans were also good and by this time the reader will have a good understanding of Operation Cobra. The actual offensive is then discussed. This is one of the reasons I like this book for Mr Zaloga spends 56 pages on telling the important campaign that opened the Normandy beachhead and sent our troops to liberating Paris. He does a very good job of describing the action. It begins with the inauspicious bombing tragedy that inflicted 150 casualties on 30th ID and continues with the break through of the German line, the startup of Patton's 3rd Army and the move into Brittany, Mortain, Falaise and the race to the Seine River culminating in the liberation of Paris on August 25th. Prior to Operation Cobra, the author covers the capture of St Lo, showing the importance of taking this critical road junction as a prerequisite for launching Cobra. There is also commentary on the struggle Montgomery was having in the Caen sector with his different operations. The maps are also good. They're the traditional color maps but they're populated with many cities and villages as well as the unit symbols facing each other. There are five 2 dimensional maps and two 3 dimensional maps. The 2-D maps cover: the Allied line on July 25th, the Cobra plan, the Cobra Breakthrough, Briton Ports and reaching the Seine. These two page 3-D maps are especially helpful for the key battle areas are not placed in the crease where you can't read the details. The map of the counterattack at Mortain is busy but with careful study, can be followed. Besides the maps, there is a wealth of good photos, especially of tanks but that should not be surprising. There are also three 2-page color illustrations that are interesting

This is one of my favorite Osprey books and Steven Zaloga is one of my favorite authors; I had to write a review but the definitive review has already been written so I'll settle on mentioning some of the things that interest me. I've always considered that for many authors writing a book with a 96 page limit could be difficult; this is one such example. I suggest that additional coverage could have been mentioned but the author has done a great job of writing this story under the limitation. This book has the traditional Osprey format of WWII books; the introduction of stating the strategic situation and chronology is good in setting up the story that follows. The commanders are well represented. For the Germans Kluge, Rommel, Blaskkowitz and Hausser are presented. For the Allies Patton, Collins, Middleton, Bradley and indirectly Eisenhower and Montgomery. Following the commanders, a description of forces involved in the operation as well as the description of the Allied offensive and the German defensive plans. The actual offensive is then discussed. This is one of the reasons I like the book for Mr Zaloga spends 56 pages on telling the important campaign that opened the Normandy beachhead and sent our troops to liberating Paris. He does a very good job of describing the action. I've had an interest in 2nd SS PzC since the days of Kharkov and Kursk and was glad to see Mr Zaloga gave Das Reich special mention of this division. The maps are also good. They're the traditional color maps but they are populated with many cities and villages as well as the unit symbols facing each other. There are five 2 dimenisional maps and two 3 dimensional maps. The 2-D maps cover: the Allied line on July 25th, the Cobra plan, the Cobra Breakthrough, Briton Ports and reaching the Seine. These two page 3-D maps are especially helpful for the key battle areas are not placed in the crease where you can't read the details. The map of the counterattack at Mortain is busy but with careful study, can be followed. Besides the maps, there is a wealth of good photos, especially of tanks but that should not be surprising. There are also three 2-page color illustrations that are interesting. The book closes with "Further Reading" and a Index. If you have an interest in Normandy and the breakout, this book is certainly worth reading. The author has also written "D-Day", "Lorraine 1944", "Battle of the Bulge" and "Remagen 1945" which are worthy sequels.

A damn fine addition to my Osprey Campaign collection.I also purchased Lorraine 1944 by Osprey as both are collaborations by Zaloga and Bryan on the same theatre and compliment each other brilliantly.A must have for anyone wanting to know about the Normandy Campaigns of 1944.

There are certain authors that readers can trust to deliver excellent military history, and Steven J Zaloga is one of them. In his latest title for Osprey, Zaloga covers the American-led breakout from the Normandy bridgehead in July-August 1944 that sent Hitler's armies reeling back across France. While Zaloga has done a good job summarizing the main points of Martin Blumenson's authoritative official history of Operation Cobra, he has provided additional value by including input from more recent scholarship on specific facets of the campaign, such as the impact of tactical air power. In accordance with the Osprey Campaign series format, the book starts with a section on the background to the campaign and includes a campaign chronology. Zaloga provides good insight into the debilitated state of the Wehrmacht units and the rising competence of US units in the section on opposing forces. The section on opposing commanders is adequate, but French General Leclerc who made a contribution in the campaign is omitted, while non-involved characters such as Montgomery are included. On the German side, Panzer Lehr's Fritz Bayerlein should also have been included. The section on opposing plans is adequate but more mention of how ULTRA shaped Allied planning should have been included. The order of battle is a bit skimpy because it only addresses division-size units from both sides that participated in the initial phase of Cobra; American non-divisional assets such as independent tank, tank destroyer and artillery units should have been added. Nevertheless, Zaloga succeeds in providing fresh insights into material that is well worn, if not always well covered. Certainly he makes good points on Allied superiority in communications and logistics which are not viewed as "sexy" by some armchair historians who prefer to stress comparative tank statistics and such. The maps are quite good in this volume. There are five 2-D maps, depicting: the theater situation on 24 July 1944, the plan for Cobra, the breakthrough on 25-30 July, the race through Brittany and the pursuit to the Seine. Unfortunately, there were no 2-D maps of the Mortain counterattack or the Falaise pocket. There are only two 3-D Birds-eye-view maps in this volume: the carpet-bombing of the Panzer Lehr Division and the Mortain counterattack (which is too small and difficult to understand). There are three excellent battle scenes: the carpet bombing of Panzer Lehr, US tanks in the breakout and Panther tanks in the Mortain counterattack. The photographs provided are also excellent, particularly if one enjoys viewing destroyed German vehicles and their dead occupants (there are no photographs of US casualties). Overall, the text is cleanly-written and the campaign narrative fits well together. Zaloga also makes a good connection between Operation Cobra's breakout and the landings in southern France; often Operation Dragoon gets short shrift in the Normandy saga, but Zaloga effec