Page "Operation Cobra" Paragraph 22

After the one-day postponement, Cobra got underway at 09: 38 on 25 July, when around 600 Allied fighter-bombers attacked strongpoints and enemy artillery along a-wide strip of ground located in the St. Lô area.

For the next hour, 1, 800 heavy bombers of the U. S. Eighth Air Force saturated a area on the Saint-Lô – Periers road, succeeded by a third and final wave of medium bombers.

Approximately 3, 000 U. S. aircraft had carpet-bombed a narrow section of the front, with the Panzer-Lehr-Division taking the brunt of the attack.

However, once again not all the casualties were German ; Bradley had specifically requested that the bombers approach the target from the east, out of the sun and parallel to the Saint-Lô – Periers road, in order to minimize the risk of friendly losses, but most of the airmen instead came in from the north, perpendicular to the front line.

Bradley, however, had apparently misunderstood explanations from the heavy bomber commanders that a parallel approach was impossible because of the time and space constraints Bradley had set.

Additionally, a parallel approach would not in any event have assured that all bombs would fall behind German lines because of deflection errors or obscured aim points due to dust and smoke.

Despite efforts by U. S. units to identify their positions, inaccurate bombing by the Eighth Air Force killed 111 men and wounded 490.

The dead included Bradley's friend and fellow West Pointer Lieutenant General Lesley McNair — the highest-ranking U. S. soldier to be killed in action in the European Theater of Operations.