The Normandy landings (D-day) proceeded even better than expected, with all beachheads established at a lower cost than predicted. However, the subsequent progress inland was unexpectedly slowed by increasingly heavy German resistance and the nature of the terrain in the bocage, the landscape of ancient hedgerows that crisscrossed pastoral Normandy, forming obstacles both to visibility and to advance. The key to the Allied invasion of Europe was speed, and now, after so promising a beginning, First U.S. Army Group commander Omar Bradley found himself confronting the possibility of a deadly war of attrition through France. Each initial attempt to break out of the bocage was checked by the Germans. After a month of frustration, Bradley then revived a plan originally proposed by Third U.S. Army general George S. Patton Jr. As Bradley reformulated it, Operation Cobra was intended as nothing more than a limited attack to punch through the German defenses west of Saint-Lo. If this succeeded, Bradley planned to make a deeper penetration using a large armored force as a follow-up on the initial advance. It would be Bradley's third attempt in a month to move out of the Cotentin Peninsula.

Operation Cobra had been planned to step off on July 24, 1944, but bad weather forced delay until July 25. Some of the bombers, however, did not get the postponement order and were launched on the 24th. The result was catastrophic, as bombs were rained down on American infantry. To compound the friendly-fire tragedy, more bombs were dropped on American infantry on the actual day of the attack because targets were poorly marked. Refusing to be disheartened, however, Bradley and Patton pressed on with the operation, even though the premature bomb drop had sacrificed the element of surprise.

Despite the bombing errors, the massive carpet bombing raids, followed by a two-thousand bomber attack on German troops outside of Saint-Lo, was a stunning success. It weakened the German front so badly that the enemy was unable to counterattack the breakthrough. Bradley managed to mass his 15 divisions and 750 tanks against all the Germans could muster, nine divisions, with 150 tanks. Early on the morning of July 26, U.S. medium bombers attacked German lines, then the 1st Armored Division advanced, the advance protected on its flanks by tanks positioned to the east of the columns during the night of the 25th. . .

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