2d Infantry Division used cut edge

2d Infantry Division cut edge Patch. original, WW2.

On June 6, the 1st and 29th divisions attacked.

If elements of infantry and the 2nd engineer battalion of the 2nd DI are part of the special assault force intervening on the first day, the bulk of the division lands on June 7 (D + 1) near Saint-Laurent -sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer to participate in the expansion of the Omaha Beach bridgehead On June 9, while other units of the 2nd Division were unloading landing craft, the 38th An infantry regiment supported by its artillery and by the large caliber guns of the battleship USS Texas crosses the Aure River, while the 9th progresses on its side and takes Rubercy. Headquarters moved to Formigny.

On the 10th, Trévières is liberated. Then companies from both regiments reached the Cherbourg - Paris railway line and, in the process, the 9th cut the national road Saint-Lô - Bayeux. The 38th takes the village of Cerisy. The front line had advanced 10 kilometers with decisive support from attack planes and bombers. During this time, the 23rd RI was assembled south of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and the 2nd DI was finishing its landing.

On June 12, the division clashed with the German 3rd Parachute Division entrenched in the village of Saint-Georges-d'Elle. On the 15th, the enemy counter-attacked, Americans and Germans fought hand-to-hand. On the 16th, the 38th, advancing from hedge to hedge, took hill 192, the strategic sentinel of Saint-Lô.

The Allies are now masters of the beaches and the front is stabilized.

The German line of defense then extended from the sea to Hill 192, located on the Hameau de Cloville in the village of Saint-Georges-d'Elle, this village changing hands five times (the fighting lasted in this village from June 11 to July 11, 1944 - Stele in Tribute in front of the Town Hall), and continuing eastwards, from Bérigny to Saint-Germain-d'Elle,

On July 11, the 2nd DI resumed the offensive. The 23rd and 38th regiments, supported by powerful artillery, aviation and by support from tanks and engineers, ended up taking Hill 192 and maintaining themselves along the Saint-Lô - Bayeux road despite the stubborn resistance of the German 9th Parachute Regiment.

On July 24 she is in Saint-Jean-des-Baisants.

On August 6, the taking of Vire, thirty kilometers from Saint Lô, offered little resistance and on the 15th, the 38th infantry regiment seized Tinchebray.

The fighting for the capture of Saint-Lô marked the end of the participation of the 2nd Division in the Battle of Normandy. She had traveled 70 kilometers and taken 1,992 prisoners in 68 days of fighting.

On August 19, 1944, the 2nd DI commanded by General Robertson joined the VIIIth U.S. Army Corps at night at Landerneau, on the eastern side of the system which was to take the city of Brest. The 8th American Division moved to Plabennec and the 29th south of Lannilis.

The mission of German General Von Ramcke, who had entrenched himself in the city with 50,000 men, including 4,000 paratroopers from the German 2nd Parachute Division, was to hold out for three months in order to immobilize as many American troops as possible. .

On August 21, the 2nd DI. relieves the French Forces of the interior of the Finistère group and the 6th US armored division. Between August 23 and 30, the 38th infantry regiment took control of the Daoulas peninsula and hill 154 which dominates the city.

The offensive begins on August 25. On September 4, the enemy's outer line of defense was breached. On the 8th, three regiments, resuming the attack, plunged into the town; the German resistance is still just as strong, the progression is made house by house. On September 13, the 8th Division moved to the Crozon peninsula, where enemy batteries cannonaded Brest, leaving the 2nd Division and the 29th Division to complete the capture of the city. On the 15th, the division's artillery harassed the enemy positions inside the city wall 24 hours a day. On the 16th, despite the stubborn resistance of the Germans, the wall built by Vauban with its wide ditch representing the most formidable obstacle, was reached by the division which entered it on the 17th.

On September 18, 1944, on Place Wilson, the German colonel commanding Place de Brest surrendered to General Robertson, commanding the 2nd DI. During the Battle of Brest, the VIIIth American Army Corps took 37,382 prisoners, a third of them on behalf of the division.

The division is then engaged on the Siegfried Line and then engaged in the Battle of the Belgian Ardennes