FRANCE
FRENCH WOMAN, returning to her home after the German withdrawal, passes a knocked out self-propelled antitank gun (Pz. Jaeg. 38 with 7.5-cm. Pak. 40/3). Many of the civilians left their homes and towns during the fighting and returned afterwards, often to find that they had lost their homes during the artillery shelling and aerial bombing. However, in some cases the civilian population stayed in the towns during the fighting.
FRANCE
MOTOR COLUMN ADVANCING ALONG A ROAD near Coutances. On 29 July U. S. armored divisions trapped an enemy column about seven miles southeast of Coutances. Fighter bombers came in and attacked the closely jammed columns of vehicles destroying 137 tanks and over 500 other vehicles.
FRANCE
AN ARMORED COLUMN led by a light armored car M8 stops for a few minutes during its advance to Avranches (top). An M4 medium tank moving through a street in Avranches (bottom). On 30 July an armored division closely followed by an infantry division closed in on Cranville. Another armored division entered Avranches and secured two bridges across the Sée River. The break-through was completed by 31 July, the area between Granville and Avranches was cleared of enemy pockets of resistance, and the U. S. forces struck southward in the direction of Villedieu.