Reflections of My Life by JL Byars – page 16

It was at Pont Hebert that the 33rd Armored Regiment lost all of their command tanks, including that of Colonel Sam Hogan.  One of our tank commanders caught three German Mark IV tanks with their guns pointed the other direction – his tank totaled all three of them.

The action around Haut Vents, Belle Lande and Pont Herbert was very vicious.  We would take a town only to be run out by the Germans.  Our mission on July 10th was to take Hill 91 (Haut Vents), which we did.

On July 16th, both combat commands moved into assembly areas for a short time to reorganize.  This was at St. Jean de Daye.  All the time we were trying to get organized, we were under heavy fire and were swept by German Jerry fighters and heavy rains. 

On the morning of July 26th the rain had stopped and the sky was clear.  From out of the sky a group of our Mustang Fighters appeared over the front line.  They were followed by fleets of Fortresses and Liberators, dropping bombs.  There were 1800 heavy bombardment machines, 400 medium and about 700 fighter-bombers in this one event.  We were located about three-fourths of a mile from where the bombs were dropped.  The ground was vibrating where we were standing. With the magnitude and continuation of these bombers, no one could survive this kind of an attack, and by the time the last bomb was dropped the Germans were gone and we were on the attack again.

We had to use the blades on our tanks to open a road to get through where all the bombing had occurred.  This was a great breakthrough into Normandy, and a turning point in history for us.