Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Hitlerâ??s Fortress Europe along the Normandy beaches of Western France, was planned meticulously for more than two years by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff, especially British Lieutenant-General Frederick Morgan. The plan included training and equipping hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen; sending a vast armada of thousands of ships across the English Channel; bombing and sabotaging bridges, railways, and other means of transportation inland of the invasion beaches; and using deception operations to convince the German High Command that the invasion would occur elsewhere.
Remarkably, however, the Overlord planners overlooked a terrain feature of the Normandy countryside that enabled the defending German forces to significantly delay and disrupt the Allied breakout from the beachheads and inflict heavy casualties on Allied forces. Just a few miles inland from Omaha Beach is the bocage country of Western France. There, every 50 to 100 yards, are fields bounded by hedgerows â?? earthen banks topped with bushes and trees that inhibited the vision and movement of U.S. and allied troops.
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