COCKADE COBRA ( JULY 25–AUGUST 13, 1944) Code name for the American operation to break out of the bocage country during the Normandy campaign After seven weeks of close and heavy fighting along the perimeter of the lodgement in Normandy, on July 25 some 600 fighter-bombers blasted a path for American armor through German artillery positions and strongpoints held by the Panzer-Lehr Division and supporting elite infantry of the 5th Parachute Division The “Jabos” were followed by 1,800 heavy bombers from U.S 8th Air Force, unusually attempting to bomb tactically rather than strategically The heavies devastated defending Germans, but short-bombing killed over 100 Americans and wounded nearly 500 Before noon, U.S 1st Infantry Division and 2nd Armored advanced, fighting through strong German resistance and large minefields for the rest of the day Over the next two days the advance picked up speed as the German left flank collapsed and U.S 4th Armored Division joined the fight German armored counterattacks were beaten back, with the Americans enjoying air supremacy By the third day, most German units were fighting to escape rather than hold the line Panzer Lehr was nearly totally destroyed, along with several other German divisions On July 30th, British and Canadian assaults in support of the left flank of the COBRA advance further attrited the Germans Avranches fell to U.S 8th Corps, and the next day the last major German counterattack was blunted On August 1, the Western Allied and American command structures in Normandy were altered Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges took over U.S 1st Army, while General George S Patton took command of a newly activated U.S 3rd Army, with General Omar Bradley rising to command newly designated 12th Army Group Thus began the “breakout” phase of the Normandy campaign, with Patton sending a corps into Brittany while other large formations raced across Normandy and curled behind broken and retreating divisions of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS Adolf Hitler ordered a foolhardy Panzer counterattack that was stopped at Mortain on August 7, with heavy German losses Fighting in the Mortain Pocket lasted until August 13 After that came the disappointment of failing to close the Falaise gap in time to trap all the Germans trying to escape encirclement COCKADE A series of deception operations intended to take German pressure off ground forces in Sicily and on the Red Army during 1943, by suggesting impending assaults on the coast of France or the Balkans It was also hoped to lure Luftwaffe forces into a major air battle that would establish Allied air superiority over Western Europe COCKADE was implemented by an admixture of double agents, fake wireless traffic, false troop concentrations, and increases in aerial reconnaissance and bombing of decoy areas Its sub-operations were: STARKEY, a fake Anglo-Canadian amphibious landing at Boulogne, prepared by actual heavy bombing; WADHAM, a dummy American invasion of France at Brest, replete with easily spotted fake landing craft; and TINDALL, a leaked, detailed plan for an Anglo-American invasion of Norway, working on knowledge from ULTRA intercepts that Adolf Hitler had exaggerated strategic views about Norway None of these operations worked, mainly because the OKW correctly did not believe the basic premise that the Western Allies would invade anywhere other than Italy 245