The German position in France was getting worse by the day.

It didn't help matters any that Hitler no longer trusted his field commanders.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music of the 20th century. Episode 445

Breakout and Pursuit.

Two episodes ago, we talked about Operation Cobra, in which U.S. forces in Normandy took advantage

of the large numbers of tanks and armored units that had by this time been delivered

across the channel to begin an offensive south along the west coast of the

Cotentan Peninsula. It took them a week to reach the town of Avrache, which lies roughly at the

point along the coast where the Cotentan Peninsula ends, and Brittany begins. Even more important,

they'd captured intact a bridge across the river Ceylune, just a little farther south.

As soon as Patton began the offensive south from Avranche on August 1st, the Vermacht command realized they had a huge problem.

That evening, Hitler met with his senior commanders at the Wolfslair to consider their

response. One of the ideas under consideration was a withdrawal to the River Sen and Paris, conceding

most of France to the Allies. You might expect Hitler would react angrily to such a proposal and

order his generals never to mention it

again. To their surprise, though, Hitler seemed willing to consider it, although he raised several

objections. The lower sen flows to the sea along a crazy twisted route that makes it less

useful a defense than a river usually would be.

Withdrawal would also mean the loss of Germany's submarine bases on the western coast of France,

and it would mean the loss of access to valuable raw materials Germany imported from Spain and Portugal.

Hitler ordered one of his staff officers, General Voltaire Varlombe, to travel to France

...