With a break in soggy weather, US forces launched a combined air and ground attack along a wide line between St. Lo and Periers in the western section of the Normandy battle front.

But the Secretary of War, having completed a tour of the front lines, warned that ‘the end of the war in Europe is not now apparent to the men doing the fighting,’ adding, ‘Germany and Japan will not surrender until it is made clear to them that they are about to be smashed.’

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