Having seized Caumont, the 1st Infantry Division was appreciably in advance of other Allied divisions, forming a salient into German lines.
German efforts to reinforce their lines in Normandy had been greatly hindered by air strikes and an Allied deception plan that fixated their attention on the Pas de Calais, but they had managed to accumulate significant armored forces near Caen, and sufficient forces to effectively defend elsewhere.
Anticipating German counterattacks and focusing resources on seizing the port of Cherbourg, First Army Commander General Omar N. Bradley went over to the defensive in the 1st Infantry Division’s sector.
The division was ordered to dig in, hold what it had seized, and conduct aggressive patrolling “so as to deny the enemy any opportunity to abandon this front with impunity.” The division secured the shoulder of Commonwealth forces heavily engaged around Caen, and diverted and attrited its immediate adversaries with skirmishing, limited objective attacks, and counterattacks.
