The 4th Infantry Division rested and refitted for the major breakthrough offensive, codenamed COBRA.
COBRA envisioned a massive “carpet bombing” followed by three infantry divisions attacking to punch a hole in enemy lines, and then two armored divisions and a motorized infantry division exploiting through the hole thus made.
As the gap widened and resistance crumpled, further forces would pour through or follow up in pursuit.
The three infantry divisions to make the initial attack were the 9th, 4th and 30th from right to left.
COBRA was set for 21 July, but was postponed to 22, 24 and then 25 July because of weather.
On the morning of 25 July more than 2,400 Allied planes dropped more than 4,000 tons of bombs within a six-square-mile sector of the German front just west of Saint- Lô.
The 4th Infantry Division attacked at 1100 and by nightfall had reached the outskirts of Chapelle-en-Juger.
En route it encountered and overwhelmed a few pockets of resistance that still had some fight left in them.
