How One Farmer's "Crude" Hedgerow Cutter Saved 2,000 American Lives In Normandy

Описание: July 1944. The Allied invasion of Normandy has stalled. American forces are trapped in a nightmare of ancient hedgerows—earthen walls up to 15 feet high that have turned every Norman field into a German fortress. Tanks cannot cross without exposing their vulnerable underbellies. Infantry is dying by the thousands. Progress is measured in yards, paid for in blood.
Then a 29-year-old sergeant from New Jersey has an idea so simple it had baffled an army for six weeks.
This is the true story of Sergeant Curtis G. Culin III and the "Rhinoceros"—a crude device made from German beach obstacles that transformed the entire Normandy campaign. When General Omar Bradley watched a Sherman tank burst through a hedgerow that had stopped his army for weeks, he ordered every ordnance unit into round-the-clock production.
Within days, three out of five American tanks were equipped with the Culin hedgerow cutter. Operation Cobra launched on July 25, 1944, and the German defensive line collapsed in hours. The steel that Rommel had placed on the beaches to destroy the invasion was turned against his own forces.
Featuring verified accounts from Bradley's memoirs, Eisenhower's presidential address, and official Army ordnance records.
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📚 PRIMARY SOURCES:

Omar Bradley, "A Soldier's Story" (1951)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address to ASME (January 10, 1961)
Martin Blumenson, "Breakout and Pursuit" – U.S. Army Official History
Max Hastings, "Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy"
U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Historical Records


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© Educational content. All archival footage and images used under fair use for historical documentation.

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