In Bion (Mortain), a meeting was held with Von Kluge and Hauser who both needed reinforcements. Von Kluge asked Hitler for more tanks. The problem was that it wasn't strategic to leave the Calvados front without german tanks and soldiers. There lied a terrible dilemna : Avranches or Falaise ?
(E Florentin)

Pontaubault, 1.00 p.m., defeated colonel Bacherer decided to destroy the bridge. The first detachment was decimated by american machine-gun bursts.

Avranches, 4.00 p.m., a bulldozer cleaned Constitution street to facilitate the progress of the first armoured convoy.

At 8.00 p.m., nothing could still stop the progress of the convoy. Leon Jozeau Marigne was there : « There were no pavements left, all the vehicles progresed in Constitution street on three ways».

He met Patton's staff : « I advised them to enlarge their breakthrough towards Mortain. US officers listened carefully to what local people advised them to do. This can be illustrated by the fact that, before the breakthrough was accomplished, about 30 resistants had crossed the german lines to inform the Allied of the military situation in the Avranchin (Helmsman mission). Dager penetrated Ducey and the Sélune dams. Brécey was then liberated.

At the risk of his life, François Bribre, a contractor from Avranches, unfurled a large french flag on the roof of Notre Dame-des-Champs church. That flag could be seen from Mount Saint-Michel.

Henri Legent told us : « The Americans were attacked by Germans who had hidden in Marcey-les-Grèves woods. Allied planes came and machine-gunned them after the fights. The US civil engineering dug a trench in the road to Marcey-les-Grèves, buried the corpses of german soldiers and covered them with lime. After the war was over, all these bodies were transfered to a military cemetry ».

André Bazin, who was hiding in a trench, could see an attack. « The Americans, who were hiding at the foot of the Pivette wood, used flamethrowers to attack the Germans whom I suppose were hiding at the top of the wood ».

- In Dragey, Fernand Le Prieur could see the arrival of the first american soldiers. He still remembers this moment very well : « They were dirty and very tired. A tank preceded a jeep with journalists from Journal Stars and Stripes. A large piece of pink cloth had been unfurled on the tank for the allied to be identified from the sky. The color of this piece of cloth was changed everyday ».

-The fleeing Germans left many things behind them, such as reinforcement and rapine convoys. There were plenty of them on the roads. After the battle of Mont-Jarry, it took three days to the local people to ransack about a hundred vehicles !

-Jean Marin, a french speaker on the BBC who had become famous with these words « Les Français parlent aux Français » ("the French speak to the French"), was in the first convoy.

-On the 1st of August, Patton decided to disperse his convoys. He was standing in Constitution Street, at the very place where the square that was named after him now is. « Two armies crossing Avranches seems to be impossible but we'll do it », he said.

CONVOYS MARCHED PAST

For about fifteen days, convoys continually marched past. General Leclerc's second armoured division went up Constitution Street on the 6th of August. André Bazin, as well as numerous other citizens of Avranches, saw this endless stream of matériel.
« These convoys took two ways. We could see, on Liberté Street, 16 wheel tank transporters, tractors, tanks with bulldozers plates ».
Sartilly road « green diamond way » was also full of various vehicles. Most allied troops took the road to Par-en-Dessous.

The Americans settled. « A division was quartered in Sartilly and Dragey until September ».
« They installed showers and theaters" Fernand Le Prieur said « We offered them shrimps and camembert (cheese), but they didn't like that ».

The french allied force headquarters were installed in Jullouville. They were commanded by General Eisenhower.