Courtesy Photo | Reconnaissance elements of the 2d Armored Division enter a French village. (courtesy...... read more read more
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by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian
On July 26, 1944, two columns of Maj. Gen. Edward Brooks’ 2d Armored Division attacked through a hole in the German line. Over the next two days, Lt. Col. Jesse Hawkins, the divisional G-2, provided situational awareness for the drive through the German lines.
Like so many World War II G-2s, the 33-year-old Hawkins was a cavalry officer. He had served in a variety of armored reconnaissance battalions before joining the 2d Armored Division. In Sicily, he served as a battalion commander with the division. As the division prepared to land in France, Hawkins assumed the G-2 position. He was fortunate to take over from Lt. Col. Harold M. Forde, a particularly effective intelligence officer who departed to become Col. Oscar Koch’s deputy G-2 in Lt. Gen. George Patton’s Third Army.
On June 11, Brooks’ division began arriving in France; by 2 July, it had completed its movement. Almost immediately, it found itself in combat, pushing to expand the Normandy bridgehead. In mid-July, the 2d Armored Division began its part of the VII Corps’ Operation COBRA. Its mission was to exploit through a gap created by the 30th Infantry Division and move south to prevent both the escape of any trapped Germans and the arrival of German reinforcements.
As General Brooks and his leaders planned for the operation, Hawkins’s situation map showed elements of three German infantry divisions, one parachute division, and the Panzer Lehr Division along the front. The German units, however, were badly cut up and operating in smaller Kampfgruppen, or battle groups. They would have to be dealt with individually. Meanwhile, aerial reconnaissance and photography assisted the commanders in choosing their routes beyond the front lines. By July 20, the division’s leaders had made their plans and prepared for the upcoming battle.
After a massive aerial bombardment on July 25, Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins, the corps commander, pushed his infantry divisions forward. The next morning, he ordered Brooks to send his first column south. At 10:30 a.m., the division’s Command Combat A, a combined arms team, moved southeast to establish blocking positions against German reinforcements. A little over two hours earlier, Hawkins had sent an aerial photo report to the commanders as a final update before the battle. On July 27, Combat Command B cut to the southwest to trap the retreating Germans.
With the two independently operating columns moving between seven and thirteen miles apart, the G-2 essentially had two battles to support. For Brig. Gen. Maurice Rose’s Combat Command A, Hawkins needed to look well behind the division’s area for reinforcement coming from the east or south. For Colonel Isaac D. White’s Combat Command B, the G-2 looked for Germans heading south to escape. For the next two days, Hawkins and his staff performed the dual task. As Rose and White advanced, the G-2 sent them numerous reports of enemy strongpoints, batteries, and tank columns. This information came from prisoner interrogations, aerial reconnaissance, spot reports, and even radio intercepts. By late July 27, Hawkins could inform General Rose that two German panzer divisions were moving along routes toward his sector. For Colonel White to the west, the G-2 shared one prisoner report that indicated the Germans had no idea that the 2d Armored Division was behind them. Soon, however, intelligence began picking up elements of 2d and 17th SS Panzer Divisions heading south in an effort to escape the American trap.
The efforts of Colonel Hawkins and his G-2 could not detect every German movement. The tankers, riflemen and gunners of the 2d Armored Division encountered hasty strongpoints and sometimes found themselves caught by a local German counterattack. Generally, however, Hawkins was able to provide sufficient situational awareness for General Brooks and his commanders to accomplish their mission.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2022 12:04 |
| Story ID: | 425711 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 201 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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