"WHO ARE YOU?" "GEORGIE’S BOYS!"
From Coutances, the 4th swept southward in three columns, overrunning La Haye Pesnel and approaching Avranches. CC B's headquarters, bivouacked just north of Avranches and 200 yards from the main road, almost was run down during the night by a long German column withdrawing south.
As the enemy attempted to pull out, men like Pvt. William "Red" Whitson, Indianapolis, were waiting for them. A Co. B, 53rd, machine gunner, Whitson had his gun set up at a bend in the road.
A column pulled up to him before he fired. He knocked out 25 vehicles, left 50 Germans sprawling on the road in a tangle of plunging horses. Confused by the deadly fire, more than 500 Germans eventually surrendered to Co. B. The Distinguished Service Cross awarded to Whitson was the first to an enlisted man in the division.
Disorganized and terrified by the 4th's slashing advances, Nazis began wholesale flight. The "rat race" was on.
Racing armored columns littered roads with burning vehicles and German casualties. More than 2000 prisoners were taken at Avranches. Co. A, 46th Med. Bn. alone treated 125 German wounded there.
Parts of the Wehrmacht escaped the tankers, cavalry and armored infantry, headed south to surrender to following artillery battalions, or to medics—-or anyone —just to get safely out of the way. Column after column of disarmed prisoners, led by their own non-coms marched back without guards to PW enclosures.
By July 31, all dams and bridges across the Selune River to the southeast as far as Ducey were secured. The division's PW bag numbered more than 3000
In five days, the 4th had smashed the German 77th, 91st and 243rd Inf. Divs., wiped out the 6th Para Regt. and dealt severe losses to the 5th Para Div. The last-named, rebuilt from scratch, was to confront the 4th again at Bastogne. Elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Div. also took a drubbing.
"Who are you ? " recon men of another armored division shouted as a company of the 4th's M-4’s swept along in the swirling-dust.
"Georgie's boys !" the tank commanders yelled back.
And they were. On Aug. 1, Gen. Patton's Third Army became operational. VIII Corps and 4th Armd. became part of Third Army as the division roared into Brittany.
With CC A leading, the division plunged 54 miles to Rennes, ancient Breton capitol. Smacking nests of emplaced anti-tank and aircraft guns north of the city, tanks wheeled wide to the west and south. CC A raced through Bain de Bretagne while CC B struck Redon. Roads and communications from the Rennes nerve center were cut, the enemy thrown into panic. The field-grey hordes withdrew. A combat team including 8th Inf. Div. doughs occupied the city, Aug 3.
The next slash severed the Brittany peninsula. At. 1400, Aug. 5, CC A moved from Bain de Bretagne. Seven hours and 70 miles later, the 4th had routed the enemy's 56th Security Regt. guarding Vannes and had taken the city and the airfield to the northeast.
From this port, tankers glimpsed the ocean. Brest peninsula was cut through. Brittany seethed with thousands of armor-stunned enemy. The division which had outraced infantry support was an armored island in a sea of enemies. Tanks and armored cars shepherded supply columns over long, empty stretches of road.
Remnants of a French paratrooper battalion, which had dropped in Brittany with peeps on D-Day, joined tankers. The FFI enthusiastically offered its support.
Then, both combat commands moved on the U-boat base of Lorient, 30 miles west. After a race for the bridges across the Blavet, tanks contained the big port, Aug. 7. On the way, they wiped a horse cavalry outfit, the 281st Ost Cav. Bn.
German army and navy forces in the heavily fortified city outnumbered tankers four to one; the 4th tried to bluff them into surrender. Although unsuccessful in this, the 4th did take 4653 prisoners in 12 days and nailed down the escape door. In March, 1945, nine months later, dwindling German troops still held on, hopelessly surrounded.