Alvan Markle III was a Field Artillery Captain in the US Army, and in command of the HQ Battery of the 266th Field Artillery Battalion. In this capacity in Normandy on 24 and 25 July 1944 he witnessed the Eighth Air Force's air offensive in support of Operation Cobra, recalling:



'After the D-day landings, the Allies' progress was slow because of the extensive swamps and many stubbornly-defended hedgerows which delineated the boundaries of small fields... They provided the Germans with ready-made fortifications throughout a large area known as the Bocage. On a Division situation map, I noted a range of low hills just south of The Bocage on which the enemy had prepared mortar pits, machine gun nests, dug-in tanks, and other weapons. I wondered how these formidable defenses could be breached. General Omar Bradley's solution was Operation Cobra. We were told that it involved saturation bombing of a square mile, but had no idea where or when it would come.



We were unaware of the weather-aborted, high-altitude perpendicular bombing on July 24th although the planes probably passed high over us. However, the fact that they had inflicted severe casualties on our front-line troops soon became widely known through informal grapevine communication.



On the next day, July 25th, I was on the high observation platform with my radio operator, Sgt Elvio Darin. The weather was clear, cool, and calm. At about ten o'clock that morning I was amazed to see a long single file of our bombers approaching from the north at a low altitude. They passed, one after another, about six miles east of us, headed south toward St Lo When each plane reached the hills, it turned right, westward, and dropped its bombs along the length of the target area on the hills parallel to the St Lo - Perrier highway. Most of the bombers were medium B-25s and B-26s, but there were some heavy B-24s. Unfortunately, the enemy had emplaced 88 mm high-velocity anti-aircraft guns behind the hills. Our low-flying planes in single file were an easy target, and I saw dozens of the medium B-25s and B-26s shot down. The heavies were more resilient and, although some were hit, they kept flying.



The dust cloud moved the smoke and dust from thousands of bombs soon created a large dense dark cloud which hid all landmarks and obliterated markers. I could no longer see the hills. The bombing continued for almost two hours, and the pilots of the later planes could not see the ground. But the cloud was obvious and they confidently dropped their bombs into it. No one was aware that an imperceptible breeze from the south had gradually moved the dust cloud north over our infantry which was waiting to attack from the line of departure. Again, our troops suffered heavy casualties, despite the fact that this time the Air Force had courageously complied with the parallel approach requested by General Bradley. '



In later life, Alvan wrote in detail about his experiences during the Second World War, compiling a memoir.