Operation Cobra in WW2

[Pat Carry]

I'm curious if anyone knows, what does the area in France plastered by Army Air Force in Operation Cobra in WW2 look like today. Is it still pockmarked by bomb craters? Does German equipment (tanks, artillery) buried by the intense bombing still turn up today?

[hbtcoveralls]

I was there in 2006 on a WWII Re-enacting trip that followed the route of the 2nd Armored through the Bocage, Operation Cobra and the breakout. Today, there isn't really any outward signs of the bombing visible. Most of the area is heavily agricultural and, much like the WWI Battlefields, the area has been plowed back into shape and really isn't the way it might have been in 1944. Military equipment was also mostly scrapped after the war to provide steel for the recovering economy in France. However, small parts and pieces are still found buried today brought to the surface each year during the spring plowing. The area of the Cobra bombing was so concentrated (less than one square mile) and consisted of many bombs intended to airburst, that the area outside the target zone remained intact even then. The amount of equipment actually buried, has been overplayed in postwar histories. The unit that took the brunt of the blow, the Panzer Lehr division, was already understrength on Tanks and AFVs so there really wasn't much right on the front line to bury. We did encounter german vehicle parts in a scrap yard near St Dennis Le Gast, and were shown many souvenirs of the battle still in the hands of local families after being picked up from the battlefield. A friend who lives in Normandy but closer to the coast, still finds American and German artifacts at his town dump. The area was just so intensely peopled by armies at the time that the physical culture of the time still haunts the area just like the memory of the armies themselves.
Tom Bowers

[Pat Carry]

Most informative Tom, thanks.

[Rossco]

How about Operation Goodwood?From Wikipedia

With the Invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the 503rd was transferred to the command of Panzergruppe West. The first company was equipped with 12 Tiger II tanks. It was the first Pz.Komp to be equipped entirely with the Tiger II. The detachment fought well in combat against Allied tank forces during the battles around Caen. On the launch of Operation Goodwood, the 3rd company, which was based in Cagny, was caught in the preliminary bombing raids and completely wiped out, with bomb impacts powerful enough to turn even a 70-ton Tiger completely upside down. Only one Tiger was operational at the end of the day. During the first day of "Goodwood," the unit reported the loss of 13 tanks. On July 18, a remarkable incident took place when a M4 Sherman tank under the command of the Irish Lieutenant Gorman rammed a Tiger II of the I/s.H.Pz.Abt 503 and disabled it.

On the next day the two remaining companies were in defensive positions around Cagny and helped to halt a British advance. The Wehrmachtsbericht reported 40 enemy tanks destroyed, many of them by the 503rd. At the end of July, the 3rd company received new Tiger II tanks. Heavy aerial attacks destroy most of the equipment of the Tiger II company. Only 2 "Kingtigers" were brought back to Germany, the tanks with turret number '314'/annelise and '323'. The 503rd, along with the Panzer-Lehr-Division's 316th Funklenk Panzer Company, were the only formations in Normandy to operate Tiger IIs. The 101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion got Tiger II tanks in late August but they saw no action.

The severely depleted 503rd managed to escape the horrors of the Falaise Pocket and was engaged in a fighting withdrawal to the German border. In late August the detachment was pulled from the line for a complete refit with Tiger IIs.