[Illustration: FRANCE AN ARMORED COLUMN led by a light armored car M8 stops for a few minutes during its advance to Avranches (top). An M4 medium tank moving through a street in Avranches (bottom). On 30 July an armored division closely followed by an infantry division closed in on Cranville. Another armored division entered Avranches and secured two bridges across the Sée River. The break-through was completed by 31 July, the area between Granville and Avranches was cleared of enemy pockets of resistance, and the U. S. forces struck southward in the direction of Villedieu.] [Illustration] [Illustration: FRANCE ARMORED VEHICLES FIRING ON ENEMY TROOPS during the advance southward (top). Tanks and trucks of a French armored division in the assembly area after landing and before starting south to join the U. S. forces (bottom). On 1 August 1944, as the U. S. forces poured around the crumpled German flank at Avranches, a major revision was effected in the organization of the Allied forces. The Third U. S. Army became operational and at the same time the 12th Army Group headquarters also became operational and assumed command of the First and Third U. S. Armies. The 21 Army Group was at this time made up of the British Second and the Canadian First Armies.] [Illustration] [Illustration: FRANCE SÉE RIVER AVRANCHES AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. After the fall of the city the Allied drive gained momentum and the advancing troops swept out of Normandy. Turning toward the east and the west in two attacks, the Allies drove to the German frontier and the tip of the Brittany Peninsula.] [Illustration: FRANCE AMMUNITION BEING UNLOADED at an Ordnance dump after it had been brought inland from the beach (top). During the advance of the Allies south following the breakout from Normandy a maximum effort was required to keep all the using units supplied with ammunition. Tankers of an armored unit reloading their .30-caliber ammunition belts during the drive southward (bottom).] [Illustration] [Illustration: FRANCE A BULLDOZER (tractor, earth moving crawler, diesel) pulling a jeep from a crater (top). Engineers using a truck-mounted revolving crane swing a section of a treadway bridge into place over the Vire River near Pontfarcy (bottom).] [Illustration] [Illustration: FRANCE