After the success of the D-Day landings, the Allied forces were bogged down in a bloody stalemate in Normandy. On 25 July 1944, General Bradley launched Operation Cobra to break the deadlock.

What followed was one of the most decisive months of World War II, as US forces punched a hole in the German frontline and began a spectacular advance. As Patton's Third Army poured into Brittany and raced south to the Loire, the German army was threatened with encirclement. By the end of August German forces in Normandy were utterly destroyed, and the remaining German units in central and southern France were in headlong retreat to the German frontier.

In this concise, illustrated account, Steven J. Zaloga explains how the breakout from Normandy came about.