We are honored to publish the video of the second Masterclass lectured by Col. Roger Cirillo of the US Army. A lecture hold within the framework of the Master’s Degree in Military History of INISEG, your International Institute for Studies on Global Security, and FUINMA, the International University Foundation of Madrid.

In this his second lecture (watch the first one), our distinguished speaker details all the Allied operations to break the German front after establishing the bridgehead on the beaches. Once the Cotentin Peninsula was secured to the south of Saint-Lô, on July 25 the Allies launched Operation Cobra in a southern direction and managed to cross Avranches on August 1. Meanwhile, Patton’s Third Army, which joined the front on August 1, quickly gained control of the Bretagne (Brittany) as far as the Loire River, while the First Army pressed east towards Le Mans to protect his flank.

Col. Cirillo served in the US Army from 1971 to 1995, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He served in armored cavalry units in the United States, Korea and West Germany, on the staff and faculty of the Air Defense and Armor Schools. Col. Cirillo was a War Plans Officer in NATO Army Central Group and served in the CINC (Commander in Chief Office), USAREUR (United States Army Europe Command). He also taught military history at the US Army Command and Staff College and holds a Ph.D. in military history from Cranfield University at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, UK.

He is the author of the book titled «Ardennes-Alsace Campaign» and assisted in the publication of more than 30 military history books for the AUSA, the Association of the United States Army. He is editor of the «American Warrior» series and the «Battles and Campaigns» series for the University Press of Kentucky.

Blog GRIP will keep publishing a selection of Masterclasses and lectures on military history and armed conflicts, with a special emphasis, albeit not exclusive (as this lecture shows), on the Vietnam War, direct consequence and legacy of the First Indochina War, a conflict taught by Professor Juanjo Alarcón in the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Military Conflicts, whose video presentation is also available on Blog Grip. Incidentally, Prof. Juanjo Alarcón is the host of these lectures.

We really hope that this series of selected lectures may spark your interest in the topics presented in each one of them. And since they are all part of the Area on Security and Defense and the Master’s Degree in Military History of INISEG, we provide you with the links to INISEG’s academic offer directly related to the lectures we publish: