June 1944

Western Front - Battle For Caen

Before the all out assault on Caen (Operation CHARNWOOD) by the 115,000 men of 3 divisions of the British 2nd Army, it was decided to soften up the defenses with an air bombardment. On the night of July 7, 467 Lancaster and Halifax aircraft of RAF Bomber Command attack Caen, dropping over 2,000 tons of bombs on the city. Although intended mainly to facilitate the Anglo-Canadian advance and to prevent German reinforcements from reaching the battle or retreating through Caen, a secondary consideration was the suppression of the German defenses. In this, the bombing largely failed. The main German armor and infantry positions to the north of Caen remain intact. Several tanks are hit and temporarily disabled but only 2 Panzer IVs of the 12th SS Panzer Division are destroyed. General Miles Dempsey, in command of the British Second Army, was more concerned with the morale-boosting effect of the bombing on his troops, than any material losses it might inflict on the Germans. The target would be a 4,000 by 1,500 yard rectangle in the northern outskirts of Caen. The problem with the bombardment is that Bomber Command required 6000 yards between Allied forces and the target of the bombers. In this case, the German defenses were too close to the British lines. Therefore, Caen itself, took the brunt. Minimum damage was done to the Germans; the vital defense zone was left intact.

The pathfinders of 625 Squadron, dropping the target markers for the bombers, are instructed not to allow the target zone to 'drift back' towards the Allied lines as had been the tendency in earlier operations. Together with the cautious shifting of the target zone during the planning stage, many of the markers are dropped too far forward, pushing the bombed zone well into Caen, further away from the German defenses. By 2200 on July 7, the bombers have departed, leaving 80 percent of the north of Caen destroyed. Caen University was particularly hard hit, starting chemical fires that soon spread. At 2250, six squadrons of de Havilland Mosquito bombers attack individual targets and ten minutes later the 636 guns of the assaulting divisions open fire, with the battleship HMS Rodney and other ships adding their support. The bombardment is intensified by the artillery of the VIII Corps against the villages north of Caen, to eliminate German strong points before the infantry assault begins.

As a result of the bombing and the bombardment, the area of northern Caen had been reduced to rubble and overlapping bomb craters. About 400 French civilians had been killed and many others wounded. All but one of the roads south throught Caen were blocked, hampering the German withdrawal and cutting off any reinforcements. But the bombing had largely missed the defended villages and the German counterattack reserves further south in Caen.

CHARNWOOD would be a set-piece battle in five phases, each phase only starting on orders from I Corps headquarters. 3rd British Infantry Division would attack on a one-brigade front from the northeast towards Lébisey, with 33rd Armored Brigade in reserve; the fresh 59th (Staffordshire) Division would attack on a two-brigade front from the north on both sides of the Basly road from just south of Cambes-en-Plaine, supported by 27th Armored Brigade; and 3rd Canadian Infantry Division would attack on a one-brigade front from the northwest down the Cairon road with 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade, through the outlying villages of Buron, Gruchy and Authie and then eastward into Caen.