June 1944

Western Front - Battle For Caen

This day is the beginning of Operation GOODWOOD. By 0110 hours, the British 3rd Infantry Division and the rest of I Corps are ready. The Canadian 8th and 9th Infantry Brigades are moving into position for Operation ATLANTIC. The rest of the 11th Armored Division including the 29th Armored Brigade which crossed the Orne during the night and is moving forward to its start line. The Guards Armored Divission and the 7th Armored Division is waiting about 3 miles west of their designated bridges.

With clear skies at dawn the 2nd Army starts with counter-battery fire against German anti-aircraft positions at 0525 hours. Then the first of 1,056 Lancasters and Halifaxes of Bomber Command at just over 3,000 feet. At -545 hours, the Pathfinder aircraft release their flares and 4,800 tons of high-explosive bombs come down equally on Colombelles and its steelword, on Cagny, and on 21st Panzer Divsion's tanks between touffréville and Emiéville. About half of Cagny is obliterated. Both the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion and the 22nd Panzer Regiment are temporarily put out of action. Later it was discovered that about 20 abandoned tanks were in bomb craters. It will be hours before others and be repaired and re-manned. Only 6 bombers are lost to flak.

At 0640 hours the full 2nd Army artillery fire-plan begins. For more than three hours bombs and shells crash down on the German defenders, with devastating effects. 20 minutes later 318 B-26 Marauder bombers of the US 9th Air Force attack the villages defended by the 16th Luftwaffe Division with 563 tons of fragmentation bombs. Most are reduced to rubble. At Démouville, the 1/200th the Assault Gun Battalion is almost destroyed. At Giberville, th3 2/200th is badly damaged. Finally, 570 B-24 Liberators of the US 8th Air Force's 2nd and 3rd Bomb Divisions drop 1,340 tons of fragmentation bombs on the Troarn area, and onto the main gun line between Bourguébus and Frénouville. Some guns are destroyed outright, others are damaged or without crews; the Nebelwerfers in the open are particulary vulnerable. In the dust, haze and smoke and despite bombs falling all over the area, some villages are missed. Touffréville in the east and Grentheville in the south are unscathed. Following these bombings are another carried by bout 800 RAF fighter-bomber groups.

At 0745 hours, the 25-pounder guns supporting the 11th Armored Division started their rolling barrage. 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3rd RTR), leading the 29th Armored Brigade, advanced south followed by a similar group led by the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and a third group led by the 23rd Hussars. At the same time, 2 more field regiments, 6 medium regiments and all 3 heavy regiments shelled Cuverville, Démouville and Giberville. The 159th Infantry Brigade moved off on foot, supported by Cromwell tanks of the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry, to hit Cuverville and a nearby orchard, and then Démouville, while other armored units would move further south. Cuverville and the orchard are captured before 1020 hours. Démouville is secured by 1500 hours with help from troops from the 32nd Guards Brigade just arriving in the area.

Operation ATLANTIC begins at 0815 hours with its own rolling artillery barrage. At 0830 hours the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade supported by the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade crosses its start line and advances into Colombelles, with the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade moving across 'London' bridge behind them. Le Régiment de la Chaudière takes the village without much difficulty against the 1st Battalion, 32nd Luftwaffe Rifles. To the east the Queen's Own Rifles continue to make good progress, reaching the outskirts of Giberville by about 1100 hours. Shermans of the 1st Hussars knock out several self-propelled guns; others escape south from Colombelles moving to the west of the steeply embanked rail linr which divides the western part of the battlefield from the fighting to the east. Nearer the Orne, Le Régiment de la Chaudière meets resistance from I/192nd Panzergrenadiers and I/32nd Luftwaffe Rifles. By noon the North Shore Regiment, and also the Glens leading the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, become involved in this battle, but within four hours the Canadians have bypassed and captured the Colombelles château. At 1645 hours Maj-Gen Keller orders the North Shore Regiment to continue the fight for the steelworks and the Queen's Own Rifles for Giberville, while 9th Brigade is to push on to Vaucelles.

In the center, the troops of the II/32nd and I/46th Luftwaffe Rifles, under fire from the 29th Armored Brigade as it began its move at 0745 hours and stunned by the bombing surrender in large numbers. The 3rd RTR reaches the Caen-Troarn railway line in about 20 minutes and a short time after the 23rd Hussars clear the British minefield. The rolling artillery barrage resumes at 0845 and because of numerous problems causing delay, neither the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry nor the 3rd RTR is as close to the barrage as it wished.

To the east of 11th Armored, the British 3rd Infantry Division, including the 27th Armored Brigade and the 152nd (Highland) Brigade, begins its attack at 0745 hours behind the artillery barrage. This is more of a set-piece attack southeastward by the 8th Infantry Brigade, its northern flank covered by the 152nd (Highland) Brigade, and then the 9th Infantry Brigade coming through to capture Troarn, while the 185th Infantry Brigade attacks northward to capture Guillerville and Émiéville, protecting the flank of VIII Corps' advance.

The 8th Infantry Brigade, supported by the 13th/18th Hussars, is soon locked in heavy fighting in the woods with the 857th Grenadiers. By 1100 hours, the 2nd East Yorkshires have reached Touffréville, partly missed by the bombing, and a hard struggle continues until the evening to capture the village. To the south the bombing had done its job. The 1st Suffolks capture the rubble of Sannerville, followed by Banneville-la-Campagne. Another fight that lasts until evening involves the 152nd (Highland) Bridage and the I/46th Luftwaffe Rifles for the runis of a nearby château. The 185th Infantry Brigade which has moved southward by 1430 hours have captured the hamlet of Lirose, just north of the Caen-Troarn railway line and wst of Sannerville.

Meanwhile, in the center, the 29th Armored Brigade's advance toward the N13 road and the second railway line continues. By 0915 hours the leading tanks are past le Prieuré farm closing on le Mesnil Frémentel. With orders to push on, and ignoring small pockets of resistance, the 3rd RTR and 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry pass le Mesnil Frémentel to west and east respectively. The lead tanks are up to the Caen-Vimont railway line. Like other walled villages, le Mesnil Frémente has to be captured fighting houee-to-house. Units of the 22nd Dragoons and the 8th Rifle Brigade are given the task which is completed by 1130 hours.

By 0945 hours the 3rd RTR and most of the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry are past Cagny and over the Caen-Vimont railway line and advancing on up the Bourguébus ridge. The problem was not Cagny as expected but Grentheville to the west, which was unscathed by the bombing. There is not enough British infantry to deal with the German artillery and anti-tank guns. Exchanging heavy fire with the troops and assault guns in the village and the nearby 75-mm Pak detachment, the 3rd RTR skirts westward, shooting up come batterties of the 14th Werfer Regiment in the open enduring losses in the process. By 1000 hours the Shermans have evaded the German fire by crossing under and over the embanked railway that ran south from Colombelles. With the solid embankment shielding them, the 3rd RTR's tanks continue west toward Cormelles on the outskirts of industrial Caen. They then turn southward toward Bras and Hubert-Folie, where the local garrison has been joined by guns of the 2/200th Assault Gun Battalion that had escaped south from Giberville.

Meanwhile, the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, which has lost at least 12 tanks west of Cagny, moves southward reaching Soliers and nearby Four where they come under fire from the German gun line. What had been planned as an attack by three armored divisions becomes unsupported advances into heavy fire by two battalions of tanks, out of sight of each other and separated by a major obstacle.

As the first tanks are climbing the slopess of Bourguébus ridge, General Eberbach orders Sepp Dietrich to send the Leibstandarte Division northeast onto the Bourguébus ridge, including Panzer IVs of II/1st SS Pansers and 1st SS Assault Gun Battalion from corps reserve west of the Orne. This is not a defensive move but a full armored charge over the ridge and through Cagny to coincode with an attack from the east by 21st Panzer Division that Eberbach had also ordered, not knowing the damage from the bombing. This double encirclement is planned to hit both sides of the what the Germans expected to be the main line of the British attack southeastward through Vimont, driving it back to the Caen-Troarn rail line and recovering the original battal zone in classic German tactical style. The orders are confirmed by Field Marshal von Kluge at 1720 hours.

The tanks and troops of the Leibstandarte Division enter the battle for Bourguébus ridge piecemeal. It is even possible that a few Tigers of the 101st Heavy SS Panzer Battalion took part in the first defense of Bras and Hubert-Folie against the 3rd RTR. The British battalion loses tanks repeatedly as it tries to advance against the two villages, including to fire from the village of Ifs almost 1.8 km to the west. A few Shermans of the 3rd RTR manage to get past the village to the east and even across the road to Bourguébus before being forced back. While 23rd Hussars and 8th Rifle Brigade deal with Grentheville, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry also get a few tanks across the road near Bourguébus by 1115 hours, but are pinned down and forced back beyond Soliers by anti-tank fire, including shots coming from behind them from near Frénouville. British tanks are burning fiercely all over the northern slope of the Bourguébus ridge.

The first Panthers of I/1st SS Panzers arrive on the ridge just after noon and the British report German guns and tanks everywhere. The deputy air controller of the 29th Armored Brigade directs Typhoon rocket attacks against the Leibstandarte all afternoon which ends up being vital to delay and even break up counter-attacks from that division.

The 3rd RTR and 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry are still greatly in need of support, as individual tanks or small groups advance or retreat into and out of range of the German guns. As they come forward past le Prieuré farm to help, the tanks of the 23rd Hussars are fired upon from the east by a few Tigers of the 3/503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion emerging from near Manneville stud farm and tank cover. The Tigers advance almost up to le Prieuré before falling back after unexpectedly losing 2 tanks, possibly from German 88-mm Flak guns at Cagny firing at the wrong target.

The appearance of the Tigers distract the 5th Guards Armored Brigade from helping the 29th Armored Brigade, and halts the southward advance of the 185th Infantry Brigade to a halt north of Manneville. This in effect squeezes Guards Armored Division's advnace away westward from its planned route, increasing the jam delaying 7th Armored Division behind it. At 1040 hours the 2nd (Armored) Grenadier Guards, lacking infantry and with orders not to attack Cagny if there is a stong garrison, halts north of the village. It is not determined the size of the garrison there. At the same time, the 1st (Armored) Conldstreak Guards come under attack from King Tigers of I/503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion that also emerge from near Manneville. Again, concentrated British fire force the German tanks to retreat.

Around midday, LXXXXVI Corps strengthens its line facing northwest between Frénouville and Émiéville with some 88-mm Pak guns of the 1039th Anti-Tank Battalion. Some of the surviving Tigers and Panzer IVs of 21st Panzer Division are redeployed from east to southeast. The 1st (Armored) Coldstream Guards are unable to continue past Frénouville to Vimont in the face of their fire, and at 1230 hours the battalion is ordered to retreat behind 2nd (Armored) Grenadier Guards and circle all the way round Cagny from north and west, further blocking the route through the center. The Panzer IVs of II/1st SS Panzers join the Panthers on the ridge, but 29th Armored Brigade never truly becomes aware of a massed German attempt to counter-attack downslope, being more worried by its own inability to get forward. With only their inferior tanks on hand, the British are getting the worst of it.

By mid-afternoon, the 29th Armored Brigade's attack on Bourguébus ridge has spent itself in knocked out and burning tanks. About 25 surviving tanks of 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry pull back through 23rd Hussars and north of the Caen-Vimont railway line to regroup. At 1535 hours Maj-Gen Roberts orders the 3rd RTR, which has lost almost as heavily, to withdraw only if necessary, reinforcing it with the Cromwells of the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry, which also had taken losses at Bras and Hubert-Folie from the newly-arrived 1st SS Assault Gun Battalion. The British tanks can not move forward.

At 1350 hours the 32nd Guards Brigade in trucks is ordered to move from Démouville and prepare to attack Cagny. By 1445 hours, the 1st (Armored) Coldstream Guards has also completed its circle around Cagny and has moved southeastward down the second railwy line, coming under assault gun fire from le Poirier before the Guards' Shermans capture it at 1630 hours. The 2nd (Armored) Irish Guards alco come into action on the eastern flank, and in action northeast of Cagny, a Sherman rams a King Tiger that had become separated from its unit. At the end of the Day the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion reports only 9 tanks still operational.

Finally, at 1800 hours in a brief rainstorm, the King's Company of the 1st (Motorized) Grenadier Guards attached to 2nd (Armored) Grenadier Guards enter Cagny from the north, supported by the 5th Coldstream Guards, and by 1930 hours the village has been cleared of all resistance. Shortly after Cagny is captured, the 2nd (Armored Recon) Welsh Guards join the 2nd (Armored) Irish Guards to the north, holding most of the Manneville stud farm area, but neither can get further east or southeast.

With the 5th Guards Armored Brigaed tied up before Cagny, the 5th RTR (leading the 22nd Armored Brigade) crosses the Caen-Troarn rail line at 1545 hours and reaches Grentheville by 1700 hours, followed by the 1st RTR. Within an hour long-range fire is exchanged with German 'tanks' at Four, but it remains the only battalion of the 7th Armored Division to get into action this day. At 1830 hours, as 23rd Hussars advance across the Caen-Vimont rail line between Grentheville and le Poirier, then run into a major counter-attack downslope by the Panthers of I/1st SS Panzer. In the exchange of fire C Squadron, 23rd Hussars, loses most of its tanks, but I/1st SS Panzer also loses several tanks and retreats.

About 1945 hours, the 29th Armored Brigade is ordered to rally back and 'harbor' for the night. Maj-Gen Roberts orders the 159th Infantry Brigade forward to just north of le Mesnil Frémentel, which it makes by 2000 hours. North of the Caen-Vimont railway line, the British tanks are still within long range for Soliers, and a heavy artillery concentration is brought down on the vallage at 2030 hours to block what is probably the day's last attempt at a counter-attack by the Leibstandarte Division. Tanks continue exchanging shots as the sun sets, with the British still taking the worst. The 3rd RTR claims 2 German tanks but loses 6 in the process. It was a bad day for British armor, with 126 tanks lost out of 244 with about 40 each to the 3rd RTR and the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry.

At 2000 hours the III/1st SS Panzergrenadiers join the defender of Bras, and in the course of the night the rest of the 1st SS Panzergrenadiers take up the line as far east as Bourguébus village, then the 2nd SS Panzergrenadiers continue throught Soliers to la Hogue. The Hitlerjugend Division, having been returned to 1 SS Panzer Corps command at 1520 hours, is ordered to move up and take over the sector from Émiéville to Frénouville, with its battlegroups arriving early on July 19 releasing the 21st Panzer Division to concentrate on defending Troarn. Also set to defend Troarn is the 711th Infantry Division which begin arriving on bicycles early on July 19.

On the flanks of the main VIII Corps attack most but not all of the objectives set by 2nd Army are captured in the course of July 18. In Operation ATLANTIC, the North Nova Scotia Regiment and HLI of Canada successfully bypass Colombelles steelworks along the riverbank, and reach Vaucelles before sunset against very little opposition as the II/980th Grenadiers fall back rather than be cut off by 11th Armored Division's advace. West of the Orne, 4th Canadian Infantry Brigade from the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division attacks southward toward the village of Louvigny, but is held up by I/980th Grenadiers. At 1715 hours 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade starts across the Orne into Vaucelles, and at last light 5th Canadian infantry Brigade also begins crossing. Through the night the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division continues to build bridges across the Orne into Vaucelles under considerable German mortar and artillery fire. To the north, the fight by the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade at Colombelles steelworks and Giberville also continue on into the night. By 2130 hours Giberville is in Canadian hands with 200 prisoners, although fighting in the are continues on into the next day.

On the eastern flank, the British 3rd Infantry Division fails to capture Troarn, not knowing that fot the LXXXVI Corps its defense was a critical objective. They do, however, succeed in protecing the flank of the VIII Corps' advance. At 1600 hours, the 9th Infantry Brigade, supported by tanks of the East Riding Yeomanry, passes through the 8th Infantry Brigade at Sannerville and advances across the swampy ground and up the slopes toward Troarn being led by the 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers and the 2nd Royal Ulster Rifles. They meet stiff opposition from the 858th Grenadiers, who are still holding the British in the dense orchards 2 kilometers west of Troarn at nightfall. The 185th Infantry Brigade has worked its way southward and at 2100 hours, the 2nd Warwicks attack Gullerville taking it with about 40 prisoners against heavy German shelling just before midnight. 2nd Army's front line now runs from Touffréville throught Guillerville south to Cagny and west to Grentheville, and then southwest to Vaucelles and the Orne.