CAEN

On June 6th, 1944, the Allies invaded France across the Normandy beaches. At Sword, the eastern most of the invasion beaches, the 3rd British Division, part of Lt. Gen. J.T. Crocker's I Corps, was to capture the important city of Caen by nightfall. Unfortunately for the British, the German 21st Panzer Division was located to the southeast of Caen. Its rapid deployment through Caen stopped the 3rd Division less than 3 miles from the outskirts of the city. Both sides rapidly reinforced the area and by June 10th the I SS Panzer Korps, under SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, held the area. The 12th SS Panzer Division was northwest of Caen, the 716th Infantry Division north of Caen and the 21st Panzer Division northeast of Caen. The British I Corps had the 3rd Canadian and 3rd British Infantry Divisions and the 6th Airborne Division opposing the three German units. British armor, mostly in the form of the 7th Armored Division, was further west preparing to attack the Lehr Panzer Division. On June 13th, the 7th Armored broke through the German front line about a mile east of Caumont and headed for Villers Bocage (about 14 miles southwest of Caen). As it approached Hill 213 it was counterattacked by Panzer Lehr, which forced the 7th Armored to retreat back to its own lines.
By June 17th, the British and American drives had been halted except in the far west, where the Americans were sealing off the Cherbourg peninsula. The British had reinforced the I Corps, placing the 51st Infantry Division in the line between the 3rd British Division and the 6th Airborne Division. British and American tanks were no match for the more heavily armored/gunned German Panther and Tiger tanks. German AT guns also played havoc on the Allied tanks as well. Allied artillery, naval, and air power plus a continuous stream of replacements/reinforcements helped immensely to offset the German superiority in tank weapons. Montgomery's next plan was code-named Operation Epsom. It was to include 60,000 men, 600 tanks, 300 field artillery guns along with 3 cruisers to provide long range naval gunfire support. The storm of June 19-22 greatly damaged the artificial Mulberry harbors on Gold Beach and destroyed the one on Omaha Beach. This delayed the operation until June 26th. The British 15th and 43rd Infantry and 11th Armored Divisions attacked about 7 miles southwest of Caen and created a salient five miles deep and two miles wide. German forces counterattacked, but were held by the British artillery and AT fire.
As June came to an end, the British I Corps remained essentially unchanged. On the other hand, the Germans had given the I SS Panzer Korps (containing the 9th, 10th and 12th SS Panzer Divisions) control of the area west of Caen, while the LXXXVI Korps (containing the 21st Panzer Division and the 346th Infantry division - the 716th Division having been largely destroyed) controlled all areas north and east of Caen all the way to the English Channel. Up to this point the British and Canadians had suffered considerably lighter casualties than anticipated, with 3,356 killed, 15,815 wounded and 5,527 missing for a total of 24,698. The Americans, on the other hand, had lost a total of 37,034 men by this time. Due to the open terrain which lay east and southeast of Caen (which made it ideal tank country), the majority of the German panzer forces were stationed in this area. An Allied breakout here would be devastating to the Germans. Up until this time the main American thrust had been to seize Cherbourg, which had a major port. But by the time American forces had arrived, the port facilities were completely demolished. It would take Allied port engineers many weeks to repair the damage. American southerly attacks were very limited in scope.
On July 1st it was decided that the British must capture the section of Caen that lay north of the Canal de Caen. To do this, the I British Corps was reinforced with the 59th British Infantry Division. On July 8th and 9th, the British, with strong air and naval support and using three divisions succeeded in capturing the northern part of Caen, but the arrival of the 1st SS Panzer Division prevented them from crossing the canal.
New Allied plans called for the Americans to capture St. Lo and ground to the west in order to break out of the encircling German forces. The British were to support this by attacking in the area east of Caen in order to tie down as many German panzer forces as possible and prevent their transfer to oppose the Americans. This operation, to be known as "Goodwood," brought the powerful VIII British Corps containing the Guards, 7th and 11th Armored divisions to the area east of Caen. They would be opposed by part of the 272nd Infantry Division, which was in the process of relieving the 1 SS Panzer Division, and parts of the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division and the 21st Panzer Division. In Korps reserve was the 12th SS Panzer Division. The attack was scheduled for July 18th

THE FORCES
The British VIII Corps, under Lt. Gen. Sir Richard O'Connor, was part of Lt. Gen. Miles Dempsey's 2nd British Army. These British forces, from east to west, consisted of the following: the Guards Armored Division commanded by Maj. Gen. A.H.S. Adair (5th Guards Armored Brigade and the 32nd Guards Brigade), the 7th Armored Division under Maj. Gen. G.W.E.J. Erskine (22nd Armored Brigade and the 131st Infantry Brigade) and the 11th Armored Division led by Maj. Gen. G.P.B. Roberts (29th Armored Brigade and the 159th Infantry Brigade).
Goodwood called for the creation of a corridor three miles by six miles in which the armor would pass through. The corridor still contained enemy strongpoints. The flanks of the corridor also presented a danger so Montgomery once again called on the airforce to neutralize enemy forces in these areas. The British attack was preceded by a massive air attack of over 4,500 planes from Bomber Command, the 8th Air Force and the 9th Air Force. The 9th Air Force and Fighter Command would block any German air effort and supply close support for daylight operations. In addition to this massive air attack, additional ground support came from divisional/corps artillery guns and naval gunfire from two cruisers plus the 15" guns of the monitor HMS Roberts. Starting at 0745 on the 18th these attacks decimated the German front line infantry divisions, leaving only pockets of isolated resistance. On the left flank, a company of the 22nd Pz Regiment of the 21st Pz Division was mauled along with a company of the 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion. In the center of the corridor, most of the guns of a battery of the 21st Pz Division's Assault Gun Battalion and part of its I Battalion/125th PzGr Reg were put out of action. However, the bombardment caused heavy cratering which severely reduced mechanized movement. (That is why the ground condition is set on soft, while in reality it was firm.) The German 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" under SS-Oberfuhrer Theodor Wisch (1st SS Pz.Rgt. and the 1st and 2nd SS PzGd.Rgts.) held the left flank behind the now devastated 272nd Infantry Division. The right flank was held by two regiments of the 21st Panzer Division under Lt. Gen. Edgar Feuchtinger (22nd Pz.Rgt. and the 125th PzGd.Rgt. - the 192nd PzGd.Rgt. being off the map to the east) and the shattered remnants of the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division. In deep center reserve was the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Jugend" under SS-Standartenfuhrer Kurt "Panzer" Meyer (12th SS Pz.Rgt. and the 26th SS PzGd.Rgt. -the 25th SS PzGd.Rgt. being too far souuth to reach the battle area on July 18th).

THE ATTACK
The British air attack began at dawn and the armor began to roll an hour later. The bombardment by over two thousand Allied heavy bombers not only destroyed the front line German infantry divisions, but the soft skinned vehicles of some of the armored formations. The German forces were badly scattered and out of communication with other units, but individual initiative of many commanders allowed small kampfgruppes to be organized and ambush the advancing British units.
The right wing of the 11th Armored Division quickly secured the southern section of Caen but the division was stopped three miles south of Caen by the counter-attack of the 1st SS Panzer Division. On the left, the Guards Armored Division largely destroyed the 21st Panzer Division, but the terrible terrain prevented it from breaking out to the southeast. The 7th Armored Division in the center (the old "Desert Rats" from Africa), made the most progress. It broke through into open ground and made significant progress toward the hills south of Caen. However, when the 12th SS Panzer Division counter-attacked, it was forced to switch to the defensive. Although the British lost 271 tanks, their attack prevented the Germans from transferring these powerful panzer forces to the western flank where the Americans would shortly begin Operation Cobra - the Allied break out. The
heavy German tank losses were irreplaceable whereas British losses would quickly be made up. The 16th Luftwaffe Division had been annihilated. In less than a week the Americans would launch their own massive armored thrust preceded by an immense carpet bombing from the St. Lo area toward Avranches and break out of the Normandy peninsula. General Patton would then take command of the newly activated U.S. Third Army and race across France.