In the morning of 8 July, , men and tanks of the British 1st Corps attacked. The previous day the town had been bombarded by bombers of the Royal Air Force and 2, tons of bombs had been dropped, killing civilians. The left-bank was liberated, together with the Ilot Sanitaire, an emergency hospital and refuge, which sheltered some 20, civilians.
Montgomery launched Operation Goodwood to capture the right-bank. Once again, Montgomery's tactics were called into question, Eisenhower railing that 'it had taken 7, bombs to gain seven miles'.
However, the sheer weight of the Allied assault had taken its toll on German morale. Search term:. Read more. The general aim around Caen was to push the Germans further away from the city. On 22 July British troops attacked to the south of Caen Operation Express , and captured the village of Maltot, just west of the Orne and less than five miles from the city centre.
The biggest of these attacks was Operation Spring July , a Canadian attack on the Verrieres ridge. The attack was to be carried out by the newly activated Canadian 2nd Corps, under General Simonds. The corps contained the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Divisions, of which the 3rd had suffered heavy casualties on D-Day and the 2nd was new to battle, the Canadian 2nd Armoured Brigade and 2nd Army Group Royal Artillery. Planning for this attack began on 21 July, in response to a delay in the start of Operation Cobra from 20 July.
The aim was to push the Germans off the slightly higher ground south of the city, and pin them down in the east. However this area was strongly defended, and the Germans had access to a series of mine tunnels that linked several of the villages. When the Canadians attacked, the Germans were thus able to pop up in areas that were meant to have been cleared, preventing the attack from gaining any momentum. The Canadian attacks on 25 July were defeated at heavy cost, making it the second most costly day for Canada during the entire war, second only to Dieppe.
The attack only took one of its objectives, and had to be called off early on 26 July when the bad news reached General Simonds.
However the attack did achieve its main aim, pinning the Germans down south of Caen. It also attracted the attention of Field Marshal Kluge, who spent 25 July on the Caen front, just as the western end of the German front was crumbling.
The main focus on the British front then moved west, to Operation Bluecoat, which began on 28 July. This saw two British corps attack from the Caumont area, half way between Caen and Saint Lo, with the aim of supporting the American advance.
Over the next few days the Americans broke right through the German lines and began to fan out into Brittany to the west and towards Le Mans in the east. It soon became clear that there was now a chance to trap a large part of the German army in Normandy, if the Canadians could push south from Caen and the Americans push north from around Le Mans and Alencon.
The new target would be Falaise. The official end date of the battle of Caen is thus the same day as the start of the first Canadian attempt to break through to Falaise, Operation Totalize August Repeated British and Canadian attacks made slow but steady progress, rarely reaching their more optimistic targets.
Montgomery often failed to fully explain his overall plan, and on occasion even Eisenhower began to worry. However on the German side each of the famous offensives caused a great deal of alarm.
Every time they managed to release their panzer divisions from the front, there would be another attack, and they would have to be committed to desperate defensive battles. The same happened to fresh divisions as they reached Normandy.
Perhaps the most important example of this was the decision to commit the two freshly committed Panzer divisions of the II SS Panzer Corps to the fight against Operation Epsom, a move that forced Rommel to abandon his own plans for an attack towards Bayeux. Goodwood was seen as a disaster on the German side, and a sign that the front was about to crack.
Even Operation Spring, a costly failure for the Canadians, distracted Field Marshal Kluge at the moment when he was needed on the American front. The long bitter battle for Caen may have been controversial, but it drew in most of the German panzers, and helped pave the way for the spectacular American breakthrough then breakout at the other end of the line. Help - F.
Follow DrJohnRickard. British Troops between Tilly and Caen. Caen under Siege, Artillery and Transport positions outside Caen. Allied troops clearing Caen. Ruins of Vaucelles, Caen, Looks in detail at the role of each element in the British and Canadian military machine during the Normandy Campaign, including each aspect of the ground forces from the infantry to the armour, intelligence, reconnaissance and medical services, as well as the air support and the fire power provided by the massive Allied fleets off the Normandy coast.
A very useful companion to narrative accounts of the campaign, helping to explain how the British and Canadians managed to overcome the determined German resistance on their front [ read full review ]. Follow DrJohnRickard Tweet.
Indeed, the German defense is ready to defend its positions. The commander of the Panzer Division, Edgar Feuchtinger, has 16, men, tanks, 4 battalions of motorized infantry, about 50 guns and a battalion of Flak guns with 24 caliber pieces buried north of Caen. But on 23 June a new storm raged in the English Channel, and reinforcements of foodstuffs, materials and fuel were blocked aboard the ships or in England, which could no longer be carried by the sea for some time because of the bad weather.
And if the Allies suffer from not being able to advance, the Germans, they, take advantage of this acalmia to reinforce their front line by a new armored division, Panzer Lehr. In total, the German force in the sector of Caen represents tanks, guns of 88 mm as well as multiple canons divers. Sunday, June 25, marks the beginning of the ground offensive of Operation Epsom: 60, men and tanks belonging to the 2nd British Army attack west of Caen.
Two days later, the Scots broke through the German front about 10 kilometers deep, an impressive performance that did not meet the hopes of Montgomery who, from his headquarters in Blay, was worried by the catastrophic reports of British losses since the start of Epsom. On 1 July, when Operation Epsom was stopped by order of the command, Caen still did not fall.
The latter refused to abandon the capital of Calvados and replaces most of his generals at the head of units defending the surrounding area Caen: von Kluge will replace von Rundstedt, sacked after proposing to make peace with the Allies. The city of Caen is encircled to the north and in particular by the British paratroopers of the 6th airborne division in position since D-Day and to the west by the positions held by the Anglo-Canadians on the Odon.
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