D-DAY LANDINGS continued...

...June 26th

After several diversionary attacks to the East, the main thrust moved into battle. The British V111 Corps under Lieutenant General Dempsey was given the task to secure the city, advancing with 60,000 men & 600 tanks. Enemy resistance was formidable, with front line seasoned troops, including Waffen SS. Artillery was laid down in advance of the British troops, flame throwing tanks used to clear any resistance and whole villages were destroyed.

June 29th

Counter attack was carried out by the 11 SS Panzer Corps which had been hurriedly transferred from the Eastern Front, along with two Waffen SS Divisions. This attack was so powerful that on the 30th June R.A.F. Bomber Command were called in. Eventually it took the combined efforts of the R.A.F. the Royal Artillery, and massive tank defences to repel the German thrust using five armoured divisions.

July 7th

Dempsey ordered a major combined push under the codename “Operation Goodwood”. In the face of heavy British losses, an orchestrated use of heavy aerial bombing and Artillery bombardment reduced much of the City of Caen to rubble.

This was followed by the British 11th. Armoured Division moving up to take on the German defenders, most of which had been killed during the bombardment, others quickly surrendered in a total state of shock.

Hundreds of tanks were destroyed and the combined efforts of the British 8th Corps and the 3rd Division, along with the 2nd & 3rd Canadian Divisions, finally secured Caen. Although fierce and with many losses, the battle was won and Normandy was cleared for advance East to Paris and beyond.

In those weeks of hard fighting, Montgomery had been unable to force the Germans to abandon Caen itself, yet he did draw German armour onto the British Army, tied it up and ground it down. Tactically for the enemy, the whole purpose of sending I and II SS Panzer Corps to Normandy was to drive the Allies into the sea. Steady British efforts forced the commitment of these armored formations as they arrived on the field and so depleted
them that no coordinated German offensive was ever launched...