Everything about Battle For Caen totally explained
|combatant2=
|commander1=
General Montgomery
General Eisenhower
Lieutenant-General Dempsey
General Crerar
Lieutenant-General Crocker
Lieutenant-General Simonds
Lieutenant-General O'Connor
Lieutenant-General Ritchie
Lieutenant-General Bucknall
Lieutenant-General Horrocks
|commander2=
Field Marshal RundstedtField Marshal RommellField Marshal KlugeGeneral DollmannGeneral HausserLieutenant-General von SchweppenburgGneral EberbachGeneral DietrichGeneral von ObstfelderGeneral Marcks
|strength1=(as of 23 July 1944)
Second Army
The
Battle for Caen from June to August 1944 was a battle between the
Allied and
German forces during
World War II's
Battle of Normandy.
Originally the Allies aimed to take the French city of
Caen, one of the largest cities in
Normandy on
D-Day. Caen was a vital objective for several reasons. First, it lay astride the
Orne River and
Caen Canal; these two water obstacles could strengthen a German defensive position if not crossed. Second, Caen was a road hub; in German hands it would enable the enemy to shift forces rapidly. Third, the area around Caen was relatively open, especially compared to the
bocage country in the west of Normandy. This area was valued for airfield construction.
On D-Day, Caen was an objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division. Because Caen wasn't taken during the D-Day assault, it became the focal point for a series of battles through June, July and into August.
The old city of Caen, with many buildings dating back to the
Middle Ages, was largely destroyed by Allied bombing and the fighting. The reconstruction of Caen lasted until 1962. Today, little of the pre-war city remains.
Background
On
6 June 1944, Allied forces invaded France by launching
Operation Neptune, the beach landing operation of
Operation Overlord. A force of several thousand ships assaulted the beaches in Normandy, supported by approximately 3,000 aircraft. The D-Day landings were generally successful, but the Allied forces were unable to take
Caen as planned.
In addition to seaborne landings, the Allies also employed
Airborne forces. The U.S.
101st and
82nd Airborne Divisions, as well as the British
6th Airborne Division (with an attached Canadian airborne battalion), were inserted behind the enemy lines. The British and Canadian paratroopers behind
Sword Beach were tasked with reaching and occupying the strategically important bridges such as Horsa and
Pegasus, as well as to take the artillery battery at
Merville in order to hinder the forward progress of the German forces. They managed to establish a bridgehead north of
Caen, on the east bank of the Orne, that the Allied troops could use to their advantage in the battle for
Caen.
Attempts to take Caen
Operation Neptune
The first attempt to capture
Caen was by direct assault from
Sword Beach from the assaulting
3rd Infantry Division landing on June 6. Despite being able to penetrate the
Atlantic Wall and push south the division was unable to reach the city that day, falling short by 6 kilometres. The
21st Panzer Division once organised launched several counterattacks during the afternoon against the assaulting troops, although these attacks were beaten off they effectively blocked the road to
Caen.
Operation Perch
Operation Perch was the second attempt to capture Caen after the direct attack from Sword Beach on June 6 failed.
50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division,
XXX Corps, was ordered to strike south capture
Bayeux, then
Tilly-sur-Seulles following which the
7th Armoured Division would capture
Villers-Bocage and
Evrecy.
51st (Highland) Infantry Division,
I Corps, would support the offensive by capturing
Cagny to the east of [aen
Oncethese two thrusts were complete
Operation Wild Oats would be given the green light and the
1st Airborne Division would be landed between the two divisions to close the gap and thus encircle the city.
However the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division attack bogged down in front of Tilly-sur-Seulles which resulted in heavy fighting with the
Panzer Lehr Division raging around the village from
8 June to
19 June 1944, when it finally fell and the German commander, Major General
Fritz Bayerlein, ordered a retreat. This is known as the Battle of Tilly-sur-Seulles.
During the fighting 76 civilians from the village were killed, a tenth of the population of Tilly-sur-Seulles. The Panzer Lehr Division had 190 tanks at the start of the battle, of which 66 remained after the battle. In addition to the lost tanks, the Germans lost 5,500 men . Today there's a British military cemetery in Tilly-sur-Seulles, as well as a museum that gives information about the battle. Nearby is the "Jerusalem War Cemetery," the smallest military cemetery in Normandy.
While the fighting at Tilly-sur-Seulles was raging, the American
U.S. 1st Infantry Division opened up a 12km gap on the flank on the
Panzer Lehr Division's flank. This vulnerability in the German lines opened up an opportunity for the Allies to thrust forward with armoured units and turn the flank of the German defensive position. Lieutenant-General
Dempsey ordered the 7th Armoured Division to capture Villers-Bocage and the high ground outside of the town with the intention that the appearance of British armour in the rear of the Panzer Lehr Division along with the high ground occupied would compel them to withdraw.
This resulted in the
Battle of Villers-Bocage, which took place on June 13. In fierce, close-range fighting the Germans succeeded in holding onto the town and securing their front.
Operation Martlet
A preliminary attack to support
Operation Epsom was launched on June 25 by the
49th (West Riding) Infantry Division of
XXX Corps. There objective was to secure ground on the flank of the intended advance. The attack gained some ground however the weather and muddy ground ground hampered the attack thus some of the dominating terrain on the right flank of the intended attack by
VIII Corps was still in German hands.
Operation Epsom
The Allies, after they'd consolidated their forces and after a delay because of bad weather between
19 June and
22 June, began
Operation Epsom on
26 June. Three attacks were carried out by British and Canadian units of
VIII Corps. The mission was to bring
Caen and the surrounding countryside under Allied control. Dempsey had 60,000 soldiers, over 700 pieces of artillery and about 600 tanks under his command, although most of the troops had seen very little combat to that point.
The Allied attack was hampered by bad weather and bad preparation. The Allied artillery supported the advance with a creeping
barrage. On
26 June the Allied bomber fleet in England was prevented from supporting the attack because of bad weather. The Allied attacks were stopped by Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht units. Most of the gains made by the Allies couldn't be held. After heavy fighting the Allies had secured and held on to only one location,
Hill 112.
Operation Windsor
The airfield at
Carpiquet was to have been taken on D-Day, but this plan had failed. In order to correct the failure, the Allies undertook Operation Windsor to break through the strongly held German positions near the airfield. The 8th Canadian Brigade, reinforced with a regiment of the 7th Canadian Brigade, of the
3rd Canadian Infantry Division received the mission.
The airfield was reinforced with concrete shelters, machine gun towers, underground tunnels and 75 mm anti-tank guns and 20 mm air defence cannons. The surrounding area was also protected by mine fields and barbed wire entanglements. The Resistance had informed the Canadian troops about the defences surrounding the airfield.
After hard fighting the Canadians were able to take the village of
Carpiquet on
5 July. Three days later, after repulsing several German counterattacks, they also controlled the airfield.
Operation Charnwood
The Allies planned to use heavy bombers in order to scare the German defenders as well as destroy their defensive positions. It was also hoped that the bombardments would raise the morale of the British troops.
Meanwhile the following instruction was issued on
7 July from the German armed forces operations staff
» 1. Stop the current front, [...] free up the 12th SS-Panzerdivision and replace the besieged Infantry divisions with fresh troops; [...]
9. Deployment of the entire Organisation Todt [...] .
SS-Oberführer Kurt Meyer, commander of SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 25,
12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, said that these instructions meant that their orders were to die in
Caen..
After taking some time to reorganize, re-supply and refit, the 21st Army Group launched
Operation Charnwood on
7 July.
The British
Second Army and
First Canadian Army, with approximately 115,000 men, struck out at villages held by German forces north of
Caen. The Allies had planned to conduct a bombing run on the villages but cancelled them because of the proximity of their own troops. The bombardment area continued to shift towards
Caen. On the evening of
7 July, 467 airplanes flew in clear weather and dropped 2,276 bombs. The bombings did little to harm the German forces, but the northern suburbs were mostly destroyed in the attacks. French civilians also bore the brunt with about 3,000 being killed. The German
air defence was able to shoot down one airplane, and three others fell over Allied air space. The air bombardment was supported by
naval gunfire from offshore ships.
Alexander McKee said about the bombardment on
7 July: "The 2,500 tons of bombs made no distinction between friend and foe. If the British commanders believed that they'd intimidate the Germans by killing the French, then they were sorely mistaken.".
The shock effect was non-existent, since the attack didn't take place immediately after the bombardment, when the defenders were still diverted and scared. Instead the main attack began the next morning,
8 July, around 04:30. The employment of tanks was made more difficult because of the bombings. Later, when the city was finally taken, it was determined that no German cannon, tanks or soldiers were killed in the targeted areas.
At the end of
8 July the Allied had only advanced one kilometre towards the city of
Caen. After the German troops withdrew on
9 July from the city centre to the north and west of the city, the Allied troops engaged in the north but were kept from further advances by German snipers. At 18:00 on
9 July, the first units reached the
Orne River in
Caen. On the evening of
9 July and on
10 July, the Allied reached the city centre. Engineers were tasked with repairing bridges over the
Orne and moving the rubble out of the city. Arthur Wilkes described the situation after the action: "Mountains of rubble, [approximately] 20 or 30 feet [≈6 or 9 meter] high [...] the dead lay everywhere."
Canadian company commander Major
Jacques D. Dextraze recalls an example of a Canadian officer who forced tired German prisoners to swim a river:
» "We crossed the river - the bridge had been blown up...Eighty five prisoners we take. I select an officer, "take them back to the P.W. cage". He goes back, making them run, to the bridge that we had... These guys had been running for a couple of miles. They came to the bridge (bad cut) No no, you don't take the bridge, you swim. Now these guys fell...went into that water you know. Most of them drowned. Imagine having run you know, they'd been fighting before, running you know for a couple of miles, and then the water you know. Now, they were picked up by the engineers rebuilding the bridge. I could have been accused of not having protected them. I'm responsible for these prisoners you see. I felt very bad when I saw them all piled up beside the bridge..."
The last corpses of the Canadians that were killed were found in the fall of 1945.
The Abbaye d'Ardenne was captured at midnight on 8 July by the Regina Rifles. The executed soldiers were exhumed and buried in the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery.
Meyer was sentenced to death in December 1945, although he'd denied knowledge of the incident. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison. On 7 September 1954, he was released from prison.
A small chapel at the abbey was set up in memory of the Canadian soldiers. The chapel consists of a wooden cross, over which is a niche with a statue of Mary. On the cross is a Canadian steel helmet. Every year the children of Authie place flowers at the chapel. In 1984 a bronze plaque was erected at the abbey, it reads:
"On the night of June 7/8, 1944, 18 Canadian soldiers were murdered in this garden while being held here as prisoners of war. Two more prisoners died here or nearby on June 17. They are dead but not forgotten."
Aftermath
Operation Overlord and the battles in Normandy successfully gave the Allies a foothold in France, which led to the liberation of the rest of Western Europe. On 25 August the Allies were able to retake the French capital Paris.
Caen and many of the surrounding towns and villages were mostly destroyed; the cathedral in Caen and the University of Caen (founded in 1432) were both razed to the ground. The buildings were eventually rebuilt after the war and even expanded. For this reason the symbol of the University of Caen is the Phoenix. Approximately 35,000 citizens of Caen were rendered homeless after the fighting .
After the war ended, the West German government had to pay reparations as compensation to any civilians in Caen killed, starved, or left homeless by the war .
The rebuilding of Caen officially lasted from 1948 until 1962. On 6 June 2004, Gerhard Schröder became the first German Chancellor to be invited to the anniversary celebration of the invasion.
There are many monuments to the Battle for Caen and Operation Overlord. For example on the road to Odon-bridge at Tourmauville, there's a memorial for the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division; or the monument on hill 112 for the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, as well as one for the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division. Near hill 112, a forest was planted in memory of those that fought there.
The landings at Normandy, the Battle for Caen and the Second World War are remembered today with many memorials, in Caen there's the Mémorial with a "peace museum" (Musée de la paix). The museum was built by the city of Caen on top of where the bunker of General Wilhelm Richter, the commander of the 716th Infantry Division was located. On 6 June 1988 the museum was opened by the French president at the time, François Mitterrand as well as twelve ambassadors from countries that took part in the fighting in Normandy. The museum is dedicated to pacifism and borders the Parc international pour la Libération de l'Europe, a garden in remembrance of the Allied participants in the invasion.
The fallen are buried in the Brouay War Cemetery, the Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery (2,170 graves), the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery (2,049 graves), the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery (2,957 graves), La Cambe German war cemetery (21,222 graves) as well as many more.
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