Kurt "Panzer" Meyer

Only 34 years old, Meyer was an aggressive and determined officer who would claim fame for being the youngest German divisional commander of World War II. Supreme self-confidence - which, some said, bordered on arrogance - was Meyer's trademark, and when he arrived at the 21st Panzer's headquarters during the early hours of 7 June in order to coordinate the coming attack, he did not win any friends. He took one look at the situation map and left the army officers in no doubt as to how totally unimpressed he was by their assessment of the threat posed by Allied forces.

Meyer was to push forward on the left flank of the 21st Panzer, after forming up on the western edge of Caen itself. His objective was simple: to reach the coast. By first light, only a few companies of the 25th Regiment were in place on the start-line, with the remainder still moving around the southern suburbs of Caen. In the meantime, the petrol shortages and traffic chaos meant that the 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and the Hitlerjugend's Panther tank battalion would not be in position to attack until the following day at the earliest.

The Allies amble into a trap

This was to be a worrying time for Meyer as he surveyed the battle front from his command post in the Ardennes abbey, 4.8km (3 miles) outside Caen. At 10:00 hours, his Panzer IV battalion with 50 tanks finally arrived, followed by more of his Waffen-SS panzergrenadiers.

The attack was fixed for 16:00 hours, with two panzergrenadier units advancing line abreast. They were to be supported in their efforts by large numbers of heavy tanks and artillery. During the early afternoon, Meyer watched from the abbey's high tower as the Canadian 3rd Division - which was known to contain three full infantry brigades and was backed by hundreds of tanks - started to form up for a major attack. Blissfully unaware that the Hitlerjugend Division was in its path, the Canadian 9th Brigade and a regiment of tanks began their advance. To observers, they looked as unthreatening as a unit that was on a training exercise during peacetime.

Making a split-second decision, Meyer junked his deliberate attack plan and instead decided to lay a devastating ambush for the Allied force. By now this force had bypassed one of his advance panzergrenadier units and was heading deep into the German rear with Carpiquet airfield as its objective. All of Meyer's 88mm-armed tanks and anti-tank guns that were in hull-down positions on a ridge near the abbey were ordered to hold their fire until the Canadian 9th Brigade and the tanks drove into the centre of Meyer's killing zone. The Panzer IV companies were ordered to move quickly along the hedge-lined roads before taking up vantage fire positions on the flanks of the Canadian line of advance.

Meyer waited until the Canadians were within 200m (656ft) of his lines before giving the order "Achtung panzer - marsche!". Panzer crews powered up their engines and moved into position.

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