Rebuffed with heavy losses at Carpiquet, Montgomery now decided to call up RAF Bomber Command to blast the Hitlerjugend out of Caen. During the evening of 7 July, some 467 Lancaster and Halifax heavy bombers dumped 2540 tonnes (2500 tons) of bombs on the city in a raid that turned much of it into rubble. To avoid any of his troops being accidentally hit, Montgomery held back the follow-up infantry assault until 08:00 hours on 8 July. Laudable though this was, it meant Meyer's men had time to recover from the shock of the raid in time to meet the inevitable attack.

Operation Charnwood

First into the attack during Operation Charnwood was the British 176th Infantry Brigade, which was to seize the northern suburbs of Caen. Then the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade would take the northwest corner of the city. Apart from a single company of Hitlerjugend Panthers, there were few reserves, and Meyer used them to rescue panzergrenadiers trapped by Canadian attacks. Almost 500 Hitlerjugend men were killed or wounded during the fighting. Meyer asked Dietrich for permission to withdraw, which was initially refused because it conflicted with a Führer order "to hold to the last bullet". By nightfall, Dietrich relented, and Meyer's battered division was starting to pull back into Caen and across the Orne River to a form a new defensive line, alongside the advance elements of the Leibstandarte which was finally arriving in strength. This was just in time. The Hitlerjugend Division had lost some 3300 men, or 28 percent of its manpower strength, and half its tanks had been knocked out since it was committed to battle on 6 June.

It was now the turn of the divisions of II SS Panzer Corps to feel Montgomery's wrath. The 43rd Wessex Division was given the objective of driving the Germans from Hill 112 once and for all, opening the way for the 4th Armoured Brigade to surge forward and seize crossings over the River Orne. Standing in their way was the Frundsberg Division of SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel, reinforced by the pitiful remains of Max Wünsche's Hitlerjugend Panzer Regiment.

Operation Jupiter

Operation Jupiter kicked off with the usual heavy artillery barrage, after which two infantry brigades, supported by heavy Churchill infantry tanks, began frontal attacks on Hill 112 and the village of Maltot on its northern slope. When it looked as though 25 Churchills were going to take the summit of Hill 112, Frundsberg's panzer battalion arrived from its reserve position and "brewed up" most of them. The commander of the 43rd Division eventually rescinded orders to commit the 4th Armoured Brigade's last tank regiment after its commander persuaded him they would suffer 75 percent losses.

prev | next