Waffen-SS: Operation Goodwood, 1944

Background

Montgomery continued to pound the German lines defending Caen, and launched another offensive - codenamed Goodwood - in the second half of July 1944. Once again the SS panzer divisions fought off numerous armoured attacks and knocked out scores of tanks. But they suffered their own losses, and Waffen-SS commanders wondered how long they could contain the British.

Operation Goodwood

As British and Canadian troops inched slowly into the ruins of Caen, General Montgomery was putting the final touches to his next major offensive. He planned to throw in three armoured divisions - with 877 tanks which were to be backed by 10,000 assault infantry and 8000 vehicles - into the fray. The biggest preparatory bombardment so far in the campaign - involving some 712 guns, 942 British and 571 US heavy bombers - would deliver a massive 300,000 shells and some 7823 tonnes (7700 tons) of bombs on to the German defenders.

Operation Goodwood, as the offensive was codenamed, would be launched from the small bridgehead over the Orne River, to the east of Caen. The target for Operation Goodwood was the Bourguebus ridge above Caen. Standing in the way of the British was a defensive position laid out in considerable depth by the newly appointed German commander of the Caen sector, General of Panzer Troops Heinrich Eberbach. The frontline was held by the remnants of the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division. Behind it were the remnants of the 21st Panzer Division, supported by 88mm flak guns and Tiger tanks. In reserve on the Bourguebus ridge were the Leibstandarte and part of the Hitlerjugend Divisions, and these units were to go into action under the command of the notorious Josef "Sepp" Dietrich.

This would be the first main test of the Leibstandarte's panzer crews and many of its panzergrenadiers, who had only arrived at the front a week or so earlier. It is estimated that only some 14,000 men of the division were committed to the Normandy battle, because nearly 6000 trained recruits and logistic personnel were left behind at depots in Belgium. After more than a month's continuous fighting the Hitlerjugend Division was resting in reserve, except for a strong kampfgruppe under Max Wünsche, which Hitler ordered to the coast at the Orne estuary to counter a spurious invasion threat. Therefore the initial brunt of the coming fighting would fall on the Leibstandarte's Panzer Regiment under the command of Joachim Peiper, with 59 Panzer IVs and 46 Panthers. The division's assault gun battalion had some 35 StuG IIIs ready for action and the 101st SS Battalion's 25 Tiger Is. The famous victor of Villers-Bocage, Michael Wittmann, was now in command of this unit.

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