In total, the Germans could scrape together some 4800 infantry, around 200 tanks and 50 assault guns. In addition to this unconvincing force, they had 36 75mm anti-tank guns, 72 88mm flak guns, 194 field guns and 17 Nebelwerfer rocket launchers. Their ability to blunt Operation Goodwood was doubtful.

Goodwood opens

The Allied artillery barrage began at 05:25 hours on 18 July, and 10 minutes later the RAF bombers appeared overhead and started to unload their deadly cargo on the positions of the 21st Panzer and 16th Luftwaffe Divisions. After nearly 1000 Lancasters had passed over the target zones southeast of Caen, two further waves of bombers, mainly US B-17s, added to the carnage. Hundreds of Germans were killed or wounded, and much equipment damaged or destroyed. Massive 57-tonne (56-ton) Tiger tanks were turned upside down, and some German soldiers were driven insane by terror, but Montgomery's expectations for the bombardment soon proved to be very inaccurate. When the contrails of the last bombers disappeared just before 09:00 hours, the dazed defenders emerged from their bunkers, trenches or under their tanks to man their defences. While the Luftwaffe division was devastated by the air attack and did not offer serious resistance, the German reserve positions were not so badly hit. The Waffen-SS units were virtually untouched, and Dietrich immediately alerted them to be ready to counterattack.

Moving forward first was the British 11th Armoured Division, with some 214 tanks of the 29th Armoured Brigade leading the way. These were arrayed in attack formation. The division's lead tank brigades moved out of the Orne bridgehead east of Caen with relative ease, covered by a rolling artillery barrage, then turned south before heading for Bourguebus ridge. In their wake there was chaos. There were not enough bridges for the follow-up artillery and supply units to cross the Orne River, and the 11th Armoured Infantry Brigade became bogged down in clearing two insignificant villages of a few isolated German defenders. The 7th Armoured Division was immobilized for the remainder of the day, not because of enemy gunfire, but because ahead of it were thick traffic jams that blocked the Orne River crossings.

Bourguebus ridge

The remnants of the 21st Panzer's assault gun battalion had already started to engage the 29th Brigade's lead regiment, the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, destroying more than 20 Shermans. It was to conduct a fighting withdrawal towards the Leibstandarte's "stop line" on Bourguebus ridge. By 10:00 hours Wittmann's Tigers had already moved up and were ripping into the Shermans of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3 RTR).

prev | next