Operation Express

To the east of Dietrich's corps, Bittrich's Frundsberg Division had been holding firm on Hill 112 for more than two weeks, after the 43rd Division's failed attempt to take the strategic high ground. Montgomery kept feeding in units to keep up the pressure on the Frundsberg and 272nd Infantry Divisions. Thanks to the presence of the Tigers of the 102nd SS Battalion, most of these attempts failed with heavy losses. One Tiger was always kept on the hill's summit while the rest of the battalion's 19 tanks were held in reserve. Operation Express on 22 July saw two battalions of the Wiltshire Regiment, backed by the Churchills of the 9th Royal Tank Regiment (9 RTR), try to sweep up the eastern slope of the hill after they had taken the village of Maltot. The Tigers and Churchills clashed head on and the British tanks were getting the worst of the engagement, losing six tanks, when a forward air controller called down a squadron of Typhoons. The Tigers withdrew into cover, leaving the village in British hands along with 400 Wehrmacht prisoners. Hill 112 remained firmly in German hands for yet another week.

Operation Bluecoat

The Hohenstaufen Division was called back from the left flank of Frundsberg at the height of the Operation Goodwood battle and positioned in the Orne valley, guarding the southern suburbs of Caen. It helped the Leibstandarte defeat Montgomery's armoured offensive, forming a kampfgruppe to take back three villages captured by Canadian troops. Early in the morning on 22 July, two of the division's Panthers led forward a panzergrenadier battalion which ran into heavy anti-tank gunfire. By the end of the day, nine of the division's twenty-four Panthers were out of action, but the key villages were secured. As Operation Spring got under way against the Leibstandarte on 25 July, the Hohenstaufen was also hit hard by Canadian troops. To restore the line, the division's panzer regiment and 102nd SS Battalion Tigers rolled forward, inflicting heavy losses on the attacking tanks.

Halted to the east, south and west of Caen by Hausser and Bittrich's panzer corps, Montgomery now switched the focus of his attack to the far west of the British sector. On 30 July, he launched Operation Bluecoat southwards towards Vire and Mount Pincon, with the 7th, 11th and Guards Armoured Divisions in the lead. II SS Panzer Corps was now diverted to block this move that punched a hole in the thinly held sector of the German line. RAF Typhoons soon located the Waffen-SS tank columns in the afternoon on 2 August. They launched 923 sorties, destroying 13 tanks and 76 trucks, holding up the deployment of the German tanks for most of the day. British armour was advancing through open countryside and French villagers came out to greet their liberators with some long-hidden bottles of Champagne.

Victory, but at what cost?

The advance Hohenstaufen panzer kampfgruppe engaged the 11th Armoured Division near le Beny-Bocage on the afternoon of 2 August, knocking out five Cromwells in the process. The Tigers went into action against the 23rd Hussars near Chenedolle, turning a squadron's worth of Shermans into burning pyres.

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