D-Day - British Bloodbath at Caen

[Music] one of the most important of the d-day objectives was the swift capture the city of car nine miles inland from sword and juno beaches carl sits astride the Orne River and the conch Canal as well as being an important regional road and rail center where the Americans landed further west the norman countryside was difficult terrain consisting of bocaj country small fields sunken lanes and very tall and thick ancient hedgerows but the terrain south of core was flat and clear perfect for both tanks and the construction of Allied airfields to support the French campaign it was therefore vital the general Montgomery's 21st Army Group seize and hold car shortly after landing and it was equally imperative that the Germans prevented him the British 3rd Infantry Division had landed at sword Beach on the 6th of June with the intention to seize carte that day an ambitious undertaking if they couldn't take it their orders were to dig in and prevent the Germans from launching a counter-attack towards the coast from the car area on d-day itself German resistance at sword and Juno beaches was stiffer than expected the British and Canadian troops had to fight for several villages behind the beaches slowing their advance on car German artillery fire was very heavy against the beach exits complicating the advance further however a German counter-attack failed to materialize the 3rd Infantry Division was then slowed up by determined German resistance at strong points Daimler Hillman Morris and Rover Hillman covered the approaches to car and held out until the 7th of June the defense said Hillman brought the Germans enough time to disengage the 21st Panzer Division from fighting british paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division on either side of the river on and concentrate against stopping the 3rd Infantry Division the first British attempt to capture Carl was operation perch on the 10th of June Montgomery ordered Carl taken in a pincer movement in the east the 51st Highland division would cross the on an assault cagney six miles southeast of the city while in the West the famed Desert Rats the 7th Armored Division would cross the river order capture fos II and Hill 1 1 2 but stiff resistance by the Panzer Lehr division and part of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Jugend caused a delay on the 12th of June operation perch was finally launched but the Highlanders was stopped by the 21st Panzer Division the combat was intense from village to village farmhouse to farmhouse it did fight for every bloody fiend the same each time for belly keeping you thanks that he didn't like had been told chuck in a few hand grenade is in Russia sometimes they killed us but we were killing more than the trickiest part was the farms they were regular little jelly fortresses if we couldn't manage them in our own men would have to wait well the company commander crawled back from artillery support the Navy was staying with us too chuckling a new shells ahead of it but on the British right flank a hole had appeared in the German line following the disintegration of the German 352nd Infantry Division the 7th Armored Division was ordered to exploit the seven and a half mile wide gap seized villa bocaj and flank the Panzer Lehr division but this move failed with heavy casualties a fresh operation was planned to seize car British infantry managed to take series of villagers near car preparatory to Operation Epsom on the 26th of June William thing would spend 15 days in the same field outside calm the would be honest from the Germans in another would half a mile in front of us a little empty valley in between each side more turn each other all the time yes many had to live in a slip trench he got into a rotate you know stand true from our past for our past five and two hours wait for breakfast came out fairly on Tim Baden sausage tea of course biscuits we've been living on compare food since d-day he's good food but well you know he got tired of it only given a lot four stars of fresh bread and butter a cup of fresh tea 15 days a long time to stay in one place and be morning Epsom was a massive undertaking supported by 736 artillery guns warships and aircraft the 15th Scottish division and the 31st tank brigade made some progress overcoming parts of the German outpost Lyon over two days of hard fighting a small bridgehead was secured over the awn but counter-attacks by the 1st ss-panzer Corps was strong the British 8th Corps managed to advance six miles before the Germans stopped them though costly the British had ensured that no German counter-attack would reach the beaches and almost all the Panzer forces in France were engaged against them rather than American forces aiding the eventual u.s. first Army breakout operation Cobra between the 26th and the 30th of June 1944 the British suffered four thousand and seventy-eight casualties containing car the Germans losing 3,000 men and a hundred and twenty six tanks had to stand and give as good as we got even if we couldn't give better [Music] [Music] Montgomery is next attempt to seize Carl was codenamed Operation Chan would British tanks would charge through the city to capture ridges South opening the way for the British second army to advance on the town of Falaise the 7th of July Allied bombers were supposed to bomb German positions before calm however most of them dropped their bombs long into the city itself fearful of hitting close by British and Canadian Forces 2,000 tons of allied bombs fell on the city reducing it to ruins then on the 8th of July the ground-attack proceeded behind a rolling barrage fired by 656 guns by the evening of the 8th British troops had reached Cal's outskirts the shattered 12th SS Panzer Division fought a desperate rearguard then withdrew over the Orne River bridges early on the 9th British troops entered car and Canadians captured copy K airfield after a stiff fight with its SS defenders moving through car British infantry reached the north bank of the awn where they found most of the bridges either blown or completely blocked by rubble the British now tried to push over the river against the Germans operation Jupiter began on the 10th of July but Tiger tanks picked off the advancing Churchill and Sherman tanks the worst fighting raged over Hill one-one-two and the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen was rushed forward to contain the British advance which is what the Allies wanted to happen bottle up as much German armor as possible around car to aid the u.s. break out further west on the 18th of July the British 7th Corps launched Operation Goodwood three armored divisions lunged at the Borgia boo Ridge to force the Germans to commit the last of their Panzer reserve the Germans stopped the British advance [Music] the British was seven miles beyond car that took a terrific pounding suffering over 4000 casualties and 500 tanks 36% of all British tanks then in France being knocked out but the plan worked the British and Canadian activity had kept 600 German tanks including all Tiger tank units in France engaged against them with only a hundred and fifty Panzers facing the u.s. 1st army some of the worst fighting was over the 90-foot high very a ridge where masses of German tanks and Panzer grenadiers were dug in during Operation Atlantic British and Canadian divisions suffered heavy casualties slogging up the ridge in torrential rain fighting off counter-attacks by 4 SS Panzer divisions the Canadians were in fact forced back to their start lines however on the 25th of July the Americans after having captured Cherbourg launched Operation Cobra a great success collapsing the German position in Normandy and leading to an allied breakout east the Battle of Carr had absorbed eight Panzer divisions seven German infantry divisions and three heavy Panzer battalions and severely weakened German forces facing the Americans but the fighting around Carr was so intense that British and Canadian divisions suffered casualty rates similar to the Third Battle of EEP in 1917 from the trench warfare of World War one Britain and Canada suffered about 50,000 casualties during the several battles of calm part of the 83 thousand British Canadian and Polish casualties sustained in the Normandy campaign between June and August 1944 the figure which includes 16,000 killed at least 20,000 French civilians also died from the many operations around car and the city itself was not completely rebuilt until the mid 1960s thanks for watching please subscribe and share you can also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton and also if you would like help support both of my channels of PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music] and

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 945,111

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Desert Rats, D-Day, Normandy, Caen

Id: p-9w2J5s0xU

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020