The Battle for Caen was a two-month-long battle fought from June 6 to August 6, 1944, between the Allied 2nd Army and the German II SS Panzer Corps, in and around the French town of Caen, Normandy. It was part of the major Battle of Normandy, which took place during World War II. The British needed to launch four military operations to capture it; Operation Perch, Epsom, Charnwood and Goodwood.
Caen had to be seized because it was one of the main Allies targets during Operation Overlord, as it lay on the Orne River and the Caen canal, which were natural obstacles for the Allies advance. Since it was also located on an important road intersection, it enabled the Germans to get resupplied with relative ease.
Having landed on Sword Beach, the British 3rd Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Thomas Rennie, was assigned the mission to capture this French town, but the Allies did not know that they would need a whole army to take and secure it. There were armored Waffen-SS units waiting for them.
Summary
The Battle for Caen began on the evening of June 6, 1944, when the German 21st Panzer Division and a regiment from the 12th SS Panzergrenadier Division Hitlerjugend (II SS Panzer Corps), launched a fierce counterattack which stopped the British 3rd Infantry Division in their tracks, 4 miles from Caen. Then the Allies realized that an early and easy capture of the French town was not possible as the British and Canadians were trapped in the cornfields around the city. Thus, during Allies attempts to take the town, Caen became the focal point of a series of battles from June to August.
The first planned attempt to capture Caen was Operation Perch, which was assigned to the British XXX Corps. It also failed due to the German stiff resistance. Then the British launched Operation Epsom, which also ground to a halt. With Operation Charnwood (July 8/9), the British would partially and costly manage to take Caen. From then on, the battle for this French town would get bogged down, with the fighting turning into a static war in which troops on both sides holed up in trenches, a somber reminiscence of the Great War. During this time, the town was bombed several times by the Allies, killing hundreds of French civilians and creating a heap of rubble in which the Germans entrenched as they fought tenaciously.
Finally, on July 18, the commander of the British 2nd Army, General Miles Dempsey, launched Operation Goodwood. By July 20 the German outer defences had been breached as the British armored divisions had advanced 6 miles. By August 6, after having suffered heavy casualties, the British had finally been able to capture Caen. The Allied had lost 4,800 soldiers, while the Germans 2,000. Although it was an Allied victory, this battle would be known as Monty's meat grinder.
Opposing Military Forces
Germans: II SS Panzer Corps (12th SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend' and the 9th SS Panzergrenadier Division 'Hohenstaufen'), under Paul Hauser, and the 21st Panzer Division.
Allies: 2nd Army, under Miles Dempsey.
Battle for Caen (video), preceded by the landing at Normandy
Maps of location of German units around Caen
Below, a II SS Corps troops move through rubble-strewn streets of Caen
Aerial View of Caen during the battle; a pockmarked city by Allied bombers. You can see the railway station and the Caen Canal.
A Scottish unit with an M4 Sherman tank entering Caen. They would be driven out before the city was bombed by the Allied bombers.
