Operation Charnwood

Operation Charnwood
Part of Operation Overlord, Battle of Normandy
A column of Shermans moves towards Caen in support of I Corps' assault.
Date 7–9 July 1944 Location Normandy, France Result Allied Tactical Victory
Belligerents
Canada United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Miles Dempsey John Crocker	Paul Hausser Kurt Meyer
Strength
Approximately 40–60,000 men	Approximately 40,000 men
Casualties and losses
3,500+	2,600+

Operation Charnwood
Operational scope	Strategic Offensive
Planned by	British Second Army
Objective	Capture of the city of Caen
Executed by	I Corps, Second Army
Outcome	Capture of the city north of the river Orne - southern sectors still in German hands

Background

As part of Allied plans for the Normandy Campaign, Caen had been a D-Day objective for the British 2nd Army. The capture of Caen and its surrounding plain was considered important to allow the Allies space to build airfields, to enable further freedom of movement south, and to pose such a threat that it would draw in German reserves, making life easier for Allied forces in the west. Caen sits astride the Orne river, so its capture would give the British and the Canadians a foothold across it. However, on D-Day the 3rd Infantry Division did not capture the city. The two offensives since D-Day, Operation Perch and Operation Epsom, had failed to break the tightening German hold on the city. With limited options remaining, it was decided that I Corps would launch a frontal assault to finally take the city.

Planning

I Corps contained two battle-hardened divisions, the 3rd British and Canadian Infantry Divisions, along with a freshly arrived division, the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division. All three of these divisions were to be employed in Operation Charnwood. 59th Division in the centre would attack the villages north of Caen that still remained in German hands, 3rd British Division on the right would attack into Lebisey and the western areas of Caen, while 3rd Canadian Division on the left would take Carpiquet airfield (which it had attempted to take during Operation Windsor a few days earlier) and the eastern outskirts of the city.

In the hope of limiting Allied casualties, Charnwood included the use of heavy bombers to shock and destroy German defenders, clear obstacles and boost the morale of the hard-pressed British and Canadian Infantry. A target area of approximately 4,000 yards was designated on the northern outskirts of the city, where elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division and 16th Luftwaffe Field Division were entrenched. The raid was planned for the evening of 7 July.

The First Day

At 2100 hours on 7 July 1944, 467 Allied aircraft dropped over 2,500 tons of bombs on the city, the first tactical raid of this scale undertaken by Bomber Command . In forty minutes of bombardment, the medieval city was reduced to rubble. At 2300 hours, the massed artillery of I Corps and VIII Corps began a heavy and prolonged bombardment of suspected German positions along the attack front.

A rifleman from I Corps takes cover in the streets of Caen during Operation Charnwood.

At 0430 hours on 8 July, the artillery bombardment shifted to come down in front of the lines of the 3rd and 59th Divisions. It then crept forward as the troops began to advance. In the 3rd Division sector, heavy fighting ensued in the village of Herouville, near Lebisey, with the latter falling with relative ease. Meanwhile, the 59th Division pushed towards Galmanche and la Bijude, still some distance from Caen. As this occurred, General Heinrich Eberbach, now commanding Panzer Group West, arrived in the Caen area and observed the British attack from the Colombelles steelworks. Concerned about the state of the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division now facing 3rd Division, Eberbach ordered the movement of 21st Panzer Division to support it. As the Panzers began their move, a heavy naval barrage was directed upon them, and they were unable to advance to the support of the Luftwaffe troops.

By 1100 hours, the battle had escalated 59th Division was facing fierce resistance from the 12th SS Division in la Bijude and Galmanche and was making little progress. 3rd Division successfully began a push that by the late evening saw its 185th Brigade in possession of Point 64, overlooking Caen itself. Patrols from the brigade began to penetrate into the ruins, reporting that further heavy movement would be extremely delayed due to the amount of rubble and wreckage. 59th Division, meanwhile, successfully winkled the Hitlerjugend out of la Bijude and Epron by nightfall, but made no further progress.

On the 3rd Canadian Division front, going had been slow. Fierce fighting raged in the village of Buron throughout 8 July, the 12th SS resisting to the last. However, the divisions 7th Brigade managed to clear Authie and the infamous Ardennes Abbey before halting for the night. Reports soon came in that the Germans were withdrawing. I Corps prepared to take Caen the next day.

The Second Day

British and Canadian patrols began to infiltrate Caen in the early morning hours the advance resumed again. The 3rd Canadian Division took Carpiquet airfield with relative ease, finding that the Germans had withdrawn, and swiftly began to advance into eastern Caen. The British 59th Division encountered stronger opposition in the northern sector of Caen against a battlegroup of the 21st Panzer Division, but by the late afternoon its troops were pushing into the city, while the 3rd British Division on its right entered the city in the midmorning and was established along the Orne by the afternoon. During the process it had virtually destroyed one regiment of the 16th Luftwaffe Division.

Losses had been heavy in the assaulting corps, and German snipers and artillery were still active in the city, with reports indicating that the 1st SS Panzer Division was now arriving in the Caen area. In addition, the rubble severely hindered the movement of troops and vehicles, and it was thus decided to halt any further offensive operations to allow the roads to be cleared and reinforcements to be brought up. Operation Charnwood was over.

Aftermath

Charnwood was a tactical success for the Allies. However, while all of the Caen north of the River Orne now lay in Allied hands, the portions of the city on the south bank including the Fabourg de Vaucelles suburbs and the large Colombelles steel works (with their high chimney stacks providing excellent observation posts) remained in German hands. Despite this, some believe that in the strategic sense the achievements of Charnwood aided the Allied objective in Normandy by sustaining the German belief that the main Allied offensive would happen in the British sector. During Operation Goodwood/Operation Atlantic, the II Canadian Corps successfully cleared the southern sectors of Caen, in spite of severe German resistance.

Caen, left in ruins after the bombardment.

It was quickly discovered that the aerial bombardment had been largely counterproductive. Moreover, because the bombs were dropped on an urban area, many French civilians were killed. The ground attack went ahead over six hours after the bombardment, so the shock value was negligible. Finally, the bombers used very heavy bombs (500 and 1,000 pounders) which created huge piles of rubble. This actually had the effect of delaying Allied tank movement into the city. After the capture of the city, a survey to determine the bombing's effectiveness found that there was virtually no sign of enemy gun positions, tanks, or German dead in the target area.

A lesson thus learned from Charnwood was to use light bombs in huge quantities, to avoid the massive rubbling of the attack area. This lesson was applied to operations that followed such as Operation Goodwood and to a lesser extent, Operation Cobra.

Dramatization

Operation Charnwood, along with earlier and later offensives in the Caen area, make up the bulk of the British campaign in the real time strategy video game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

References

• Badsey, Stephen and Trew, Simon (2004). Battle for Caen. Stroud, Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-3010-1
• Ellis, L.F. (1962). Victory in The West Volume One: The Battle of Normandy. London, HMSO. No ISBN
• Meyer, H. (2005). The 12th SS. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3198-0
• Reynolds, M. (1997). Steel Inferno, New York: Random House. ISBN 0-440-22596-5

External links

• Stacey, Colonel Charles Perry. "Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume III. The Victory Campaign: The operations in North-West Europe 1944–1945" (PDF). The Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationery Ottawa. Retrieved 2008-08-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
• The Battle of Caen - Complete overview, video / audio and a large picture gallery.