Liveblogging World War II: July 19, 1944: Operation Goodwood
Operation Goodwood - Wikipedia:
Shortly before dawn on 18 July, the Highland infantry in the south of the Orne bridgehead, quietly retired 0.5-mile (0.80 km) from the front line. At 05:45, 1,056 Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster heavy bombers flying at 3,000 feet (910 m) dropped 4,800 long tons (4,900 t) of high explosive bombs around Colombelles, the steelworks, on the positions of the 21st Panzer Division and on the village of Cagny, reducing half of it to rubble. At 06:40 the British artillery opened fire and twenty minutes later, the second wave of bombers arrived. From 10,000–13,000 feet (3,000–4,000 m), American B-26 Marauders released 563 long tons (572 t) of fragmentation bombs on the 16th Luftwaffe Division, as fighter-bombers attacked German strong points and gun positions. During the 45-minute bombardment, the troops and tanks of the 11th Armoured Division moved out of their concentration areas towards the start line.[109] H Hour was set for 07:45 and on schedule the artillery switched to a rolling barrage, which moved ahead of the 11th Armoured Division....
As the division moved off, more artillery regiments opened fire on Cuverville, Demouville, Giberville, Liberville, Cagny and Émiéville and dropped harassing fire on targets as far south as Garcelles-Secqueville and Secqueville la Campagne. Fifteen minutes later, American heavy bombers dropped 1,340 long tons (1,360 t) of fragmentation bombs in the Troarn area and on the main German gun line on the Bourguébus Ridge. Only 25 bombers in the three waves were lost, all to German anti aircraft fire.[116] Aerial support for the operation was then handed over to 800 RAF fighter-bombers of 83 and 84 groups.
"It was Hell and I am still astonished that I ever survived it. I was unconscious for a while after a bomb had exploded just front of my tank, almost burying me alive." Freiherr von Rosen describing the bombing, which he survived by taking cover under his tank.
The bombing put the 22nd Panzer Regiment and the III/503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion temporarily out of action, causing varying degrees of damage to their tanks. Some were overturned, some were destroyed and twenty were later found abandoned in bomb craters. Most of the German front line positions had been neutralised, with the survivors left "dazed and incoherent". Dust and smoke had impaired the ability of the bomber crews to identify all their targets and others on the periphery of the bombing zones had remained untouched. Cagny and Émiéville were extensively bombed but most of the defenders were unscathed and recovered in time to meet the British advance—both places having clear lines of fire, on the route the British were to take. The 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion rallied rapidly and got to work digging out their tanks. On the Bourguébus Ridge, a number of guns were destroyed by the bombing but most of the artillery and anti-tank guns remained intact.
By 08:05, the leading British tank regiments—the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment of the 29th Armoured Brigade—had navigated minefields, to reach the Caen–Troarn railway line. The first phase of the rolling barrage ended at 08:30, by which time large numbers of prisoners from the 16th Luftwaffe Division had been rounded up. By the time the artillery resumed firing at 08:50, only the first armoured regiment and a portion of the second had crossed the line. Although opposition was still minimal and more prisoners were taken, the two regiments struggled to keep up with the barrage and were moving out of supporting range of their reserves. On schedule at 09:00 the barrage lifted and 35 minutes later the lead squadrons reached the Caen–Vimont railway. In reserve, the 23rd Hussars had managed to clear the first railway line only to became embroiled in a 1½ hour engagement, with a battery of self-propelled guns of the 200th Assault Gun Battalion, that had been mistaken for Tiger tanks....
General Eberbach ordered a counter-attack, "not a defensive move but a full armoured charge". The 1st SS Panzer Division was to attack across the ridge, while in the Cagny area the 21st Panzer Division was to recover all lost ground. German tanks started to arrive on the ridge around noon and the British tank crews were soon reporting German tanks and guns everywhere. Hawker Typhoon ground-attack rocket attacks were directed onto the ridge throughout the afternoon, delaying and eventually breaking up the 1st SS Panzer Division counter-attack. A final attempt to storm the ridge resulted in the loss of 16 British tanks and a small counter-attack during the afternoon was driven off, with the destruction of six German Panthers....
Just before 10:00, the Guards Armoured Division caught up with the 11th Armoured Division and pressed on towards Cagny. By 12:00 the leading elements were halted, engaged in fighting. A German counter-attack against the 2nd Armoured Grenadier Guards, by 19 tanks from the 21st Panzer Division and the Tigers of the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion, failed, when the German tanks came under fire from their own guns and two Tigers were knocked out. An isolated Tiger II ("King Tiger") attempting to manoeuvre out of danger, was caught by an Irish Guards Sherman tank that had also become detached from its unit. The Sherman crew fired into the Tiger and then rammed it; anti-tank fire from other British units then penetrated the Tiger's armour. Both crews abandoned their vehicles and most of the German crew was captured. The 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion later attacked the Coldstream Guards but was forced to withdraw by massed anti-tank fire. It took the Guards the rest of the day to capture Cagny, which was found abandoned when infantry entered the village. Attempts to renew the advance were met by fierce German resistance. Starting last, the only element of the 7th Armoured Division to enter the battle was the 5th Royal Tank Regiment. At 17:00 near Cuverville it knocked out two Panzer IVs for the loss of four tanks and then cleared Grentheville which had been bypassed earlier in the day by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and several prisoners were taken. A German counter-attack by six tanks petered out after two tanks were destroyed on both sides....
19–20 July: The German armour counter-attacked late in the afternoon and fighting continued along the high ground and around Hubert-Folie on 19 July and 20 July, bringing the attack to a halt. On 21 July, Dempsey started to secure his gains by substituting infantry for armour.
Tactically, the Germans contained the offensive, holding many of their main positions and preventing an Allied breakthrough but they had been startled by the weight of the attack and preliminary aerial bombardment. It was clear that any defensive system less than 5 miles (8.0 km) deep could be overwhelmed at a stroke and the Germans could only afford to man their defences in such depth in the sector south of Caen. Goodwood resulted in the British extending their control over an extra 7 miles (11 km) depth of territory to the east of Caen, with the penetration being as much as 12,000 yards (11,000 m) in some places and the rest of Caen had been captured. The attack reinforced the German view that the greatest danger was on the eastern flank. The Allied intent to pin down German panzer divisions succeeded and as German reinforcements arrived in Normandy, they were drawn into defensive battles in the east and worn down and by the end of July the German defence of Normandy was close to collapse. Only 1½ panzer divisions were at the west end of the front, compared with 6½ facing the east end of the bridgehead. Once Operation Cobra breached the thin German defensive 'crust' in the west, few German mechanized units were available to counter-attack....
frustration in the higher command of the Allies, which this contributed to the controversy surrounding the operation. The Allied bridgehead in Normandy was not expanding at the pace they wanted; the lodgement was about 20% of the planned size, which led to congestion and some fear of a stalemate. Allied commanders were not able to exploit their potentially decisive advantages in mobility during June and early July 1944. Much of the controversy surrounding the objectives of the battle originates from the conflicting messages given by Montgomery. He talked up the objectives of Goodwood to the press on the first day, later saying that this was deliberate, to encourage the Germans to commit their forces at the east end of the battlefield.... In the planning stage of Goodwood, Montgomery appeared to promise that the attack would be a breakthrough and that when the British VIII Corps failed to break-out, by some accounts the Supreme Commander, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower felt he had been misled. While his intermittent communications to his commanders appeared to promise a breakthrough, Montgomery was writing orders to his subordinates for a limited attack. Copies of orders forwarded to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), called for an armoured division to take Falaise, a town far in the German rear. Three days prior to the attack, Montgomery revised the orders, eliminating Falaise as an objective but neglected to send copies of the revision to SHAEF....
During Operation Goodwood, over 2,000 German prisoners were taken and c. 100 German tanks were lost.... Tamelander wrote that Panzer Group West recorded the loss of 75 tanks during the period of 16–21 July. British tank losses during Goodwood have been debated, with tank losses being reported from 300–500. In addition to VIII Corps losses, about twenty tanks were lost in the flanking operations.... In 2014 Buckley wrote that 400 British tanks were knocked out and that many were recovered and put back into service, although the morale of some of the crews deteriorated.
