7th Armoured's advance on Villers Bocage - Question.

It’s been a while since I last posted on this wonderful site, as work and life ensure days and months fly by. It’s good to be back.

I have a question concerning the 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Armoured Division’s advance through Normandy that I’d really like to find the answer to. It concerns the advance of the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] County of London Yeomany, the ‘Sharpshooters’, and the 8[SUP]th[/SUP] & 11[SUP]th[/SUP] Hussars Armoured regiment’s advance on Villers Bocage in the days leading up to that famous battle against Michael Wittman’s Tiger.

I have always been interested in the individual battles and actions that helped liberate this area of Europe from Nazi tyranny, and, although I am English, I was lucky enough to spend some time there as a child.

Reading the history of the liberation of that area, I am particularly fascinated by the small battle to take the village of Livry, where a German anti-tank position and infantry held up the advance for a few hours. I know there was an anti-tank position there supported by infantry, but I can find no records online that detail anything other than a general overview of this particular engagement.

I'd really like to know more details of this particular battle. Do field sketchings exist that show the position of the anti-tank gun at Livry, and the general area of the battle? If anyone could point me in the direction of where I could seek such information I’d be absolutely thrilled. Can anyone help me?

 

Glad you came back for a visit. Sadly not my area, but hang on and I'm sure somebody can help.

 

Thanks belasar, I hope someone can give me some help with this.

 

Being only familiar with the Wittman battle, I was curious about the location of Livry. Period military maps are hard to find so a commemorative Michelin map will have to do (attached).

Livry must have been at the start the 7th British Armoured Division drive. It is just north of east of Caumont which was captured by the US 1st Infantry Division on 13 June 1944. The Villers-Bocage battle was later in June but the town was not finally liberated until 5 Aug 1944.

Your best hope for more information would be from the War Diaries of the units involved. The best place to find people who have seen those WD's would be at ww2Talk.com

But feel free to post here what you learn.

 

After a long time away from ww2forum due to a testing few years, I've returned and just seen this message. Thank you for taking the time to reply with such good information Earthican.

 

I have passed through Livry following the Op Perch story.

IRRC the lead unit was the 8th Hussars. Two of their soldiers are buried in the churchyard. Both died on 12th June 1944. Results
French communes sometimes asked for commonwealth soldiers who fell liberating their village to be buried in their graveyard. I would see if the 8th Hussars Regimental history or war dairy has the details. Or checking WW2talk dedicated to British and Commonwealth. There is a thread here.
http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/3-troop-a-squadron-8th-hussars.41059/Try posting on this