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Caen: The Anvil of Victory

Discussion in 'Western Europe' started by roscoe, Apr 23, 2011.

  1. roscoe

    roscoe Guest

    I have (at last) read this book. I've been meaning to read this book for years after seeing my father, a WWII veteran, read it many years ago. It was particularly memorable for me because it was the only time I ever got him to open up about his experiences in Western Europe.

    It documents the period immediately after D-Day concentrating on the fighting around the city of Caen, the largest city next to the Allied D-Day beachheads. It consists of warts-an-all personal accounts of the bitter struggle of the British and Canadian attempts and failures to take this city. Interestingly it gives an awfull lot of German accounts too, which is unusual for a book that was written so long ago.

    It tabulates Montgomery's shifting of tactics brought on by stiff German resistance around the Bocage, the patchwork of small fields with thick banks that favoured defence and where attackers (both Allied and German) were easlily halted.

    I was amused by one American soldiers description of the Bocage. He said:

    "You could reach through the hedge and put the Spandau safety catch on without the Germans knowing you were there"

    Montgomery (and Bradley it seems) said it was never the real intention to take Caen on the first day. That was a piece of information specifically for the Germans. The intention was to draw all of the German defences into a killing field and it worked. But most of the killing was on the German side, the British and Canadians were taking casualties at a rate of 2 to 1 (2 Allied to 1 German).

    The ones particular to suffer were the Allied Tank crews whose attrition rate reached that of the allied strategic bomber crews. It seems the Sherman and the Churchill were no match in a one to one fight with a Panther IV or a Tiger (in the latter stages the allies met Tiger II's east of Caen - Mobile pill boxes). The Germans called the Sherman - Tommy cookers. The British called them Ronsons, the cigarette lighter whose advertizement said 'Lights every time'.

    Some of the Allied commanders were accused of having Tiger fever and one stated that to engage a Tiger one needed four Shermans (preferably Fireflys) and you were expected to lose three of them. Fortunately for the Allies the Germans did not have many of these.

    The allies had many tanks and were in fact able to crew replacements (bought over and waiting near the beachheads) with bail out crews. The Germans could not replace their loses from Allied air power and the awesome Naval Gunfire support, this made the difference. One naval artillery shell landing near a Tiger would (and did many times) blow over a 60 ton Tiger.

    There were many attrocities performed by both sides and the book sometimes makes sickening reading.
     
    johnnyc176 likes this.
  2. FalkeEins

    FalkeEins Member

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    ..there were around 120 Tigers committed in Normandy. Lodieu in '45 Tigers in Normandy' which deals with s.Pz.Abt. 503 details just four Tiger losses in tank vs. tank combat and no fewer than 17 (out of the 45) abandoned/blown up following mechanical breakdown.
     
  3. roscoe

    roscoe Guest

    The presence of Tigers (and the 88) in Normandy changed the whole fighting philosophy in the Allied Tank crews. They would if they were able to use the Sherman's only advantage over the Tiger, their speed and maneuverability.

    One Canadian Sherman after losing contact with the rest of the group after some brief action during Operation Charnwood chose to carry on rather than stop and wait for the rest and be a certain target to an 88 or a Tiger. What then followed was a bizarre sequence of events. They found themselves miles behind enemy lines. They came up to a farmhouse only to find that it was full of Germans who promptly surrendered to them. This was a problem for the tank crew because their radio and their main gun had been damaged in the action. There then followed some serious poker faced bluffing on the part of the Canadians. They spent the night next to the farmhouse sleeping in the tank only to find that the number of Germans had risen to 325 overnight. The following day this one tank marched these Germans back to the Allied lines with no main gun and little MG ammunition, the Germans didn't know this.

    Another incident involving an Irish Tank crew saw the usual event of their 75mm shot bounce off of a Tiger with no effect. The Irish tank commander (it could only be the Irish) ordered full speed and rammed into the Tiger before it turned its gun around onto them, completely disabling the Tiger and capturing the crew The advantage here being that you can get out of a Sherman quicker than you can get out of a Tiger, thus deciding who captures who.

    How to deal with a Tiger? Close the range rapidly before it can get its slow moving turret onto you. Put a close range shot into the tracks.

    Result? Tinned Tiger crew.

    Yes even a Tiger needs infantry support and here they didn't have any.
     
    johnnyc176 likes this.
  4. Pelekys

    Pelekys Member

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    Just a look in the map and it is obvious that Caen was a key point. If the Allies could break the German Front and take Caen, then the way to Paris would be open and the German army would be split in 2 big parts.
    So for the Germans was very important to hold as much as they could at Caen. The German forces were strong enough, 1st SS Panzer Corps (1st and 12th Panzer Division) and a little bit to the west the Panzer 'Lehr' division together with SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101 . The British and the Canadians had very hard job to do and the Americans i think easier as the German units opposite to them were weaker than the others.
    And the personnel of the German Panzer units had the best experience and training since they spent most of their service in Eastern front. Maybe Monty realized the opportunity to engage and destroy as much as possible 1st class German units around Caen.
    As a result, the Germans hold against the British and Canadians while Americans slow-slow went forward and had local victories like in Saumon. From Saumon, Monty tried to break the German Front with the attack of the 7th British armored division (Desert Rats) to SouthEast direction in order to be behind the German units which fought at Caen. But Wittman stopped them at Villers Bocage.
     

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