Page 36 - History of War - Issue 05-14

BLOODBATH IN THE BOCAGE

the regimental Sergeant Major. Reaching
the town square, Wittmann was hit by a
storm of British anti-tank fire, and pulled
back, destroying yet another British
tank in the process. After re-arming
and re-fuelling, and joining up with four
other Tigers and an up-gunned Mark VI,
he returned to Point 213 to complete
the massacre of the County of London
Yeomanry. Then, reinforced by some
tanks from 2nd Panzer Division, he
again attacked into Villers-Bocage. This
time, the British were ready and the
Mark IV and three Tigers – including Above: Tiger tanks of just off the beach. The result
Wittmann’s – were knocked out by Michael Wittmann’s was spectacular, as 26,000
unit, the schwere
a combination of six- and 17-pounder SS-Panzer Abteilung litres of fuel and 400 tons
anti-tank guns, though Wittmann and 101, move up to the of ammunition exploded.
most of the crews escaped on foot. front near the village
With 2nd Panzer Division arriving of Morgny. Right: Mass of wreckage
in strength during the evening and a British Cromwell Logistics planners had known
tank, seen after a fatal
throughout the following day, Bucknall encounter with a Tiger that landing men and supplies it had risen to gale force, turning the Bay
ordered 7th Division to abandon Villers- on open beaches would be a dangerous of the Seine into a seething cauldron.
Bocage and withdraw under cover of business, and would not produce the Commanding a convoy of tugs towing 22
a heavy US artillery barrage during the military muscle needed to secure the caissons in mid-Channel was Maxwell
night/early morning of 14/15 June. beachhead, let alone allow a break-out. Taylor. Never before in a long career at
In total, for the loss of four tanks, the The success of the Normandy landings sea had he experienced a storm of such
Germans had destroyed 53 British depended on getting the Mulberry unexpected violence: “It arrived from
tanks and other vehicles. The debacle harbours into position as quickly as nowhere, whispering across the water
of Villers-Bocage effectively ended possible. The first of the 600 caissons at first, and finally rising to a triumphant
Montgomery’s first attempt to break out and blockships was deposited off shout of malignancy calling from the
to the west of Caen. It also demoralised The manmade Mulberry Arromanches in the British sector, seas an answering mood. It caught
7th Armoured Division and spread alarm harbours were vital and off Omaha in the US sector, on the unseaworthy tows unprotected and
throughout the Allied armies. to the Allied war 7 June. Eleven days later, the American struck them spitefully until, of the 22
effort, although their
But although Villers-Bocage was a efficacy was severely harbour received its first cargo and whale tows that sailed from the Solent
victory for the Germans, it was only of dented following the by 18 June, 24,412 tons of supplies in fine weather, not one remained afloat.”
tactical importance because this action, Great Storm, which and ammunition had rolled ashore. The full force of the gale hit Omaha
and all the interdiction operations of destroyed one and left Around midnight on 18 June, the wind beach. Taylor continued: “Breaches
the other requiring
the Allied air forces and the French major repair work shifted to the north-east, and by dawn appeared in the breakwater. Blockships
Resistance, had bought several vital days broke their backs and Phoenix caissons
in which to establish the beachhead. disintegrated. Through the breaks, the
In the months preceding the landing, storm struck at the roadways and the
literally millions of man-hours had been piers so that soon they were sinking.
devoted to working out complex landing Then, onto the half-submerged roadways,
procedures for men and materiel. drifting landing craft and equipment
These plans did not survive the first piled themselves, till a jumbled mass of
few minutes on the Normandy beaches: wreckage was torn from the moorings
all was chaos. Logistics troops on the and cast upon the beaches. Along
beaches formed ad hoc teams and the edge of the sea, a long length of
kept the materiel moving to improvised whole roadway and wrecked craft trailed
depots. By the end of the first day, brokenly. The destruction was complete.”
8,900 vehicles and 1,900 tons of Opposite one of the Omaha exits,
stores had been landed on the British an engineer officer recorded 35 LCMs,
forces’ beaches alone. The work was 11 LCTs, nine Rhino ferries, three LCIs
complicated by German batteries at Le and more than 20 other craft piled up.
Havre, which kept pumping shells onto Mulberry B, at first sight, seemed in
Sword Beach. However, the biggest blow no better condition. Taylor recalled
came not from German gunners but from that along the beach at Arromanches
RAF Bomber Command – on 7 June, “littered wreckage was piled high,
a Lancaster bomb-aimer misjudged his casting itself near the high-water mark
target and dropped a stick of bombs in a chaotic tangle of steel”. But,
onto the main British ordnance depot despite appearances to the contrary,
Mulberry B proved salvable, the full
impact of the storm having been broken
1944 TIMELINE

6 JUNE 9 JUNE 9 JUNE 11 JUNE 13 JUNE 14 JUNE 17 JUNE
More than 150,000 Bernard Montgomery Having lost up to 200 7th Armoured Division The 7th Armoured’s Montgomery abandons Adolf Hitler visits
Allied troops land meets with Miles vehicles in air attacks moves into Tilly-sur- advance into Villers- the idea of a pincer France, where he is
on the shores of Dempsey and Omar during its 90-mile drive Seulles. However, the Bocage is thwarted attack on Caen. informed by Erwin
Normandy, with Bradley to thrash out from Chartres, the Panzer Lehr counter- by German tank ace Meanwhile, the town of Rommel and Gerd
the intention of a plan to take the powerful Panzer Lehr attacks, forcing a Michael Wittmann’s Carentan is liberated von Rundstedt that
liberating France from city of Caen. The men division of the German withdrawal. Further Heavy Panzer Battalion by Allied troops. the Allied forces
German occupation. agree on a pincer Army finally arrives assaults on the town 101. Fifty-three of cannot be driven
movement, codenamed in the Tilly-sur-Seulles by 50th Northumbrian its armoured vehicles out of the country.
Operation Wild Oats. area to defend get bogged down are destroyed.
against XXX Corps. in the bocage.
36 HISTORY WAR
of