Page 40 - History of War - Issue 05-14

BLOODBATH IN THE BOCAGE

Sherman tanks advance
through the difficult and
dangerous terrain of the bocage

On 30 June, Montgomery gathered
his commanders at his new HQ above
the village of Bray near the Cerisy
to be faced with a series of charges The initial Allied piecemeal as they reached the Odon. Forest (a highly publicised visit by
relating to his conduct in Normandy. In advance was slower By 29 June, Montgomery’s resident King George VI had compromised
fact, the situation was far less serious than anticipated, and Ultra-reading intelligence officer, J Ewart, the location of his original HQ),
the inhabitants of some
than Dollmann had imagined. The towns and villages had had received Ultra intercepts that and announced that, although the
Hussars on Hill 112 had been reinforced an agonising wait for showed VIII Corps in an increasingly envelopment of Caen had not been
by other elements of 29th Armoured their liberators. When precarious position. The 15th and carried out, Operation Epsom had
Brigade – one of the components of they arrived, they were 43rd Infantry Divisions, and the 11th nevertheless been successful. Critics,
greeted ecstatically
11th Armoured Division – but the bulk Armoured Division, occupied a corridor who now included much of the US high
of British forces were still north of nearly six miles long and two miles wide, command, doubted this assessment
the Odon. Too many tanks, trucks and extending north from Hill 112. Ultra of Epsom. It was anything but the
men had been pushed south along revealed that the 2nd, 9th and 10th SS “blitz attack” that Monty had called for.
too narrow a front. A heavy traffic Panzer Divisions, and Panzer Lehr, were Instead, it had been an attritional slog
jam had developed in the streets of advancing from the west, while 1st and in which 15th Scottish Division alone
Cheux, stretching back to the start line. 12th SS Panzer Divisions, along with the had suffered 2,331 casualties, and
Because the 49th Division had been battered but still capable 21st Panzer during which heaps of bodies had
unable to advance, the western flank Division, were advancing from the east. created dams in the gorge of the Odon.
of the jam was open, while groups of But the Germans had suffered more.
Hitlerjugend crawled through the wheat Serious doubts Epsom had sucked in the divisions that
fields by Cheux, sniping at the columns For Montgomery and Dempsey, the Hitler had allocated to the great German
and thereby adding to the confusion. situation now seemed very serious. counter-offensive. The coordinated
In the early hours of 29 June, There was already heavy fighting seven-division attack scheduled for
Dollmann’s successor, Paul Hausser, on Hill 112, where 29th Armoured 1 July was the only hope the Germans
who had commanded the formidable Brigade had been forced to pull back had of splitting and then crushing the
1 SS Panzer Corps on the Eastern Front, from the southern slopes of the hill. beachhead. Operation Epsom disrupted
was beginning to restore the situation. More seriously, a German battle group and defeated the Germans’ only real
Hausser ordered the Panzer divisions had broken into Cheux, a move that chance of an outright Normandy victory.
that had been assembling for the Bayeux A paratrooper from seemed to presage the cutting off of But this was not readily apparent to the
offensive to head for Cheux. However, the 101st fills jerry what was now called the “Scottish Anglo-American political leadership, who
this was hardly a well-coordinated or cans on a captured Corridor”. But unknown to the British now began to entertain serious doubts
German Sd Kfz2
rapid offensive action, for Hausser was Kleine Kettenkraftrad high command, this was the Germans’ about Montgomery’s ability as a General.
forced to feed the divisions in in Carentan high-water mark. British artillery and air The first week of July saw both the
power had exacted a fearful toll on the British and German high commands in
counter-attacks, and Hausser was close crisis. On 2 July, von Rundstedt called
to admitting defeat. At that moment, Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of OKW, with the
believing that Ultra was providing an news that the counter-offensive was over.
accurate picture of German capability, When Keitel asked, “What shall we do?”,
Dempsey ordered 29th Brigade to von Rundstedt exploded, “Make peace,
abandon Hill 112 and pull back north you fools!” The stiff-necked old Prussian,
of the Odon. During the next 48 hours, now in his 69th year, was not afraid to
German divisions were hit by massed speak the truth. Three years earlier, he
artillery fire, and broadsides from had advised Hitler to abandon Operation
battleships and cruisers, while heavy Barbarossa, and had been dismissed
bombers rained down high explosives. for his outspokenness. On 3 July 1944,
The bombers were not particularly the Führer again relieved von Rundstedt
discriminating. In an effort to block the of his command, replacing him with
advance of the 9th SS Panzer Division Gunther von Kluge, who was given
up RN 175, Lancasters reduced the town instructions to hold the existing line,
of Villers-Bocage to a heap of rubble. no matter what the cost. Von Kluge was
It was a portent of things to come. a pliable “yes man” who had achieved
40 HISTORY WAR
of