Steven J. Zaloga - Allied Tanks in Normandy 1944 (New Vanguard)

This book surveys the principal tanks used by the Allied armies during the Normandy campaign, as well as tank surrogates such as the tank destroyers and assault guns. Due to space limitations, it does not cover self-propelled (SP) field artillery or light armored vehicles such as armored cars and half-tracks. For convenience sake, the term AFV (Armored Fighting Vehicle) in this book refers to the tank surrogates such as assault guns and tank d estroyers.

By D-Day+1, July 7, 1944, the Allies had a firm foothold in Normandy on five invasion beaches. The Allied ground units were subordinate to the 21st Army Group, commanded by General Bernard Montgomery. The First US Army (FUSA) under Lt Gen Omar Bradley held the two western beachheads. Further to the east were two British beaches, Gold and Sword, and between them the Canadian beach, Juno. The size of the Allied armored force at this point was modest, consisting mainly of British/Canadian armored regiments and US tank battalions that had landed on D-Day to support the infantry force. There was a steady stream of additional Allied tank units arriving daily as the beachheads expanded southward.

A Sherman V DD tank of the 10th Canadian Armoured Regiment (The Fort Garry Horse) near the Carpiquet airfield on June 8, 1944. The metal elements of the Duplex Drive skirt can still be seen on the tank, though the canvas skirt and inflatable tubes have been removed. (LAC PA-133977)

The Allies had two broad sets of operational objectives following the landings. In the British/Canadian sector to the east, the primary objective was the city of Caen, which was envisioned as the pivot point for the advance eastward towards Germany. The Overlord plan had optimistically forecast that Caen would be liberated on D-Day, but it took more than a month of hard fighting to finally secure the city. In the American sector, the short-term objective was to pivot westward to cut off the Cotentin peninsula in order to liberate the port of Cherbourg. The Overlord plan expected Cherbourg to fall by D+15, but in fact the city was not liberated until June 26 (D+20), and the entire Cotentin peninsula was declared secure on July 1. Once Cherbourg was liberated, the focus shifted to a southward push towards St L to reach open ground beyond the difficult coastal hedgero w terrain.

A Sherman II of the 4th Armoured Brigade moving forward from the landing beaches in early June 1944. The 4 Arm Bde was the major user of the Sherman II in the 2nd British Army. This is from a later production batch with the M34A1 gun mount.

In terms of armored forces, the Overlord plan put the initial emphasis on the British/Canadian sector. This was dictated both by operational objectives and the terrain. The area around Caen consisted mainly of open farmland that was well suited to large-scale mechanized maneuver. Further west towards the American sector, the terrain gradually shifted to bocage. Bocage was a French term for compartmented farm fields edged in dense hedgerows that had been created over the centuries to shield the land from the harsh coastal weather. This terrain was very well suited to defense, analogous to an upside-down trench system. The bocage terrain north of St L was complicated by extensive areas of marsh and wetlands, amplified by deliberate German flooding. The bocage country was ill-suited to armored operations beyond modest numbers of tanks for close infantr y support.

German tank strength had been concentrated on the Russian Front until May 1944, when the balance began to shift in favor of the Western Front. German tank deployments in Normandy largely mirrored the Allied dispositions. Panzer forces in the American sector in June were meager, consisting of the 17.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division and a small number of assault gun and tank training units. In the Caen sector, 21.Panzer-Division had been active since D-Day, and there was a steady flow of panzer divisions into this area through June and July. As a result, the British 2nd Army faced an exceptionally dense defensive array by mid-June 1944 around Caen. The accompanying chart here helps to explain why the British forces had such a difficult time advancing beyond Caen in the weeks after D-Day compared to some other well-known campaigns.

As a result of the terrain conditions, the character of armored warfare in Normandy was considerably different between the British/Canadian and American sectors.