Bernage - Battle of the Odon

Battle of the Odon

GEORGES BERNAGE

Translated by Heather Williams

First published by Editions Heimdal in 2008 as La Bataille de lOdon

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

Pen & Sword Military

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Georges Bernage, 2017

ISBN 978 1 47385 761 2

eISBN 978 1 47385 860 2

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47385 859 6

The right of Georges Bernage to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

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The Battle of Normandy is one of the most famous campaigns in the Second World War, with the infamous D-Day landings, popularised by such films as The Longest Day , perhaps the most vivid in the general publics mind. While certainly not an historical document, the film has certainly made the events of this decisive day familiar to many. As well as 6 June 1944, there also exists a collective memory regarding the dramatic events surrounding the Falaise Pocket. However, the fighting that took place between 6 June and the end of the campaign was so difficult and intense, that at one point the American command believed the Allies would never escape from the bocage [farmland criss-crossed by dense hedgerows, trees and sunken roads, which is typically associated with the Normandy landscape]. Operation Epsom is emblematic of those first weeks, when the belief was that anything was possible and that victory could still be achieved swiftly.

In the days following the invasion, the Allies were in a race: their aim being to bring in more men and equipment than the Germans could supply reinforcements, not to mention the fact that the enemy were hampered by the incessant harassment of the allied invasion. The Americans quickly seized the Cotentin Peninsula, which constituted a large bridge-head, although at the same time, the British Second Army did not meet with similar success. By the evening of 6 June it had been halted in front of its primary objective, the city of Caen, and it would be another month before the city was finally taken. However, it is true that the US First Army had mainly come up against static infantry divisions, which were often of inferior quality, while in the British sector, two panzer divisions began to counter attack on 7 June: the 21. Panzer-Division and in particular the 12. SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend , were elite fighting units that would soon demonstrate their outstanding military capabilities.

These two panzer divisions were quickly joined by another elite division, the Panzer-Lehr-Division, as well as the 2. Panzer-Division, which would arrive in the American sector. They were followed by a battalion of Tiger tanks, the s.SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101, which accidentally ended up blocking the British offensive at Villers-Bocage on 13 June. Montgomery was determined to re-launch the failed offensive and resolved to reach and then cross the Orne river and take Caen from the south. Decoded German messages revealed that reinforcements were due to arrive, including the II. SS-Panzerkorps, meaning that the Allies had to act quickly, and so Operation Epsom was born.

Three infantry divisions, an armoured division and two armoured brigades were sent to the left flank of the Hitlerjugend Division. The balance of power appeared to be crushingly in favour of the British and a swift victory seemed at hand. However, the soldiers of the Hiterjugend fought with an astonishing determination and the British soon fell behind: clearly, lessons from the earlier Blitzkrieg had not been learned. The offensive had been led by infantrymen carrying bayonets and guns, supported by tanks, just as they had been in 1918. General Roberts armoured division had to wait a day and a half before it was able to join in, which allowed the Germans to fall back to Hill 112 and halt the offensive, as well as allowing reinforcements to arrive. It was no longer simply an army corps (which involved around 80,000 men or even 100,000 if you include the 49th Division) against a German regiment, and now that the enemy had aligned its forces, the battle turned into a stalemate. Most of the units would fall back, in part, but Hill 112 would remain fiercely disputed until the end of the Battle of Normandy, after the Germans finally decided to withdraw.

Although the offensive was clearly a failure, it was later presented as being merely a feint: Montgomery had allegedly set a trap for the Germans whereby their panzers were drawn to the area around Caen, thus allowing the Americans an easier advance towards the west of Saint-L. Although this was undeniably a lie, it was true that General Montgomery was a proud man and it was this constant desire to beat his American allies in Europe that led to other failures. The first of these was the offensive at Villers-Bocage on 13 June, followed by Operation Epsom. Caen would eventually fall on 7 July, but only after considerable help from the Canadians. Operation Goodwood was another of Montgomerys failures, resulting in the loss of half of his tanks without any successful breakthrough, later followed by Operation Market Garden on 17 September, which ended in a humiliating retreat.

With Operation Epsom, Montgomery wanted a quick victory that involved crossing the Orne and capturing Caen. However, on 29 June his disappointment must have been as great as that of General OConnor [who was tasked with leading Operation Epsom] when he was forced to stop the offensive. The operation was not expected to fail, even though the terrain was unfavourable and the road network leading from north to south was inadequate (the main axis led from east to west), but progress had remained too slow, especially in such a narrow perimeter.

The area is now haunted by history and the local names resonate in French minds like the names of other famous battles in history: Fontenay, Tessel, Rauray, Saint-Manvieu, Cheux, Le Haut du Bosq, Brettevillette, Grainville, Colleville, Tourville, Mouen, Mondrainville, Tourmauville, Gavrus, Baron, Esquay and, of course, Hill 112. The terrain can be traversed easily and the distances between the various locations are short. I have visited the area often over the last thirty years, along with veterans who have shown me the places where they fought. What is striking is the density of the areas where action took place: something seemed to have happened every hundred metres, which the following pages will demonstrate. Once you have read this book, you can visit these places where history took place, and they will never leave you. At each junction, each hedge corner, you will discover the actors of this story, never forgetting, of course, that civilians also often found themselves caught up in the battle. Indeed, their losses were equal to those in the military: 20,000 civilians in Normandy lost their lives, which although a little less than those of the American soldiers, is certainly more than those in the British Army. The reconstructed houses serve as a reminder of the extent of the destruction. The village of Cheux, for example, was at the heart of the battle and fifteen of its inhabitants lost their lives.