Tim Saunders - Battle for the Bocage, Normandy 1944: Point 103, Tilly-sur-Seulles and Villers Bocage

Battle for the Bocage, Normandy 1944

Point 103, Tilly-sur-Seulles and Villers-Bocage

Tim Saunders

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Tim Saunders, 2021

ISBN 978-1-52678-423-0

eISBN 978-1-52678-424-7

Mobi ISBN 978-1-52678-425-4

The right of Tim Saunders to be identified as the 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. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

E-mail:

Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Writing during the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly challenging, as the normal sources of detail the war diaries and documents held by The National Archives and regimental headquarters were simply not available. I am, however, immensely grateful to the various internet forums and their members who have made their specialist knowledge and archive materials available to me. Without them and the individuals named below I would have been twiddling my thumbs!

Richard Hone, his library and encyclopaedic knowledge of weapons, vehicles and equipment has, as ever, been of the greatest assistance in answering a daily stream of questions. In short, he has been a constant source of help and advice with the text, images and captions.

Another friend and colleague, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Duff, with the commitment of a good regimental officer in lockdown, patiently scanned pages of his regiments history to ensure that I did justice to the 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment. I did not have to try too hard to achieve this, as the powerful events at Essex Wood very much speak for themselves and after almost five years of war they illustrate the enduring quality of the oft-maligned county regiments of the British army. He also provided an illuminating sketch of the traffic issues in the beachhead during mid-June 1944.

I would also like to thank fellow members of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides who have been equally as generous as ever with their help and advice. Without them and the cast above, this book could not have been written.

Tim Saunders Warminster, 2020

territory from which to develop offensive action in all directions offensive eagerness is not only necessary in the soldier; it is essential in the officer, and especially in the senior officer and commander. [Montgomerys notes for his pre-invasion briefings]

Montgomery did not like Lieutenant General Morgans COSSAC plan and set about revising and upscaling it. While he and his newly-assembled 21st Army Group staff were beginning the process, the ill-fated Anzio landing took place, of which Churchill memorably said: I had hoped that we were hurling a wildcat onto the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale. Montgomerys revised plan envisaged German panzer divisions being fixed against the British Second Army, but it was criticized for being overly defensive. Consequently, under pressure to justify his strategy and reassure political and military leaders that the Allied armies would not become another whale, ambitious objectives were inserted. Chief of these was to establish firm bases at vrecy and Villers-Bocage on D-Day, some 18 miles inland and more than 9 miles forward of the main D-Day objective. They were demonstrably offensive and were further rationalized as a measure to disrupt enemy counter-attacks against the lodgement. How seriously Montgomery took these objectives has been much debated and is a source of much criticism of his handling of the campaign. Nonetheless, for XXX Corps and the formations under its command, Villers-Bocage was an objective that above all shaped the conduct of the battle inland for two weeks after D-Day.

The first part of this book examines General Sir Miles Dempseys aims for Second Army to make rapid progress south into the interior of Normandy in the seven days following , in contrast to the effort and resources devoted to a determined effort to get south to Villers-Bocage for almost two weeks after D-Day.

Using the ebb and flow of battle in the area of Point 103, Tilly-sur-Seulles and west to la Belle pine, the conduct of operations by two veteran formations 8 Armoured Brigade and the 50th Northumbrian Infantry Division is charted. Against these are balanced the operations of the 12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division and 130th Panzer Lehr Division. This will demonstrate that the slow tempo of British operations and the arrival of these two highly-capable panzer divisions did much to thwart XXX Corps attempts to establish a position 20 miles inland, on the high ground around Villers-Bocage. This included the 7th Armoured Divisions attempt to exploit the Caumont Gap and outflank the stubborn defences around Tilly in Operation PERCH.

started to emerge towards the end of the period covered by this book. One veteran Yorkshire infantryman writing in his personal diary went so far as to write: I wish we were back in the good old desert.

A point that needs addressing at the very start of the book is the question of the presence or absence of Tigers with Panzer Lehr in the Point 103 and Tilly area. It is a seemingly intractable issue, as indicated by the quotation marks I have used when referring to Tiger Hill.

Panzer Lehr s order of battle has the 316th Funklenk Company equipped with Tigers: five King Tigers and three Tiger Is. These were conversions of early-production models for use with the Borgward remote-control demolition tanks and had more room in the turret and fewer rounds of ammunition. The King Tigers were so unreliable that they were withdrawn and Sturmgeschtz IIIs were issued in lieu, but other than British sightings there is little evidence of their presence in Normandy either. Even if the Tigers were present, just three ofthem could not, as reported, have been in so many different places at the same time! A Tiger that could have been belonged to the 316th Funklenk Company was found abandoned near Amiens, a considerable distance to the east.

It is worth noting that German practice was for vehicles and equipment to be taken on strength of a division when it was issued to them from the factory and is consequently shown in returns, whether or not in this case the Tigers were actually fighting in Normandy.