Operation Charnwood
▶ Explore on the mapOperation Charnwood was the British and Canadian attempt to take Caen by direct assault on 7–9 July 1944. After a heavy preliminary bombardment by RAF Bomber Command, which damaged much of the city and caused civilian casualties, I Corps attacked north of Caen behind a rolling barrage. The German defences held the northern outskirts for a day, but the attackers reached the Orne by 9 July and the Germans withdrew from the left bank, leaving the city's northern half in Allied hands. The operation is often described as a partial success: Caen was finally entered, but the Germans retained the southern bank and the vital high ground beyond, and the city itself had been reduced to ruins. The bombing also destroyed the ancient university and much of the historic centre, a cost that has remained controversial. The point recorded here is an approximate location for the battle area. Charnwood was the first time the Allies held any part of Caen, and it demonstrated both the strength of the German defence in depth and the difficulty of fighting through a built-up area that had been reduced to rubble.
Sources
- Wikimedia Commons — Charnwood (SVG, by EyeSerene)
- Wikimedia Commons — Operations Greenwood and Pomegranate, Normandy, July 1944 (EN.svg)
- Wikimedia Commons — Operation Tractable (SVG, by EyeSerene)
- Wikipedia — 352nd Infantry Division (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Falaise pocket (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Normandy landings (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikipedia — Operation Overlord (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Related
Reuse this data: open dataset (GeoJSON / CSV, CC BY 4.0)