Carpiquet And Caen, Normandy Options

[ham and jam]

The Allies now profited from the disorganized state of the German high command. Hitler continued to believe that the Normandy landings were a diversion and that the major Allied thrust would still fall on the Pas de Calais. Rommel consequently found it impossible to pry away precious reserve forces located there to buttress his rapidly thinning defences in Normandy.

Even so, the Nazis proved resourceful, stubborn, and deadly. The Allies had carved out a foothold on the French mainland but had yet to achieve a decisive breakthrough. The plan devised by the commander of all Allied land forces on the continent, British General Bernard Montgomery, envisaged the Canadians and British principally tying down the main German armour and infantry units in the east by threatening and then taking the strategic city of Caen. This constant pressure aimed to free the Americans to break out from their positions. It also meant that the Canadians continued to confront the cream of the enemy's troops.

Once returned to the front in early July, the 3rd Canadian Division's role in this scheme was to capture the airport at Carpiquet, a small town outside of Caen. Defended by the fearsome 12th SS, the Canadians knew only too well what awaited them. General Keller's staff decided to muster as much firepower as possible for the attack: four battalions of infantry backed up by an armoured regiment and every available piece of artillery.

All this would not be enough on that July 4th. The Canadians had barely started their advance through the chest-high wheat fields when the Germans began to lob shell after shell on top of them. Soon, one padre recalled, "everywhere you could see the pale upturned faces of the dead." The survivors of The North Shore Regiment and Le Régiment de la Chaudière occupied Carpiquet village after merciless fighting at close quarters. "Carpiquet has become a true inferno", the Chaudières' war diary observed.

The Royal Winnipeg Rifles were also ravaged. As they crossed open runways to attack the airport, continuous fire from enemy bunkers and pill-boxes raked their lines. The Winnipegs pressed forward twice, only to be ordered to withdraw that night. During the night, the Germans rained mortar and artillery fire onto the Canadian positions, and mounted several violent counter-attacks against them. Some of the Chaudières were trapped and taken prisoner. Yet, the rest of the Canadians held their hard-earned ground.

The price of this partial victory had once more been high. The Winnipegs had 40 fatalities out of a total of 132 casualties; the North Shores reported 46 killed and 86 wounded. Carpiquet is still remembered as the graveyard of the North Shores because these were the heaviest losses it suffered during the entire campaign. "I am sure that at some time during the attack every man felt he could not go on", one of the North Shores recalled. "Men were being killed or wounded on all sides and the advance seemed pointless as well as hopeless. I never realized ... how far discipline, pride of unit, and above all, pride in oneself and family, can carry a man even when each step forward meant possible death." It had been another hard lesson for Canadian soldiers who were quickly becoming accustomed to such horrors.

And the biggest prize, Caen, remained firmly in Nazi possession. The city had to be captured if Montgomery's strategy was to succeed. The final Anglo-Canadian attack was scheduled to begin late in the evening of July 7 with a mammoth air bombardment designed to crush the German defences. The spectacular sight of hundreds of bombers dropping thousands of tons of explosives on the enemy raised the spirits of Canadian assault troops. As they moved to their startline the next morning, many felt that their task was already half done.

They were wrong. The Germans had been shaken by the weight of the onslaught but hardly erased as an effective fighting force. Most of them were well dug-in on the outskirts of Caen in areas which had not been targeted. Tragically, innocent French civilians made up the majority of the dead and wounded. In fact, the bombardment backfired since the tangled ruins it produced only enhanced the enemy's defensive capabilities.

In an agonizing process the Canadians found all of this out for themselves. In revisiting the sites of recent disasters, they ran headlong into their old nemesis, the 12th SS. Thrown into action for the first time, The Highland Light Infantry of Canada received a cruel initiation at Buron. The fighting raged all day and one observer noted that "night fell on a quiet, smoking village which had witnessed one of the fiercest battles ever fought in the history of war." The regiment had lost more than 250 men and its commanding officer. But The North Nova Scotia Highlanders managed to take Authie, and the 9th Brigade captured an SS headquarters after a harsh struggle that continued well after dark, the flames and explosions illuminating the night sky.

The following day, July 9, the Canadians carefully cleared Caen of its snipers, mines, and booby traps. Among the mounds of debris, that too would be a baneful affair. Altogether, more Canadians were killed and wounded liberating the city than on D-Day itself. It had taken a month longer than planned but, thanks in large part to the persistent efforts of the 3rd Canadian Division, Caen was at last in Allied hands. Most of the Germans, however, had escaped to safety over the Orne River. The Canadians had not yet seen the last of them.


By veterans affairs Canada

[appell8]

On the Band of Brothers tour, the second stick flew from Bournemouth to Caen. Upon landing, I saw a sign reading "Carpiquet."

Much resonance. I knew of the intensity of the fighting for Carpiquet. I had not known that it remained an operational airport.

One additional jolt of meaning in a trip that had many of them. y.o.s., Doug

[ham and jam]

I remember you mentioning about this in a previous post Doug, its funny the sensations you get and feelings towards places where you know of what has happened in the past. It must of been like that all the time on the BOB tour. Before I went to Normandy I read a book on Hill 112, and its strange when I did visit, stopping on top of that hill and trying to think back all those years to what it must of been like.

Andy

[Bruno]

Much resonance.  I knew of the intensity of the fighting for Carpiquet.  I had not known that it remained an operational airport. 

Yes, Carpiquet is always active. It's ther first place where I flew a helicopter !
Carpiquet is always a very important regional airport, and all around are Commonwealth Cemetery. But I stop here because there are too much historical village and WWII places around Carpiquet (For the story, in Carpiquet is French Military School and National Center For Biological and Nuclear War)