An Unpleasant Sunday

51st Highland and 7th Armoured Divisions are sent in to attack around Caen, from the north-east and south-west respectively. 12^th Battalion Parachute Regiment finally take the village of Bréville, near Pegasus Bridge, at huge cost.  7^th Armoured attempt to secure Tilly-sur-Seules without success.   

50^th Division’s 69^th Brigade (the Green Howards) seize Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite, a village west of Loucelles, but their attack towards the village of Cristot (north-west of Tilly and St Pierre) is delayed after the 47^th Dragoon Guards reconnaissance reports little resistance.  Panzer Lehr hold the villages of Chouain, Audrieu and Brouay and 12^th SS Panzer move in to the apparent gap. The Green Howards are forced to withdraw with 250 casualties.  “By nightfall the Germans were counter-attacking towards the British start line on Hill 103” (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

Brigadier Cracroft’s account of the events of 11^th June ends: “Altogether an eventful and unpleasant Sunday” (from ‘The 8^th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7^th – 12^th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)

See Map of the front line 11th June 1944.

Eric Brewer’s diary records “Left 103, made patrols in village. Came across machine gun post and wiped it out, then found dead Gerrys - one had a good ring on him so Lacy went and took it off and was immediately opened up on by snipers but luckily he was missed.” (Extract included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

Around this time Don Aiken recalls a less serious event:

“One event still comes back to me. We were ‘harbouring’ in a large field which belonged to a typical large chateau. Our armoured cars had occupied dug-out emplacements which had previously been occupied by German tanks. Most of the cattle in the pasture had been killed and the accustomed stench of dead animals pervaded the air. Adjoining the field was a large wooded area in which was positioned a heavy artillery battery which had been engaged in shelling enemy positions for a considerable time.

Suddenly I heard the rumbling drone of a German heavy bomber which was seeking out the artillery position and immediately dropped a bomb very close to our vicinity. Taking cover, along with my companion, I dived under the armoured car and waited there until the bomber had dropped all its bombs and the sound of its engine died away in the distance.
As we crawled out from under our cover I felt a trickle running down my knee. Clutching at my ominously sticky pants I said to the other Trooper; “I think I’ve been hit!”. We both closely investigated the area of the ‘wound’ until - the smell hit us — I had dived into a cow-pat.”     (Republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)