Operation Epsom - Background

Background

The historic Normandy town of Caen was a D-Day objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division that landed on Sword Beach on 6 June 1944. The capture of Caen, while "ambitious", has been described by historian L F Ellis as the most important D-Day objective assigned to Lieutenant-General Crocker's I Corps. Operation Overlord called for Second Army to secure the city and then form a front line from Caumont-l'Éventé to the south-east of Caen, in order to acquire airfields and protect the left flank of the United States First Army while it moved on Cherbourg. Possession of Caen and its surroundings would give Second Army a suitable staging area for a push south to capture Falaise, which could be used as the pivot for a swing left to advance on Argentan and then towards the Touques River.

Hampered by congestion in the beachhead that delayed the deployment of its armoured support and forced to divert effort to attacking strongly held German positions along the 9.3-mile (15.0 km) route to the town, the 3rd Division was unable to assault Caen in force on D-Day and was stopped short of its outskirts by the 21st Panzer Division. Immediate follow-up attacks were unsuccessful as German resistance solidified. Abandoning the direct approach, Operation Perch—a pincer attack by I and XXX Corps—was launched on 7 June with the intention of encircling Caen from the east and west. I Corps, striking south out of the Orne bridgehead, was halted by the 21st Panzer Division and the attack by XXX Corps bogged west of Caen in front of Tilly-sur-Seulles in the face of stiff opposition from the Panzer-Lehr-Division. In an effort to force Panzer Lehr to withdraw or surrender and to keep operations fluid, part the 7th Armoured Division pushed through a recently created gap in the German front line and attempted to capture the town of Villers-Bocage. The resulting day-long battle saw the vanguard of the 7th Armoured Division withdraw from the town, but by 17 June Panzer Lehr had also been forced back and XXX Corps had taken Tilly-sur-Seulles.

Although planned, a repeated attack from the 7th Armoured Division never materialised and further offensive operations were abandoned when, on 19 June, a severe storm descended upon the English Channel. The storm, which lasted for three days, significantly delayed the Allied build-up. Most of the convoys of landing craft and ships already at sea were driven back to ports in Britain; towed barges and other loads (including 2.5 mi/4.0 km of floating roadways for the Mulberry harbours) were lost; and 800 craft were left stranded on the Normandy beaches until the next spring tides in July. Despite this setback planning began for a second offensive codenamed Operation Dreadnought, to be launched out of the Orne bridgehead by VIII Corps, outflanking Caen from the east. Dreadnought was cancelled following objections from VIII Corps commanding officer Sir Richard O'Connor and instead planning for an attack towards Évrecy was considered. This too was abandoned; there is some controversy over whether Montgomery or Miles Dempsey, commanding officer of the Second Army, vetoed the idea. Dempsey, in a post-war interview with Chester Wilmot, said that he told Montgomery that he was going to cancel the proposed operation on 18 June.

The weather from 19–22 June grounded Allied aircraft and the Germans took advantage of the respite from air attacks to improve their defensive lines, strengthening infantry positions with minefields and posting approximately seventy 88 mm guns in hedgerows and woods covering the approaches to Caen.