Operation Goodwood

A month after the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, the Allied armies were still trying to break out of the Normandy beachhead. Operation Goodwood was conceived to shatter German defenses with a massive air bombardment prior to the ground …

1944-07-18

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A month after the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, the Allied armies were still trying to break out of the Normandy beachhead. Operation Goodwood was conceived to shatter German defenses with a massive air bombardment prior to the ground assault by Allied armored units. Tactical surprise was achieved, but just enough German forces survived the colossal aerial attack to stop the Allied tank columns barely short of their objective. The lessons learned, however, enabled the Americans to succeed with their breakout attempt in Operation Cobra about a week later.

Vimont, France

Operation Goodwood was a British offensive in the Second World War, that took place between 18 and 20 July 1944 as part of the battle for Caen in Normandy, France. The objective of the operation was a limited attack to the south, from the Orne bridgehead, to capture the rest of Caen and the Bourguébus Ridge beyond. At least one historian has called the operation the largest tank battle that the British Army has ever fought. Goodwood was preceded by Operations Greenline and Pomegranate in the Second Battle of the Odon west of Caen, to divert German attention from the area east of Caen. Goodwood began when the British VIII Corps, with three armoured divisions, attacked to seize the German-held Bourguébus Ridge, the area between Bretteville-sur-Laize and Vimont and to inflict maximum casualties on the Germans. On 18 July, the British I Corps conducted an attack to secure a series of villages to the east of VIII Corps; to the west, the II Canadian Corps launched Operation Atlantic, synchronised with Goodwood, to capture the Caen suburbs south of the Orne River. When the operation ended on 20 July, the armoured divisions had broken through the outer German defences and advanced 7 mi (11 km) but had been stopped short of Bourguébus Ridge, only armoured cars having penetrated further south and beyond the ridge.

Wikipedia: Operation Goodwood

German

British