Battle for Caen

Battle for Caen
Part of Operation Overlord
Battle for Caen
Date 6 June – 6 August 1944 Location Normandy, France 49°11′10″N 0°21′45″W / 49.18611°N 0.36250°W / 49.18611; -0.36250 Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Canada	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Bernard Montgomery Miles Dempsey Guy Simonds	Gerd von Rundstedt Erwin Rommel Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg Heinrich Eberbach
Units involved
21st Army Group Second Army First Canadian Army	Panzer Group West
Strength
4 armoured divisions 10 infantry divisions 1 airborne division 5 armoured brigades 3 tank brigades 2 commando brigades	7 infantry divisions 8 panzer divisions 3 heavy tank battalions 1 heavy panzerjäger battalion 2 sturmgeschütz brigades 3 nebelwerfer brigades
Casualties and losses
47,872 Allied casualties 450 tanks (253 destroyed)	14,000 German casualties 110 tanks

The Battle for Caen (June to August 1944) was a military engagement between the British Second Army and the German Panzergruppe West in the Second World War for control of the city of Caen and its vicinity during the Battle of Normandy. Caen is about 9 mi (14 km) inland from the Calvados coast astride the Orne River and Caen Canal, at the junction of several roads and railways. The communication links made it an important operational objective for both sides. Caen and the area to its south are flatter and more open when compared to the bocage country of western Normandy, and Allied air force commanders wanted the area captured quickly in order to construct airfields to base more aircraft in France proper.

The British 3rd Infantry Division was to seize Caen on D-Day or alternatively, dig in short of the city. Caen, Bayeux and Carentan were not captured on D-Day, and the Allies concentrated on linking the beachheads. British and Canadian forces captured the area of Caen north of the Orne during Operation Charnwood (8–9 July), while the suburbs south of the river were captured by the II Canadian Corps during Operation Atlantic (18–20 July). The fighting was mutually costly, and greatly deprived the Germans of the means to reinforce the western part of the invasion front.

In the west, the First US Army captured Cherbourg and took Saint-Lô, about 37 mi (60 km) west of Caen, on 19 July. On 25 July the First Army began Operation Cobra, co-ordinated with the Canadian Operation Spring at Verrières (Bourguébus) ridge, south of Caen. Much of Caen had been destroyed, particularly from Allied bombing; many French civilians were killed. After the battle, little of the pre-war city remained and reconstruction lasted until 1962.