Operation Perch was a British offensive of the Second World War. It took place from 7 to 14 June 1944, during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy. The operation was intended to encircle and seize the German occupied city of Caen. Caen was a D-Day objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division.
About Operation Perch in brief
Operation Perch was a British offensive of the Second World War. It took place from 7 to 14 June 1944, during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy. The operation was intended to encircle and seize the German occupied city of Caen. Caen was a D-Day objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division in the early phases of Operation Overlord. The battle is controversial because many historians and writers have concluded that it was failures by British divisional and corps commanders that squandered an opportunity to capture Caen, rather than the Germans achieving a defensive success. The Germans had committed their most powerful armoured reserves, which deprived them of the fighting power for a counter-offensive and forfeited the initiative to the Allies. Operation Perch was intended to create a threat of a British break-out to the south-east of Caan by XXX Corps. The 50th Infantry Division landed on Gold Beach on 6 June and was to rapidly move inland and capture Bayeux and the road to Tilly-sur-Seulles. Part of the British 7th Armoured Division was diverted to advance through the gap in a flanking manoeuvre and force the Panzer Lehr Division to fall back, to avoid encirclement. A storm in the English Channel seriously delayed the landing of supplies and reinforcements and plans were made to resume the offensive once the 7thArmoured Division had been reinforced. During the afternoon, a battalion of the 3rd Royal Marine Commando advanced westwards along the coast towards Omaha Port-Bessin-Huppin-Buppen but fell short of the German forces moving inland from Omaha Beach.
The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, which landed on Juno Beach, advanced east to the east to link up with the advancing American forces. The division cleared seven exits off the beach before dark and made contact with the 3 third Canadian Division which had landed on the east coast of the Normandy coast. It was ordered to strike into the German reserve, Kampruppe Meyer, to attack the right flank of the 50th Division of the American First Army, which was advancing northwards. The offensive was suspended on 13 June with mounting casualties and no sign of a German collapse, and plans to resume it later that day were abandoned. The capture of Caon was the most ambitious objective of I Corps. The Overlord plan called for the Second Army to secure the city and then form a front line from Caumont-l’Éventé to theSouth of Cauen, acquiring airfields and protecting the left flank of US First Army while it moved on Cherbourg. The Allies greatly outnumbered the Germans in tanks and mobile units and a battle of manoeuvre would be to their advantage. I Corps began the eastern thrust two days later from the Orne bridgehead, which had been secured in Operation Tonga onD-Day. The assault was delayed by constant counter-attacks of the 21st Panzer Division. After two days of battle including theBattle of Villers-Bocage, the 7st ArmouredDivision was orders to withdraw towards Caumon. The 7th armoured division and the 8th Armouring Brigade would then take over from the 50st Northumbrian Division and advance from Tilly Sur-seulles to Mont Pinçon.
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This page is based on the article Operation Perch published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
