Normandy: Hill 112

The Battle of the Odon

Tim Saunders

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783379323
• Print ISBN:
  9780850527377
• Subtopic: Travel

This WWII military history and battlefield guide examines a pivotal conflict of the Battle of Normandy—including detailed maps and illustrations.
Over a month after the D-Day landings, the Allies were still confined to the Normandy peninsula. The German line was anchored by the medieval town of Caen, which the British were supposed to have occupied on D-Day. The key to capturing Caen was Hill 112, known to the Germans as Kalverienberg, or "Mount Calvary".
Under pressure from Churchill, Montgomery launched a major offensive. Unfortunately, German reinforcements began arriving in the Caen area. The British now faced four SS divisions and the Tigers of the 502nd SS Heavy Panzer Regiment. An all-out Allied effort, including heavy bombers and naval bombardment, was required to secure the final victory.
This volume details all the action around Hill 112, with numerous illustrations and maps complementing the lively text.

CHAPTER ONE

OPERATION EPSOM

Taurus over the Odon

Most of the area covered by Operation EPSOM is not within the geographical scope of this book. However, the ‘high water mark’ of the offensive reached Hill 112. This chapter gives sufficient background to allow the visitor to Hill 112 to understand the context of the battle and describes, in greater detail, 11th Armoured Division’s capture and defence of the feature during the latter stages of EPSOM.

Operation EPSOM was Montgomery’s third attempt to take Caen, which had been the 3rd Division’s D-Day objective some twenty days earlier. On this occasion his aim was to envelop the city from the west and to threaten to break out onto the more open ground south of the city. This would have secured the city’s important road and rail junctions and put the Allies onto the shortest route to Berlin. The Germans were bound to react to this attack and, in anticipation, they had been forced to keep the bulk of their panzer divisions facing the British Second Army. With the German armour effectively tied down around Caen the Americans could expand the Allied lodgement and subsequently breakout in the west more easily. Following a preliminary attack by 49th West Riding Division on Rauray, Lieutenant General O’Connor’s VIII Corps was to advance rapidly on a narrow front with 15th Scottish Division, to the River Odon. The seizure of the Odon bridges was to be the cue for 11th Armoured Division to dash for the River Orne crossings and the open tank country beyond.

Bernard Law Montgomery

Beginning on 25 June 1944, EPSOM was slow going for both the 49th West Riding and 15th Scottish Divisions. The salient or ‘Scottish Corridor’ that they created, was too narrow and with too many troops fighting off a single road. Consequently, VIII Corps was unable to develop momentum against the ‘loathsome’ but determined soldiers of 12th Hitler Jugend SS Panzer Division. To make matters worse, 49th Division’s advance onto the Rauray spur was checked by the young SS soldiers, making the already exposed ‘Scottish Corridor’ even more vulnerable to counter attack. The British armoured regiments suffered heavy tank losses, as they advanced into the depth of the Hitler Youth positions. On foot, the infantry’s casualties mounted under a relentless fire from well-concealed Spandaus and from the dreaded Nebelwerfers. The advance effectively became bogged down on the Caen – Villers Bocage road.

Two teenage SS panzer grenadiers belonging to the 12th SS Hitler Jugend Panzer Division.

A contemporary artist’s impression of the seizure of the Tourmauville Bridge. The width of the River Odon is exaggerated.

On 27 June 1944, at 1800 hours, 2/Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders of 227 Brigade seized the small but vital Tourmauville bridge over the River Odon. Amid the fog of war they had abandoned direct attacks and succeeded in slipping through a gap in the Hitler Jugend’s ad hoc defences by commendable guile. Reaching the narrow stone bridge at the bottom of the narrow, steep sided Odon Valley they dug in and held on until reinforced. The tenuous toehold of 15th Scottish Division’s principal objective, boldly but belatedly, completed EPSOM’s first phase.

11th Armoured Division advances to Hill 112

Half an hour after the Argyles reached the Tourmauville Bridge, the leading Shermans of C Squadron, 23/Hussars, led by Lieutenant Pratt, ‘with great dash’ reached the bridge, much to the relief of the Scots. Crossing the bridge, as described in their regimental history, the tanks:

The Tourmauville Bridge taken by men of the 2/Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, 27 June 1944.

‘… ground along in low gear up a steep and twisting track through wooded and difficult country until they came out just south of the village of Tourmauville [south of the Odon], where, for the first time, they were able to fan out on ground that gave a good field of fire. Commanders and gunners strained their dust filled eyes. Were some of those bushes camouflaged tanks? One German experienced what was probably the greatest shock of his life. He appeared in a small civilian car from the direction of Esquay. Lance Corporal Evans put an armour piercing shot through the car at a range of twenty yards. Surprisingly the driver managed to get out and, though pursued by Corporal Hoggins with a Sten gun, he got away and was last seen going very fast in the direction of Esquay. This was followed almost at once by a short engagement with some guns and infantry in the area of Garvus.’

Shermans of the 23rd Hussars heading towards the River Odon with a Honey light tank in the vanguard.

Caen to Tourville road and the start line for 139 Brigade’s advance to the River Odon to establish a bridgehead.

By 19.00 hours, both of the depleted B and C Squadrons were across the bridge, supported by Major Mackenzie’s H Company, 8/Rifle Brigade (8/RB) who, in their half-tracks, had accompanied the tanks.

Following up, and trying to fight their way through the traffic jam of 15th Scottish Division’s supply convoys and knocked out vehicles, were 11th Armoured Division’s infantry brigade. At 20.00 hours, accurate information was scarce. Had we taken the bridge? Where were the enemy? No one knew anything for sure, except that 159 Brigade was to cross the Odon by dark. The commander of 159 Brigade gave what his battalion commanders considered an unreasonable H hour for the advance, but the force of his personality prevailed. After one of those confrontations, unique to battle, the tired, concerned and fearful commanding officers were ordered to be in position by 21.30 hours! ‘An order is an order! Carry it out or take the consequences! Into battle!’

Men of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers advance under cover of a smoke screen at the outset of Operation Epsom.

In the gathering darkness, after a chaotic advance, the leading battalions, 1/Herefords on the right and the 4/King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) on the left, both managed to cross the Odon. 3/Monmouths (Mons) occupied defences on the north bank as brigade reserve. Major Ned Thornburn’s description of 4/KSLI’s advance to the Odon graphically portrays the type of problems the brigade encountered:

‘We set out along this forest avenue at full light infantry pace, interspersed with stretches at the double. I ran from one platoon commander to the next explaining what the plan for the attack was. Mine was the second or third company in the order of march, so at least I didn’t have the responsibility of trying to achieve the impossible task of reaching the main [Caen – Villers Bocage] road. I think we assumed that the enemy would be too alarmed by our numbers to show themselves (how naïve one can be!). By 21.15 I knew we had missed the artillery barrage… I got my two leading platoons lying down along the edge of the forest… I gave the word to commence the attack and we crossed the road. ‘Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted’, the book says, but of course no one had done any reconnaissance on this start line and when we attempted to charge forward we found the thickest thorn hedge any of us had ever seen in our lives – utterly and completely unappeasable. I ran along the road for 100 yards or so until I found a gate, and we all walked through it very politely! Little did I think that D Company would deliver its first attack in single file with the company commander leading and reading his map! …we walked safely straight down to the river where, believe it or not we found straight in front of us an ornamental bridge …and we walked 400 yards up a steepish pathway to find ourselves at the gates of the Chateau de Baron. We were on our objective without a single casualty and there was not a soul to be seen anywhere. It was about 22.45.’

Site of the ornamental bridge across the Odon. This rickety girder bridge is positioned on the original abutments.

The remainder of the Battalion followed on twenty minutes later.

The Herefords had a less torrid time by simply following the road down to the Tourmauville Bridge and deploying beyond the Argyles. By dawn the bridgehead was firmly held by the dug-in 159 Brigade, supported by tanks of 29 Armoured Brigade. An excellent platform for exploitation had been formed, from which 11th Armoured Division’s tanks could advance to the Orne.

After a sleepless night, at dawn on 28 June 1944, two enemy Mark IVs were spotted on Hill 112 and engaged at long range resulting in ‘one tank being knocked out and one being damaged’. These two...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Advice for Visitors
• Chapter 1 Operation Epsom
• Chapter 2 Preparations for Operation JUPITER
• Chapter 3 Operation JUPITER
• Chapter 4 Operation JUPITER
• Chapter 5 The Capture of Maltot and the Fall of Hill 112
• Chapter 6 The Tours
• Cemeteries
• British Order of Battle
• SS Ranks and British/American equivalents