How the Outnumbered Germans Stalled British & Canadian Forces at Caen 

Did you all know that the first unit into caen was a Canadian reserve unit the SD&G Highlanders I am a member of this unit and am very proud of it UP THE GLENS.

Allied Sherman tanks did NOT use high octane fuel. They used ''combat gas'' which was around 80 octane or even lower.

My father went ashore Omaha D Day hour -1....as a medic. Never ever talked about the landing or the first hours or week. Read his diary after he died. It was awful. If you haven't lived through it, you don't know what it was like. It was a nightmare.

Churchill "I have told the House how at the time of the fall of Tobruk the President gave the first 350 Sherman tanks which had already been issued to the American Army and we know that they played a key part in the Battle at Alamein. When I went back to America a year after, I found that there was an ample supply of these tanks, formerly so precious and rare, from the flow of American mass production which had got into its stride, and they were able to offer us 3,000 or 4,000 more of those invaluable weapons. This was of great advantage to us. We were able to carry through a further redisposition of our tank programme and to reduce the scale of our production, thus releasing man-power and materials for making other instruments of war which were urgently required. We were able also to carry through the development of the Cromwell, the Churchill and other types in an orderly manner freed from fear of a shortage of tanks in the hands of the troops. The Sherman tank has maintained its reputation gained in Africa 1470 at every stage in the battles in Italy and Normandy. It is of course essentially a cruiser tank, like the Cromwell, which is the largest type of British cruiser tank. Both these tanks are reported to be excellent and trustworthy for the purposes for which they were designed. As the House knows, we succeeded in mounting the 17-pounder gun in the Sherman, a remarkable feat, and many hundreds of these are either in action in Normandy or moving thither in a steady stream. General Montgomery has written as follows about the recent battle: In the fighting to date we have defeated the Germans in battle, and we have had no difficulty in dealing with the German army once we had grasped the problem. In this connection British armour has played a notable part. The Panther and Tiger tanks are unreliable mechanically and the Panther is very vulnerable from the flanks. Our 17-pounder guns will go right through them. Provided our tactics are good we can defeat them without difficulty. Well, they say the customer is always right." Hansard WAR SITUATION HC Deb 02 August 1944 Churchill Thanks for the tanks, Monty "British Armour".

Wittmans panzer Crew: "Iam a joke to you?" Tanks are no one man show. You need to have a good crew overall.

Considering they were facing over 8 SS Panzer divisions, 7 infantry divisions and 3 Heavy tank battalions, it's understandable why the Brits get pissed off when the Americans called their advance "slow". The fact that the Brits and Canadians were fighting against the vast majority of the armour available in Northern France (645 tanks) immediately following the landings is one that often seems to be ignored by certain people.

People often quizzed the revered Confederate general as to how he lost Gettysburg. “I think them damn Yankees had something to do with it.” was his response. So that’s what it boils down to. The allies were up against very strong opposition. The question is if the Germans ducks had all lined up and they managed a mass armour assault against the beachhead would they have succeeded? They were appalled at the amount of naval and artillery support the allies could call upon, and a large armour force moving in open daylight would have been feasted on by the air forces.

Mark Felton gives a much better overview of this conflict. Montgomery's forces, mainly British, Canadian and Poles faced 500 German tanks during the taking of Caen over many weeks. It was a bloody slog, drawing the Germans in to concentrate most of their armour there. Meanwhile, this allowed the Americans to break out and push east while facing much less German armour. This was the plan from the start of the allied Normandy invasion. Sadly today, each nation's army involved at that time likes to 'out-better' their comrades in their telling of battle honours. It was a joint effort, the likes of which had never been seen before nor since. All brave men.

Excellent commentary presenting all sides of the conflict, with amazing video. Great work guys!

One number history channel telling us true history without bias. Love your channel.

Sherman tank commander Oddball " Our tanks can go faster in reverse than forward. See baby, we like to think we can get out of trouble faster than we got into it."

Enjoyed your video and so I gave it a Thumbs Up

Finally the brave german forces during ww2 receive some recognition. Thank you. RIP and thank you for your service to all german soldiers of WW1+2. Respect.

Every gasoline powered tank caught fire when it was hit in the right spot. The Sherman wasn't special. See the Chieftain on the M-4 Sherman.

If you look at Montgomery's battle plan for the Battle of Normandy, agreed before Overlord, Caen was NOT the British/Canadian objective, although he wanted the Germans to focus their attention there. The prime urban objective was the port of Cherbourg. The objective at Caen was to draw the Panzer divisions into the cauldron, destroying them so they could not attack the eventual breakout or the primarily infantry US forces on the Allied right. While the British and Canadian armour and artillery on the Left, ground down the Panzers in a battle of attrition, the relatively inexperienced Americans on the Right were to build up their strength, take Cherbourg - ideally getting the port functional - push through to the edge of the bocage country and get ready for the breakout. When they were ready for that breakout, the Germans would have no armoured divisions in the area to oppose it. The most remarkable thing about the Battle of Normandy is that, even to the approximate dates, the outcome was amazingly close to the original (April 1944) plan

These videos have been so good the historical footage that you find and put into the video are so well matched up and very interesting as it is a lot of footage I haven’t seen before! Thank you for your work!

Informative and appreciable stuff

Amazing video

1 of the best youtube channels about WW2.

The Brits and canadians in Normandy faced the highest concentration of german panzer divisions per square kilometre of the entire war, more than the Eastern front. It was a slaughter with casualty rates higher than than WW1.

Nice content, been watching your series for a while now. Keep up the good work mate!

And Caen didn't fall. It took quite a long time....

Its very, very common, People Who post their comments, never had an real Army experience. I say the majorety of the People. When they comment abaut a certain Division, they think, that is all. They dont know that a Division takes thousands of Men, separated in Battalions, Regiments, Companies and squads. Wich one of them, with a certain amount of Men, Tanks (If its an armorad division), veichles of all sort, communications centres, etc. Thats why so many People when say, that X Division attacted on the 1st of july in Paris. No, its nothing like that, first the attact its made, by units of the Division, very often with few Tanks and APC's, separated miles apart of each other,in several objectives, suported by a company of artillary,or pionners ex. The bulk of the Division, only attack, after If those objectives were taken. Then you see big tank formations going foward, to do the main job. But People here say, "the 1st Panzer was crushed on the 4th of May.." Thats incorrect, most likely 1 batallion of tanks, and 1 regiment of pionners, of the 1st Panzer division were destroyed. The 1st Division is still There, waiting for their turn. Most People dont realize how complex an army Division is and works. And many times make stupid and ilogical comments abaut things they dont understand. They read somewhere, and its done. This is more than obvious For those Who never were in the army. War Thunder Doesnt count.

12th SS was a brand new division-a spin off of the 1st SS division-many of its officers came from the 1st-12thSS was nearly 20,000 strong-the equivalent of a small corps

The British and Canadian could use the fleet artillery. Some German generals wrote after the War they thought about the British ans American air force but they did not think of the Fleet artellery! So Montgomery arrived that time Caen when he had enough divisions not to depend on the fleet artellery!

Again loads of errors. I don't have the energy to list them this time. At least change the channel name to something that doesn't have "fact" in it.

I can’t tell if it’s an AI or a robot narrating this. It’s great content, but I think it’d be a lot better with a narrator that sounds human.

30,000 civilians died at D Day.

@12:00, why criticize the Sherman for not having a diesel engine? The German tanks didn't use diesel either. They ran on gasoline.

This was a carnage, Caen, took months to be taken by the Allies.

I read somewhere the British engaged their battle ships to lob 16 inch shells on Caen which shook up many Germans.

Has anyone else played Close Combat: Gateway to Caen? Awesome WW2 strategy/tactics PC game that lets you play either side of this operation.

Lol I love those duplex drive Sherman's

Fritz Witt was divisional commander at beginning battle. Kurt Meyer replaced him later than Witt died for injuries suffered from an naval artillery attack on 14th June.

My Pa was a Member of ☆17.SS Götz von Berlichingen ☆, he was used a MG 42 in this Time around Caen.

Near the end he says "the Sherman ran on gasoline rather than diesel and was highly flammable" what tanks ran on diesel?

The Sherman used the same fuel as the Panzers. It was the ammunition that burned. Poor research.

The Black Baron rattled the British and the Canadian troops In Caen .

11:42 "503rd heavy tank division"

Check out Marc Milner's Book, Stopping the Panzers.

Neither Caen, Carentan, St Lo or Cherbourg were taken on schedule. As we know, however, the ultimate objective of a conclusion to Normandy and Paris liberated was achieved ahead of schedule. Job done in the end 👍.

A 2nd attack by the same ppl is not a counter attack.

I really liked the video. But in which universe is a Sherman more mobile than a Panther ? a) Panther is faster on road (which is an overrated thing anyway) and b) Panther is more mobile off-road due to lower ground pressure and more powerful engine (Even Tiger I was more mobile off-road.) By 1944, reliability issues had been sorted out, so the only thing pro Sherman was their numerical advantage and the fact that it was quicker to repair. In case of Normandy, replacing a damaged Sherman was even quicker than fixing it. That was of course something Germany couldn't afford.

Ost Front taktiks!

If you played Cod 2 you know this

Some People love to comment things based on their War Thunder or World of Tanks experience. Fakes without a single knowledge. Like that guy Who says that the Germans had 654 Tanks ready for battle in northern France.... But not in Normandy. Not even in the eastern front by then, the german had so many Tanks available, maybe half of that,fit for battle. With numbers like this, with Just a little bit more, and it would been Kursk part 2. Just one example. The highest number of Tigers available, was 55 by mid august.

Sigh. Another history presentation which appears to have read neither the plan for Overlord presented at St Paul's school before the invasion, nor the Order No. 1 to British troops that Caen should be taken unless it would cost too many casualties. The Plan relied on the British/Canadians drawing Germans onto their front while the Americans , once through the 'difficult bocage' circled behind then in Operation Cobra'. The Germans started the battle with 2,300 tanks, the Germans ended up with 120 escaping.

My Grand father was killed in Cean.He was in Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.Dam S.S

Very Fantastic SS war battle videó!! Very say They lost! My grandfather died in Don river Stalingrad near Don river 1943

If only he spent a little time on rehearsing his pronunciation of the French town names.

The Canadians fought & stopped the panzers from D- Day on , The Polish Armour was added as the Falaise gap was starting to close The plan wasn’t for the British and Canadian to fight the armour It was for the Canadians to fight the armour . There are over 3000 Canadian graves to testify to their success as they stopped the Panzers . I am reading an excellent account of those months before D-Day and those days after D- Day Finally after close to eighty years the Canadian side . The book : Stopping the Panzers The untold story by Marc Milner - university press of Kansas . If your Canadian or an interested party a must read

We landed at Normandy "to march west"?

Where were the Canadian and British infantry, scout units, anti-tank weapons, and artillery units? It's a classic error of sending tanks without supporting infantry and artillery. The U.S. army made the same mistakes as well.

Fascinating video, I would recommend reading James Holland’s book Normandy 44, this followed his film in 2014 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8Lnxhw39EJ4.html . This includes support from two Professors Peter Caddick-Adams and Professor John Buckley recognised experts of the events and Dr Steven Prince the head historian of the Royal Navy. It corrects a number of myths that the operations were separate and not interlinked this is far from the case. It also explains the character of Montgomery which to quote has got in the way of the performance of the American British Canadian and Polish forces involved in the battle.

better to read wiki entries than watch this pablum

... or the first week or the first month.

Rommel failed in defending Normandy

Hitler had delusions of grandeur

Superior Guns, Great Training, Great Moral and Great Leadership. Thats the reason. PS : The 12 SS Panzer Division Hitlerjungen, was the Hitler's youth. And the Panthers only arrived at Normandy, in july and not in the 7 of june. And like the Tigers, they were so few, that 95% of all Allies troops never seen one Panther or Tiger in Normandy. Every Panzer Mark 4 with is long barrel and those "skirts", was confused for a Tiger. It was a real mess for the Allies, If the Germans, had so many Tigers as they thought. Like the Panthers, the Tigers in Normandy, were so few, thats even Ridículous.

Also Caen was a fail , and of course the brain was Montgomery, the same like with Market Garden.

I saw a few of the "Swimming Shermans", with a watertight rubber skirt around, which actually had reached the coast. Sadly many wasn't close enough to the coast, when the landing ships stopped and tried to unload the tanks, so many actually sank during the sailing in and are to be found on the bottom, in front of the coast.

Allied Armoured convoy fucked up good by Wittmann tiger here .

1:58.. you say the 12th SS was there and also there were Hitler Youth defending caen, the 12th SS division was all Hitler jugend and good lord the amount of damage those boys did to the allies was incredible. Can you imagine fighting an entire division of the most fanatical soldiers in all of Germany and they were high on pervitin. Oh man they were an absolute nightmare to fight the 12SS Hitler Jugend was easily one of the best divisions Germany had second only to Das Reich and a couple others.

The Germans wanted to seal off the landing -- like at Anzio -- and then drive the Allies back into the sea, which makes sense. Unfortunately, they also chose to fight the Allies at a site that was most difficult logistically for themselves and most favorable for the Allies. By concentrating their forces around Caen they made it possible for the Allies to trap them in mass when 3rd Army finally broke out to the south.

1:30 - 1:35 when Germans soldiers are brave they are referred to as fanatical and when allied soldiers are brave they are not referred to as fanatical, strange

The Brits took the brunt of the German army in Normandy, their sacrifice let the Americans get to Cherbourg!

In beginnig the SS had NOT BEEN WELL TRAINED-BUT FANATIC . And had lots of losses .

Never send a brit or canuck to do an American job 💪

The Germans did a pretty good job holding up the Yanks on Omaha with only second rate static defenders. The Yanks only got off the beach when the defenders, we don't know how many were actually German, ran out of bullets. It's funny isn't it, when its British, Canadian, Polish the defence was weak but only the best opposed the U.S.

Montgomery was a competent general, though not an excellent one. Facing him, against all odds, once again Rommel distinguished himself in halting an enourmously superior sea, air & land force during months.

Very strange the imobility of german units. I'm sure a vast majority of troops were still defending the "Atlantic Wall" when the allied troops were behind them on land in fact. Also hundreds of thousands doing paper work in Greece, Iugoslavia, Czechia, Sweden and North Germany. It seemed no matter in which area the were send they growed roots there and impossible to move.

Very poor analysis

Most of the German armor including their Tigers, Panthers, air support was tied in Russia. Otherwise, thee Normandy invasion would have been mowed in the beaches, if they made that far.

i guess factbytes really is just that.... the narratives lack both coherence and factual accuracy

At the same time as the British were destroying Army Group B around Caen, our gallant American allies were fighting German third rate Static Divisions with little artillery and AFV's. However the yanks lost twice the casualties Monty did clearing the Cotentin Peninsula. The first of many disasters the Americans suffered in NW Europe campaign.

Caen battle show us how ineffective strategy by British general, In other hand, although Germany fought alone at the end of the war with all its shortcomings, especially the shortage of industrial supplies since Operation Barbosa, they are make great move

Trust a yank, he didn`t knock out 25 British tanks it was a column of four tanks, half tracks and lorries.

Churchill was reluctant to invade mainline Europe - had to be forced by the USA and Russia. Old slow Montgomery took 3 weeks to capture his objective. The British only contributed to 6% of the Allied numbers which is 3,000,000. That is the amount of Indians starved by British war policy. You have to ask yourself - Was it better to have the British in the war or out of the war ?

Man, this is not well researched at all. Kurt Meyer was not a tank commander in the 12 SS. He was a grenadier and infantry officer brought in from the eastern front to provide some experienced leadership to the largely untried division. Neither was Meyer a general of the 12 SS on June 6 or 7, 1944. On June 8, 1944 Meyer attacked Bretteville, which is some distance west from Buron and Authie where he had fought Canadian armour on June 7. He was badly defeated by the Regina Rifles at Bretteville and Norrey-en-Bessin from June 8 to 10, 1944, losing at least 29 panzers at Bretteville and another six at nearby Putot, which was defended by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the Canadian Scottish. Tanks from Panzer Lehr also participated in the attack at Putot. The Canadian objective on D Day was Carpiquet airfield, not Caen. In fact, three Shermans from the 1 Hussars did reach Carpiquet airfield on the Caen-Bayeux highway late on June 6 but had to retreat when they could not raise Allied HQ on their radios to request reinforcements. Michael Wittmann said he was surprised to find the strong Allied armour near Villers Bocage when he woke up that morning. Many of what Wittmann's Tigers destroyed were soft skinned half track and other assorted vehicles that were most definitely _not_ tanks. Some were but not all, and that is a fact. He was profoundly lucky to survive the encounter and lost his own Tiger right inside Villers Bocage to a British 6 pounder anti-tank gun. At one point his Tiger passed maybe 50 to 100 feet directly in front of a British Cromwell which could not fire because the gunner had jumped out in order to pee! He had to walk a good number of kilometers himself just to get back to his own lines. This sort of attack without reconnaissance would cost Wittmann and his crew their lives on August 8, 1944 near Gaumesnil. Montgomery and the rest of the Allied high command had allotted 90 days to finish the Normandy campaign. In the end it only took 77 days. It is always easier to defend than to attack, and requires fewer men. Rommel himself wanted his armour right near the beaches but the German high command said no. Thus Rommel concluded that if the Allies were successful in establishing their beach heads, the Germans were doomed because the Allies could pour in comparatively unlimited troops and armour while the Germans would largely be limited to what was on hand. He was right. It took about six weeks before the German defenders began to crumble. It was like blowing air into a balloon until it burst. 🤷‍♂

The 12th SS Panzer Division was a Hitler Youth Division. It's name was Hitlerjugend. It was made up of 17 and 18 year olds. The officers and NCO's were all experienced combat veterans from other SS Divisions. They were highly trained in all aspects of armored warfare. Kurt Meyer felt that it was a sacrilege to use a fully mechanized Panzer Division in a static defence but Hitler had issued an order to not give up any ground.

Oh look it's Wittman - nice propaganda shots of him!

Wehraboos: "OMG THE ALLIES ARE USING AIR POWER! NO FAIR! FIGHT ON EVEN TERMS!" Also wehraboos: *sits behind hedgerow relying solely on ambush tactics while boasting about how brave German soldiers are*

Is this a pro fascist propaganda channel ?

"Dee day."