Carpiquet

[John McGillivray]

Below is a link to a radio broadcast by CBC's Matthew Halton describing the start of the battle of Carpiquet which started on the 4th of July, 1944

http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/07/04/

Here is an aerial photo of Carpiquet



A map of the Carpiquet area showing the locations of units involved in the fighting. Note the locations of the units from 1st SS LAH, with III/1 near Franqueville and II/1 just behind the control buildings of the airport. Missing from this map in the location of I/1 which was in the western suburbs of Caen.

III/1 launched two counterattacks against the north side of the Carpiquet salient followed by three counterattacks by I/1 LAH towards the East end of the Canadian positions. Note that the German counterattacks were carried out in a piecemeal fashion with no coordination between the different battalions of 1SS LAH.



Here is a link to photos of the Carpiquet area from Library and Archives Canada

http://search-recherche.collectionsc...940s&PageNum=1

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here are a couple of pictures taken in the area by Henk Minne in December 2007.

1st: farm gate made of PSP.

2nd: Communications wire (German/Canadian/British) grown into a tree.

Thanks Henk!

Hanno

[Alex van de Wetering]

Jon, very interesting.

We came past the location about 4 weeks ago. Carpiquet is now Caen/Carpiquet airfield and has another landing strip added since WW2. It is still at the same location though.

We also came past Sommervieu airfield. It is easily recognizable where that airfield used to be, when you drive on the road from Bayeux to Arromanches; a hill with a pretty large flat spot on top.

Asnelles also used to be the location of a temporary airfield. It wasn's as easy to spot the location as with Sommervieu, but PSP plates are still widely in use on the farms around Asnelles.

Alex

[klambie]

Always interested in information related to this operation, as my great uncle was killed with the Regina Rifles around La Villeneuve on 4 July 44. The Reginas were not directly involved in Windsor, but their positions at Rots and La Villeneuve overlooked much of the battlefield and they were shelled throughout the day.

I must have missed John's thread on Milner's book last year, but I think they have done a teriffic job in combining period airphotos, accounts, and Map References with current satellite imagery, and investigation on the ground to shed a lot of light on the details of the North Shore's experience in that first month or so ashore and identify detailed locations of various actions. This is the type of detail that I aspire to be able to provide for the Regina Rifles during the same period.

For subscribers to Canadian Military History, there is a piece that I have just skimmed so far in the current issue, by David Patterson. I believe that David's hypothesis is that Carpiquet had relatively little to do with preparations for the Canadian assault on Caen, and was much more focussed on eliminating German postions that overlooked the British in the low ground south of Carpiquet, captured during Epsom and suffering an ongoing pounding from the Germans that remained on that high ground.

[Rob S]

Milner's book is a short, but well written and rich in detail. I will definitely be hanging on to my copy.

[Dean (Ajax)]

I will be there this Saturday taking a look through the fence!!!

MY first trip to the Battlefields.

Dean

[John McGillivray]

Originally Posted by klambie

I believe that David's hypothesis is that Carpiquet had relatively little to do with preparations for the Canadian assault on Caen, and was much more focussed on eliminating German postions that overlooked the British in the low ground south of Carpiquet, captured during Epsom and suffering an ongoing pounding from the Germans that remained on that high ground.

I am currently reading Patrick Delaforce’s book “The Black Bull: from Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division”. In the chapter dealing with Operation Epson and Hill 112 there are a number of references to Carpiquet which shows the importance of that position to the German defence.

P 35 “The infantry battalions dug in around Hill 112 were under enemy observation Ops from Carpiquet aerodrome in the north.”

P38 “A terrific flap was in progress. Support troops were hurriedly digging in, tanks taking up position, shells coming over from Carpiquet aerodrome.”

P39 “On the right 30 Corps had not kept up with 8 Corps and on the left flank, the Canadian attack on Carpiquet airfield had been postponed” (on 29 June).

P41 on 30th June “3RTR had been lent to 32 Guards Brigade against the Germans ensconced at Carpiquet aerodrome, west of Caen”

P42 “…but Tim Ellis noted that the night of 3rd-4th (July) was “a hell of a bad night from Enemy mortars and artillery. The devil of it is that we get shell from the Germans in the Carpiquet area (almost directly behind us in the Salient)”

P42 “The Herefords on Hill 112 had nine days of constant shelling and mortaring, mainly from Carpiquet."

P42 “Both (Artillery) Regiments often received counter-battery fire from Carpiquet…”