The open ground around Caen

Unlike the US area of operations and the western part of the Commonwealth area of operations which consist of the infamous bocage country, the area surrounding the city of Caen is mostly open with villages dotting the countryside. As this was ideal tank country, the Germans subsequentely deployed most of their panzer divisions in this area against the British and Canadian forces, only one being deployed against the US forces.

The German forces used defensive tactics perfected during years of fighting on the eastern front. They transformed the villages into fortresses in a frontline that was up to 20 kilometers deep. Often the first defensive line was only thinly manned, while the main defensive line was positionned a few kilometers behind.

In most nucleated villages there are near the houses garden patches which are generally surrounded by hedges, trees and walls. Outside the village are large, open communal fields, generally devoid of cover...Trees, hedges and buildings form a strong defence locality with adequate cover from air and ground observation and the open, cultivated fields between villages can be swept by machine-gun and artillery fire. Such a village is a hedgehog in a grid of hedgehogs and defensible by a small mixed force of infantry, artillery and three or four tanks.

A village of this kind has one fatal weakness. It is never deep enough and as successive villages are captured the line becomes thin and ultimately cracks. To remedy this German defensive tactics relied on quick counter-attacks by tanks to re-take villages before Allied troops had time to consolidate their defences. This cost the Germans many tanks but preserved the village grid in depth.

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