D Day
After the success of the initial landings on D Day—150,000 men were landed in one day and were not thrown back into the sea—the Allies found themselves engaged in a long and bitter battle against Hitler’s defensive armies and it was not until twelve endless weeks later, on August 21st, that German resistance in Normandy collapsed.
It was a battle fought inch by bloody inch.
In the first hours of the invasion the German reaction was slow. Several of the senior commanders were not in Normandy and Rommel was in Germany. Hitler retained personal control over almost all the vital Panzer tank forces, complicating and slowing the chain of command.
It was not until the afternoon of D Day that German armor counterattacked the Allies, 18 hours after the first paratroopers landed. The 192nd Panzergrenadiers of the 21st Panzer Division reached the coast between Sword and Juno beaches, splitting the beaches. However, rather than isolating the vulnerable Sword beach, 192’s commander, Josef Rauch, mistakenly thought 192 was in danger of being surrounded and withdrew—a tactical error with potentially huge implications.
None of these objectives were realized in the first few days. It was not until June 12th (D + 6) that the Allies were able to link all their beaches and establish a secure lodgment. The American flank was particularly challenging, in part because of the difficult ‘bocage’ terrain and in part because the German 709th defenders proved to be much stronger than expected.
It is reasonable to speculate that had Rommel been in Normandy on D Day, and if he had been given full operational control, the Allies might have been thrown back into the sea. Once he was back, and more Panzers were released to him, he was able to set up a fierce defensive wall, including three Panzer divisions facing the British and Canadians near Caen.
Cherbourg
The remainder of June was devoted to trying to achieve the Allies’ original objectives, Cherbourg and Caen. The US 9th Division succeeded in crossing the Cherbourg peninsular on June 17th (D+11,) isolating the port. Remnants of the German 709th Static Division and a variety of Kriegsmarine naval units put on a stubborn resistance in the port, surrendering 2 weeks later, on June 30th, (D+24.)
It proved to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Allies; the port had been so damaged by Allied bombing and German demolition that it could not be reopened until after the war, forcing the Allies to rely on their newly constructed Mulberry floating temporary harbor off Sword beach.
Caen
Meanwhile, 50 miles to the east, a ferocious battle of attrition was taking place around Caen. Rommel did not send additional reserves to defend the Cherbourg peninsular because he feared that the British and Canadians might break out from the beaches at Caen, opening the roads eastward to Paris in the heartland of France, and northward up the Channel coast toward Belgium. He therefore kept three armored divisions in the Caen vicinity, holding four British, two American and one Canadian Division pinned behind Caen.
The British and Canadians were able to make limited progress to the west of Caen (Operation Epsom,) but costs were high, and the streets and country roads of northern Normandy were littered with the carcasses of burnt-out tanks.
In fact, Goodwood pushed the Germans out of the southern part of Caen and 5 miles south but did not defeat them. Whether Montgomery ever intended to reach Falaise, (he subsequently claimed he did not,) and whether Goodwood therefore failed, remains controversial. Certainly, Eisenhower considered the operation disappointing, to say the least.
The odds were more balanced than the raw numbers suggest, because the Panzers were (in general) significantly more heavily armored and more heavily gunned than the Allies’ Shermans.
Whether or not Goodwood succeeded, it weakened German armored reserves and kept them tied down south of Caen. (Hitler still believed that Normandy was a diversion, and another invasion would take place in northern France.) Goodwood also enabled the US 29th Corps to take the strategically important town of St. Lo, some 20 miles to the east, on July 19th (D + 44.)