Battle for Caen 1944
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 6 June 1944 – 6 August 1944 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1944 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Operation Overlord | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Allies of World War II, Canada, Nazi Germany, United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 49.1861, -0.3625 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle for Caen (June to August 1944) was a military engagement between the British Second Army and the German Panzergruppe West in the Second World War for control of the city of Caen and its vicinity during the Battle of Normandy. Caen is about 9 mi (14 km) inland from the Calvados coast astride the Orne River and Caen Canal, at the junction of several roads and railways. The communication links made it an important operational objective for both sides. Caen and the area to its south are flatter and more open when compared to the bocage country of western Normandy, and Allied air force commanders wanted the area captured quickly in order to construct airfields to base more aircraft in France proper.
The British 3rd Infantry Division was to seize Caen on D-Day or alternatively, dig in short of the city. Caen, Bayeux and Carentan were not captured on D-Day, and the Allies concentrated on linking the beachheads. British and Canadian forces captured the area of Caen north of the Orne during Operation Charnwood (8–9 July), while the suburbs south of the river were captured by the II Canadian Corps during Operation Atlantic (18–20 July). The fighting was mutually costly, and greatly deprived the Germans of the means to reinforce the western part of the invasion front.
In the west, the First US Army captured Cherbourg and took Saint-Lô, about 37 mi (60 km) west of Caen, on 19 July.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle for Caen (revision 1375702384), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Caen (1450) 1450 · 1 km
- Siege of Caen (1417) 1417 · 1 km
- Battle of Caen (1346) 1346 · 1 km
- Battle of Verrières Ridge 1944 · 9 km
- Battle of Douvres Radar Station 1944 · 11 km
- Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry 1944 · 13 km
Other battles of the Operation Overlord
- Battle for Brest 1944
- Battle of Bréville 1944
- Battle of Carentan 1944
- Battle of Cherbourg 1944
- Battle of La Haye-du-Puits 1944
- Falaise pocket 1944
- Liberation of Paris 1944
All 8 battles of the Operation Overlord →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · World War II era battles