Operation Perch - Operation Wild Oats

Operation Wild Oats

Having landed on Gold Beach at 07:30 on 6 June, XXX Corps succeeded in clearing seven exits off the beach and advancing 5 miles (8.0 km) inland, but because of heavy fighting in Le Hamel were unable to achieve all their D-Day objectives before dark. Patrols had reached the outskirts of Bayeux, and contact had been established with elements of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, who had landed on Juno Beach. The 47 Royal Marine Commando, advancing along the coast to link up with the Americans moving inland from Omaha Beach, fell short of reaching Port-en-Bessin-Huppain by 3 miles (4.8 km). During the afternoon LXXXIV Corps ordered its reserve, Kampfgruppe Meyer, to strike into the flank of the 50th Division north of Bayeux. En route to conduct the counterattack one battalion was ordered towards Omaha beach, weakening the counterattack force. The attack failed with heavy casualties. On 7 June the bulk of the 7th Armoured Division was landed on schedule and XXX Corps secured its remaining D-Day objectives, including Bayeux and Port-en-Bessin-Huppain. During the day LXXXXIV Corps launched the only remaining reserves available, Mobile Brigade 30, towards Gold Beach in an attempt to repeat the previous day's counterattack; the attack failed and the brigade was effectively destroyed north of Bayeux. The remnants of the two failed counterattacks were then driven into a pocket north of the city by the Anglo-American advance, although the Americans were unaware that this had taken place.

Not all had gone as smoothly for the forces that landed on Sword Beach. I Corps's 3rd Infantry Division had struck inland towards Caen as planned but had to divert elements to subdue strongly held German positions along the 9.3-mile (15.0 km) route to the town. With its effort being progressively diluted and its armoured support delayed by congestion in the beachhead, the division was unable to generate enough momentum to reach Caen on D-Day and was stopped short of its outskirts by the 21st Panzer Division.

On 9 June Caen was still firmly in German hands, so the Allied ground forces commander General Bernard Montgomery met with Lieutenant-Generals Miles Dempsey and Omar Bradley (commanding the British Second and United States First Armies) and decided a new plan for Second Army. Caen would be taken with a pincer movement, code-named Operation Wild Oats. The eastern arm of the pincer would consist of I Corps's 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and the 4th Armoured Brigade. The armour and Highlanders would cross into the Orne bridgehead, the ground gained east of the Orne by the 6th Airborne Division during Operation Tonga, and attack southwards to Cagny, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the southeast of Caen. XXX Corps would form the western arm of the pincer. In an alteration to Operation Perch, instead of making for Mont Pinçon the 7th Armoured Division would swing east, crossing the Odon River to take Évrecy and the high ground near the town (Hill 112). To complete the encirclement it was suggested that the 1st Airborne Division be dropped between the two arms but the allied air commander, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, opposed this move. He refused to fly the division into Normandy, arguing that the drop would scatter the division too widely to fulfil its objectives and that the drop zone was in any case too dangerous for his pilots. Despite Montgomery's "bitter anger" at Leigh-Mallory's intransigence, the pincer attack went ahead without its airborne component; according to historian Hubert Meyer it was incorporated into Operation Perch and Wild Oats was dropped as a separate operation.