1/ The Attack on Panzer Group West. A thread.
Seventy-five years ago today the @RoyalAirForce attacked General Geyr von Schweppenburg's headquarters, located on the grounds of the château at La Caine, in Normandy, France. #DDay75 #BattleofNormandy #Normandy75 #WW2
2/ British intelligence, mainly the codebreakers at @bletchleypark, managed to pinpoint the location after the headquarters gave its position away: 'Battle Headquarters Panzer Gruppe West evening ninth at La Caine.' The Germans did not realize the Allies had broken their codes.
3/ Most sources attribute the attack to 'Ultra' as described above, but simple direction finding may have provided confirmation. Fred Pollak, a Czech-Canadian veteran with No. 2 Special Wireless Section, recalled that signals intel helped locate the HQ. bit.ly/2WrCvRR
4/ This intelligence passed to 2nd Tactical Air Force, which quickly organized a strike force. British reconnaissance aircraft overflew the headquarters before the raid to disguise the source of the intelligence.
5/ The strike force would consist of 61 B-25 Mitchells and 42 Hawker Typhoons (34 armed with rocket-projectiles and 8 with cannons only) with 33 Spitfires providing fighter escort. Commanders scrubbed a morning briefing due to heavy overcast and thick cloud.
6/ A new briefing took place in the afternoon. They would attack in two waves. Half of the Typhoons would attack parked vehicles and tanks nearby while the bombers plastered the headquarters. The remaining Typhoons would then rocket and strafe the area on clean-up duty.
7/ On 10 June General von Schweppenburg met with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The two debated whether or not it was the right time to counterattack with I SS Panzer Corps, consisting of 21. Panzer Division, 12. SS (Hitler Youth) Panzer Division, and Panzer Lehr Division.
8/ These forces had already been heavily engaged, particularly in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division sector between 7-9 June. For more information about how the Canadians fought off this earlier counterattack see the #JunoPodcast episode 'Stopping the Panzers with Marc Milner'.
9/ Rommel felt it was not the right time for another major offensive; von Schweppenburg thought otherwise. Regardless of who won the argument or Geyr's intentions after that, the coming events would seal the fate of the corps-level counterattack.
10/ About an hour after Rommel left to return to his headquarters on the Seine at Roch Guyon, von Schweppenburg pulled up to the château at La Caine. His chief of staff, General Sigismund-Helmut von Dawans, was eating dinner with the rest of the staff in the dining room.
11/ Hearing an air raid siren, the officers filtered out of the dining room and exited the building, expecting to watch the Allied planes conduct a raid on a nearby target. From 12,000 feet six boxes of RAF B-25s flying in a vic formation released hundreds of 500lb bombs.
12/ The bombs came crashing down on the château grounds, throwing up a storm of dust and debris. The German officers leapt for cover, but it was too late for most of them. The shriek of 136 rockets from 17 diving Typhoons added to the cacophony of violence.
13/ When the second wave of Typhoons arrived the château was already a smoking ruin. Smashed and charred wireless trucks and office caravans littered the grounds. Nevertheless, these 'Tiffys' carried out their grim work, rocketing and strafing what remained.
14/ When the smoke cleared some 32 men were dead, including General von Dawans and seventeen other staff officers. Von Schweppenburg was wounded and evacuated. There would be no concentrated counterattack as what remained of the headquarters pulled back to Paris to regroup.
15/ One of the B-25 squadrons that participated in the attack was 98 Squadron RAF. The @CWHM maintains a B-25 painted in the colours of this unit. I had the pleasure of taking a ride in this B-25 last weekend.
16/ I plan to post more content about this experience in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! Please note that the above photos do not represent the La Caine raid itself. I hope that I've given you a rudimentary sense of what things looked like.
Not to 1-up @ReassessHistory as I had this prepared over the weekend!
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.