battles

snoox · battles

hi

i need some info about the battle for villers boc, thx for any help Wink

luke481

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Villers-Bocage

joe

The villers bocage was a terible, confusing struggle the allies in normandy named "Hedgerow Hell", Because the tough, high standing bramble hedges in the area were almost impossible for tanks to reach due to the deep sunken roads.
Bocage or Boscage is a French word referring to a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with tortuous side-roads and lanes bounded on both sides by banks surmounted with high thick hedgerows limiting visibility. It acquired a particular significance when applied to the countryside of Normandy during the Battle of Normandy making fighting and forward progress against entrenched opposition extremely difficult. American soldiers also called these hedgerows.

Often the allied infantry would have to use explosives to pass through hedges, because tanks couldnt reach them.
German troops used this confusing terrain to their advantage, by making abushes from behind the hedgerows, throwing grenades and petrol bombs over the hedges, even planting mortars and artillery positions everywhere, doing anything they could to stop the allied advance in the D-Day campaign.
The statistics show clearly that the Germans had an advantage.
In the battle of villers-bocage, the allies lost more than 30 tanks, and many armored cars, to the Germans who lost a mere 11 tanks, of which 3 were repaired into fighting condition.
The Germans were using the much feared Pzkw VI "Tiger" tank, one of the most feared heavy tanks of the german war machine.
Using its 88 centimetre gun, there was no tank which stood a chance when hit by a Tiger's deadly ordanance, so many where destroyed from range or from the air.

The allies in the area used Sherman tanks, nicknamed the "Tommy-Cooker" due to its unrelyable engine which cost many lives.
The allies also used the humble Churchill tank, some converted to the "Crocodile" variant armed with a oil-spewing flamethrower.
Those were the main tanks used in the area but there were a few others including:

M10 Tank destroyers.
Cromwell medium tanks.
"Priest" self propelled guns.

The allies had their own tricks up their sleeves aswell.
Rocket-armed typhoons of the RAF and Thunderbolts of the US airforce could see all activity in the Bocage area, and did anything they could to stop the Germans in the area.
Eventually the allies broke free from the Maze of hedgerows and sunken roads into the flooded fields in which the airborne units of the 101st division parachuted into.

And so the battle was won, the germans were pushed out of the area and into Falais - But thats another story... Wink

Flt Sgt Jones

a certain Tiger Tank played havoc with the British Tank corps, in one engagement destroying 30 tanks and vehicles before withdrawing!!!

squarehead666

Bocage is a term for the very high and dense hedgerows in the Normandy area.

The Bocage Country was a generic term for this close and difficult terrain.

Villers Bocage is a village in Normandy.....Where Michael Wittmann and his platoon of Tiger Is halted the advance of the entire 7th Armoured Division.....Temporarily!

For what it's worth & all the best