30 July 1944
#1 Cromwell tanks move forward for the new attack today. (IWM (B 8182)
#2 Cromwell tanks of the HQ Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division pass a French farmer with his horses, while moving up at the start of Operation 'Bluecoat', the British offensive south-east of Caumont, Calvados. 30 July 1944.
Allied offensive preparations
Operation Bluecoat: Cromwell tanks of the 7th Armoured Division move up in the morning of 30 July 1944
The boundary between the British Second Army (Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey) and the US First Army was moved, the British taking over from the US V Corps, against which were lightly-armed but well dug in German infantry, which gave an opportunity for a new operation to keep tying down German armour. The VIII Corps headquarters and the 7th, 11th and Guards Armoured divisions were moved westwards toward Caumont on the western flank of XXX Corps. Dempsey planned to attack on 2 August but the speed of events forced him to advance the date.
German defensive preparations
From 21 July the 2nd Panzer Division had been withdrawn from the area south of Caumont and relieved by the 326th Division, which took over a 10 mi (16 km) front from the east of Villers-Bocage, next to the 276th Volksgrenadier Division, westwards to the Drôme river, the boundary between the LXXIV Korps of Panzergruppe West and the 7th Army. The 326th Division, south and east of Caumont, was up to strength and took over a large number of field defences and camouflaged firing positions, behind extensive minefields in the ideal defensive terrain of the Suisse Normande bocage.
Photo source - © IWM B 8183
Hardy, Bert (Sergeant)
No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit
Colour added by Doug