Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry
1944 CE.
Shown on the map at 49.196°, -0.544°.
The Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry during the Second World War was the last attack by a Canadian armoured battle group in Normandy in June 1944. The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division, supported by the 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade attacked the village of Le Mesnil-Patry to advance southwards towards the higher ground of Hill 107 west of Cheux. The attack was intended to support a larger operation by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and the 7th Armoured Division to capture the city of Caen and to advance in the centre of the bridgehead next to the First US Army. The battle was a German defensive success but the greater German objective of defeating the invasion by a counter-offensive also failed. Both sides changed tactics after the first week of the invasion, the Germans constructed a defence-in-depth, with tank forces reserved for limited counter-attacks, intended to slow the Allied advance inland and avoid casualties and losses of equipment until reinforcements arrived.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.