1 00:00:20,816 --> 00:00:25,615 MUSIC: "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller 2 00:00:33,214 --> 00:00:38,373 In July 1944, the British Army staged its biggest-ever tank attack. 3 00:00:38,373 --> 00:00:42,892 Many hoped that it would be the great breakthrough, 4 00:00:42,892 --> 00:00:48,411 a charge to shatter the Germans and win the battle for Normandy. 5 00:00:48,411 --> 00:00:55,250 Referring to the glories of British horse racing, it was codenamed "Operation Goodwood". 6 00:00:58,969 --> 00:01:06,928 On the 6th of June 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy in the greatest-ever seaborne invasion. 7 00:01:06,928 --> 00:01:12,087 In the days and weeks that followed, they poured in men and equipment. 8 00:01:12,087 --> 00:01:16,207 Some of them landed here at Arromanches 9 00:01:16,207 --> 00:01:21,646 at the artificial Mulberry Harbour whose durable remains are behind me. 10 00:01:24,325 --> 00:01:27,085 There were two harbours. 11 00:01:27,085 --> 00:01:34,883 Each as big as the port of Dover, they enabled the landing of men and equipment on an unparalleled scale. 12 00:01:34,883 --> 00:01:39,643 By the end of June, less than a month after the landings, 13 00:01:39,643 --> 00:01:45,802 the Allies had 875,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy. 14 00:01:45,802 --> 00:01:51,601 MUSIC: "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller 15 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:57,720 But they were going nowhere. 16 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:04,799 Landing in Normandy was relatively easy. Breaking out into France was much more difficult. 17 00:02:04,799 --> 00:02:11,957 The landings, along a 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast, had been a huge success. 18 00:02:11,957 --> 00:02:20,036 But the Allies found it hard to exploit their advantage and were slow to begin their advance inland. 19 00:02:22,156 --> 00:02:29,354 I'm going to follow the route the Allies took in early June as they attempted to move inland, 20 00:02:29,354 --> 00:02:33,114 beyond the coast they'd seized on D-Day. 21 00:02:33,114 --> 00:02:38,713 Their forces moved west of Caen into the countryside known as Bocage. 22 00:02:38,713 --> 00:02:44,312 It's made up of fields surrounded by hedges growing out of high banks. 23 00:02:44,312 --> 00:02:51,551 In 1944, it covered a huge area, and the Allies had no choice but to fight their way through it. 24 00:02:52,791 --> 00:03:00,469 There's less "bocage" than there once was, as ancient hedges get grubbed up to make big new fields. 25 00:03:00,469 --> 00:03:07,828 But we can still gain a very vivid sense of how terrifying it must have been to fight here 26 00:03:07,828 --> 00:03:13,387 with minimal visibility and knowing the enemy might be round the corner. 27 00:03:13,387 --> 00:03:19,986 The area seemed made for defence and the Germans pinned the Allies down. 28 00:03:19,986 --> 00:03:28,025 In this war of attrition, the Allies had a big advantage over the Germans in that they had many more tanks. 29 00:03:28,025 --> 00:03:35,384 But tanks were of limited use in the labyrinth of the bocage, and were very vulnerable. 30 00:03:38,423 --> 00:03:44,062 This is cheap and simple. It's called a "Panzerfaust" - tank fist. 31 00:03:44,062 --> 00:03:49,141 This shaped charge will go through the armour of a Sherman tank. 32 00:03:49,141 --> 00:03:57,060 To fire it, you simply flip up the sight - it's only sighted to 60 metres - cock it, aim and fire. 33 00:03:57,060 --> 00:03:59,819 You chuck it away and grab another. 34 00:03:59,819 --> 00:04:04,579 Germany infantry used these in their hundreds in the bocage, 35 00:04:04,579 --> 00:04:11,977 taking on tanks from point-blank range and then scampering back to another hedgerow to try again. 36 00:04:11,977 --> 00:04:19,616 This fighting style wore men out and led some Allied commanders to wonder how they'd EVER get out of Normandy. 37 00:04:20,976 --> 00:04:28,495 Their tanks were obviously not going to get them through the bocage, so the Allies relied on their infantry. 38 00:04:28,495 --> 00:04:36,173 For them, it was every bit as dangerous as the First World War. They suffered very high casualties. 39 00:04:36,173 --> 00:04:38,853 But after four weeks of fighting, 40 00:04:38,853 --> 00:04:43,772 they were still stuck fast, just a few miles from the sea. 41 00:04:46,572 --> 00:04:53,691 This cemetery at Bayeux is the largest Second World War British cemetery in Europe. 42 00:04:53,691 --> 00:05:00,609 It is tragic evidence that by July 1944 the Allies had suffered severely. 43 00:05:00,609 --> 00:05:05,809 The British had lost nearly 25,000 men, killed and wounded. 44 00:05:05,809 --> 00:05:08,568 When considering what to do next, 45 00:05:08,568 --> 00:05:14,287 British commanders were anxious to let armour plate bear the brunt. 46 00:05:14,287 --> 00:05:18,886 The British Army was simply running out of men. 47 00:05:27,845 --> 00:05:32,524 In the air, however, it was a different story. 48 00:05:33,764 --> 00:05:39,523 Allied fighters and bombers enjoyed absolute command of the skies. 49 00:05:39,523 --> 00:05:46,362 The Allied commanders planned a new break-out that would utilise their air power. 50 00:05:46,362 --> 00:05:52,281 Their target was the city of Caen, the historic capital of Normandy. 51 00:05:55,280 --> 00:06:02,839 It's a thriving city today, showing little sign of the horrors that it witnessed in 1944. 52 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:07,198 But the town's new university is symbolic. 53 00:06:07,198 --> 00:06:15,477 It represents the resurrection of a city that was all but obliterated by the Allies who came to liberate it. 54 00:06:16,557 --> 00:06:24,076 I'm up on the battlements of William the Conqueror's castle in Caen, just a few miles from the sea. 55 00:06:24,076 --> 00:06:29,675 Caen had been a D-Day objective, but the Allies had failed to take it. 56 00:06:29,675 --> 00:06:34,594 A month after the landings, it was still in German hands. 57 00:06:34,594 --> 00:06:38,713 Allied bombing proved to be a blunt instrument. 58 00:06:38,713 --> 00:06:44,312 Caen and its people suffered badly; the Germans, scarcely at all. 59 00:06:44,312 --> 00:06:48,552 Andre Heintz was a resistance worker in Caen. 60 00:06:48,552 --> 00:06:54,591 - You were here during the war? - Yes. - How many aerial raids do you recall? 61 00:06:54,591 --> 00:07:02,109 - Well, I remember at least 24 after D-Day until the liberation of Caen. - And which was the worst? 62 00:07:02,109 --> 00:07:09,028 They were all bad, but especially the four that involved more than 300 planes. 63 00:07:09,028 --> 00:07:13,987 - Were many people killed? - Probably 6,000, which is a lot, 64 00:07:13,987 --> 00:07:18,947 but at one time, we thought there might be many more than that. 65 00:07:18,947 --> 00:07:26,625 - What did people do while all this was going on? - The people all rushed towards that church over there - 66 00:07:26,625 --> 00:07:30,625 the Abbaye aux Hommes, the men's abbey. 67 00:07:30,625 --> 00:07:35,584 There were at least 16,000 people sheltering there. 68 00:07:37,983 --> 00:07:41,143 On the night of the 7th of July, 69 00:07:41,143 --> 00:07:45,782 the city was pounded by 460 heavy bombers. 70 00:07:45,782 --> 00:07:53,821 The British hoped to obliterate the Germans, take the city and then sweep into the open country beyond. 71 00:07:53,821 --> 00:07:59,220 The bombing produced so much rubble that the advance ground to a halt. 72 00:07:59,220 --> 00:08:03,579 Caen's southern suburbs remained in German hands. 73 00:08:03,579 --> 00:08:08,338 Yet another Allied breakthrough attempt had failed. 74 00:08:12,698 --> 00:08:16,217 The need to achieve the elusive break-out 75 00:08:16,217 --> 00:08:23,496 was becoming an increasing problem for the Allied ground forces commander, Sir Bernard Montgomery. 76 00:08:24,536 --> 00:08:31,175 Montgomery set up his headquarters here at Creully, near the invasion beaches. 77 00:08:31,175 --> 00:08:38,733 It was typical of the spartan Monty to live, not in the chateau itself, but in a caravan in the garden. 78 00:08:38,733 --> 00:08:46,332 His armies, Bradley's Americans to the west and Dempsey's British and Canadians to the east, were stuck. 79 00:08:46,332 --> 00:08:50,371 Montgomery was under pressure to do something. 80 00:08:50,371 --> 00:08:55,291 In mid-July, he wrote that he'd decided to have a real showdown 81 00:08:55,291 --> 00:09:00,930 and to send three armoured divisions into the country south-east of Caen. 82 00:09:00,930 --> 00:09:05,689 We can't be sure if he really expected to break through, 83 00:09:05,689 --> 00:09:13,248 or simply to attract German armour so that the Americans could stage an attack of their own called "Cobra". 84 00:09:13,248 --> 00:09:18,007 In any event, this was the genesis of Operation Goodwood. 85 00:09:19,087 --> 00:09:25,926 Goodwood was to be a tank battle on a scale never seen before in Western Europe. 86 00:09:25,926 --> 00:09:29,845 The British had 2,500 tanks in Normandy. 87 00:09:29,845 --> 00:09:34,884 Montgomery planned to use them to take the pressure off the infantry. 88 00:09:36,684 --> 00:09:43,683 The workhorse of Allied armoured divisions in Normandy was the American-built Sherman. 89 00:09:43,683 --> 00:09:51,601 The Allies had almost limitless supplies of Shermans, with thousands leaving American production lines. 90 00:09:55,841 --> 00:10:03,639 Victory in Normandy would depend on the performance of the Sherman and its crew. Men such as Ken Tout. 91 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:09,238 - Well, Ken, shall we look inside? - Why not? 92 00:10:11,198 --> 00:10:16,597 Ken, you were a Sherman gunner in Normandy. Who else was in the crew? 93 00:10:16,597 --> 00:10:22,596 You had five on the Sherman, which had this 75mm gun. 94 00:10:22,596 --> 00:10:30,035 There would be the commander - Ken Snowden from Darlington - whose knees would be stuck in my back, 95 00:10:30,035 --> 00:10:36,954 and where you are, there would be the loader, Tommy Tucker, who was always eating. 96 00:10:36,954 --> 00:10:43,553 In front was Rex Jackson, who got the Military Medal, and lives in Braintree. 97 00:10:43,553 --> 00:10:50,551 Rex was the co-driver with his own machine gun, and the driver was Stan Hickin. 98 00:10:50,551 --> 00:10:56,111 The five of us were a family living together, in touch with each other. 99 00:10:56,111 --> 00:10:58,870 What did your job actually involve? 100 00:10:58,870 --> 00:11:04,589 Well, as the gunner, you were simply concentrating on this gun. 101 00:11:04,589 --> 00:11:08,229 You had a periscope here to look through 102 00:11:08,229 --> 00:11:13,468 which gave you a sort of camera angle on the outside. 103 00:11:13,468 --> 00:11:18,787 You could then control the gun here, which is fired by triggers. 104 00:11:18,787 --> 00:11:24,106 I've got two little triggers down here - left foot or right foot. 105 00:11:24,106 --> 00:11:27,465 What was it like living in a tank? 106 00:11:27,465 --> 00:11:34,984 You had the stench of the cordite as the tank gun opened up and ejected all the gas and smells. 107 00:11:34,984 --> 00:11:42,503 You had the sweaty smell from fear and unwashed bodies - you didn't often get the chance to shower. 108 00:11:42,503 --> 00:11:49,462 You had the difficulty of natural functions - you couldn't get out to do the toilet. 109 00:11:49,462 --> 00:11:56,461 So you'd take an empty ammunition tin and you'd discreetly do a pee in the corner. 110 00:11:56,461 --> 00:12:03,339 All that together and worse things - it's not unknown to vomit with fear. 111 00:12:03,339 --> 00:12:10,858 This, after say 24 hours, in this little space, accumulated a smell which is undescribable. 112 00:12:10,858 --> 00:12:18,017 It was only equalled by the smell outside of literally thousands of dead cattle unburied 113 00:12:18,017 --> 00:12:25,176 and bodies unfound and unburied, which pervaded the atmosphere from the beaches upwards. 114 00:12:25,176 --> 00:12:29,935 This was the Allied front line. 115 00:12:29,935 --> 00:12:35,534 Goodwood was to take place on the 18th of July, south-east of Caen. 116 00:12:35,534 --> 00:12:40,653 The landscape is open, rolling plain. It was good tank country. 117 00:12:40,653 --> 00:12:47,212 It was the best option for a break-out, led by the armoured divisions. 118 00:12:47,212 --> 00:12:52,611 The plan was for a massive aerial bombardment to breach German lines, 119 00:12:52,611 --> 00:12:57,770 then British armour would pour into the open country beyond. 120 00:12:57,770 --> 00:13:02,530 Montgomery may not have been confident of a breakthrough, 121 00:13:02,530 --> 00:13:07,369 but the Goodwood creator, General Dempsey, was optimistic. 122 00:13:07,369 --> 00:13:12,448 "It's more than possible," he wrote, "that the Huns will break." 123 00:13:16,767 --> 00:13:22,766 The Germans had fortified a belt of villages running across the plain 124 00:13:22,766 --> 00:13:26,366 and extending about six miles in depth. 125 00:13:26,366 --> 00:13:33,684 Most villages had a small garrison made up of tanks, artillery, infantry and anti-tank guns. 126 00:13:36,604 --> 00:13:44,683 They were to be attacked by three full-strength British armoured divisions, following 2,000 bombers. 127 00:13:44,683 --> 00:13:47,402 The effect was to be shattering. 128 00:13:47,402 --> 00:13:53,161 MUSIC: "Four Sea Interludes" by Benjamin Britten 129 00:14:23,996 --> 00:14:31,235 The bombardment was on a vast scale, many times greater than the raid that had devastated Caen. 130 00:14:31,235 --> 00:14:39,354 The villages themselves were almost wiped off the map. Centuries of history obliterated in a morning. 131 00:14:39,354 --> 00:14:46,992 The school in Demouville may look old, but it was rebuilt from a pile of rubble after the war. 132 00:14:48,832 --> 00:14:55,751 So many of these Norman villages were completely destroyed and only rebuilt after the war. 133 00:14:55,751 --> 00:15:00,910 The war memorial lists the civilians killed, including the mayor. 134 00:15:00,910 --> 00:15:06,349 It was hellish even for the Germans. Their tanks were thrown like toys. 135 00:15:06,349 --> 00:15:11,188 One remembered how it was a regular carpet bombardment, 136 00:15:11,188 --> 00:15:14,028 "Amongst the sound of the explosions 137 00:15:14,028 --> 00:15:19,627 "we could hear the screams of the wounded and those driven mad." 138 00:15:20,867 --> 00:15:25,906 To take advantage, the British had to quickly launch their tanks. 139 00:15:28,785 --> 00:15:31,465 But there was a problem. 140 00:15:31,465 --> 00:15:37,064 Most still had to cross the Orne and the Caen Canal to reach the plain. 141 00:15:37,064 --> 00:15:43,983 The British built three pairs of bridges - one here, one upstream and one downstream - 142 00:15:43,983 --> 00:15:47,662 to ferry the three attacking divisions. 143 00:15:47,662 --> 00:15:52,102 There were over 8,000 vehicles in all. 144 00:15:53,221 --> 00:15:57,741 Surprise was essential for the success of Goodwood. 145 00:15:57,741 --> 00:16:04,700 But the Germans could observe the area from the chimneys of a factory outside Caen. 146 00:16:04,700 --> 00:16:09,379 So the river crossing had to be made at the last minute. 147 00:16:09,379 --> 00:16:15,298 It was a bottleneck and the armoured divisions were crawling forward 148 00:16:15,298 --> 00:16:18,137 when they had to be at full speed. 149 00:16:18,137 --> 00:16:25,296 To make matters worse, this area, which the attackers had to cross, was a minefield. 150 00:16:25,296 --> 00:16:31,095 Some narrow gaps had been made, and at 7.45 the two leading regiments - 151 00:16:31,095 --> 00:16:36,854 3rd Royal Tanks and the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry - squeezed through. 152 00:16:37,974 --> 00:16:42,893 This is an anti-tank mine. It is buried just below the surface. 153 00:16:42,893 --> 00:16:48,212 It supports the weight of a soldier, but blows up when a tank crosses it. 154 00:16:48,212 --> 00:16:55,731 Ironically, it's a British mine. The British laid hundreds of mines here in the weeks before Goodwood. 155 00:16:55,731 --> 00:17:01,570 They hadn't marked their position properly and the whole area had been disturbed by shell-fire. 156 00:17:01,570 --> 00:17:07,329 Of the first British tanks blasted, many were blown up on British mines. 157 00:17:16,128 --> 00:17:20,807 I've walked about two miles south from the minefield. 158 00:17:20,807 --> 00:17:28,326 In 1944, there was a railway line here and the leading tanks got this far with little difficulty, 159 00:17:28,326 --> 00:17:35,884 passing ruins and shell-shocked Germans with British artillery fire falling just in front of them. 160 00:17:35,884 --> 00:17:43,483 The battlefield was so narrow that the attackers were stacked behind a single regiment, 3rd Royal Tanks. 161 00:17:43,483 --> 00:17:50,322 Just behind them were the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry with Lance Corporal Ron Cox. 162 00:17:50,322 --> 00:17:55,441 "We moved forward some distance behind a barrage and then stopped. 163 00:17:55,441 --> 00:18:02,960 "I remember opening a new tin of jam and spreading it thickly on biscuits and passing them round the crew. 164 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:05,480 "We exchanged banter. 165 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:12,598 "I think the humour was a bit forced for we were all aware that this would be something big. 166 00:18:12,598 --> 00:18:16,718 "My own emotion was a kind of numbed fatalism." 167 00:18:19,797 --> 00:18:24,596 The Allied tank crews knew the dangers that lay ahead. 168 00:18:24,596 --> 00:18:32,635 Most German tanks had better guns and the Sherman had a fatal tendency to explode as soon as it was hit. 169 00:18:32,635 --> 00:18:38,474 The worry was that you knew just behind you - that distance away - 170 00:18:38,474 --> 00:18:44,193 you had a massive engine and petrol tank notorious for exploding 171 00:18:44,193 --> 00:18:47,033 and you'd just seconds to get out. 172 00:18:47,033 --> 00:18:53,352 It'd go up in flames. The Germans called the tank a "Tommy cooker", 173 00:18:53,352 --> 00:18:58,031 which was funny unless YOU were the Tommy involved. 174 00:18:59,551 --> 00:19:06,549 The depressing thing was that the Allies' tanks were not as powerful as the German tanks. 175 00:19:06,549 --> 00:19:11,669 You knew you were a featherweight going up against Mike Tyson. 176 00:19:11,669 --> 00:19:16,468 It was horrifying that there was a Tiger tank out there 177 00:19:16,468 --> 00:19:20,987 that could knock you out from a mile and a half. 178 00:19:20,987 --> 00:19:26,666 - What range would you have to get to? - With this gun, about 200-300 yards! 179 00:19:28,186 --> 00:19:35,425 The Allies expected to lose at least five Shermans for every Tiger they managed to destroy. 180 00:19:35,425 --> 00:19:42,783 It was a dreadful rate of exchange, but the Allies could afford it much better than the Germans. 181 00:19:45,703 --> 00:19:50,742 By mid-morning, the attacks seemed to be going well for the British. 182 00:19:50,742 --> 00:19:55,661 3rd Royal Tanks had passed Cagny, just in front of me, 183 00:19:55,661 --> 00:20:00,900 and the Fife and Forfars were coming on between here and that hamlet. 184 00:20:00,900 --> 00:20:08,059 At this stage, Major Hans von Luck, a regimental commander in 21st Panzer Division, arrived. 185 00:20:08,059 --> 00:20:14,018 Luck reached Cagny to see four 88mm Luftwaffe guns, barrels skywards. 186 00:20:14,018 --> 00:20:20,777 He told them to face the tanks, but their captain wanted to hit bombers. 187 00:20:20,777 --> 00:20:28,216 Luck drew his pistol and told the officer that he could win a high decoration or die on the spot. 188 00:20:28,216 --> 00:20:35,255 The officer did the rational thing and soon that field was filled with burning Shermans. 189 00:20:35,255 --> 00:20:40,294 MUSIC: "Four Sea Interludes" by Benjamin Britten 190 00:21:24,967 --> 00:21:29,726 The 88s firing from here were anti-aircraft guns 191 00:21:29,726 --> 00:21:36,725 and these huge brass shell cases pushed their shot out at thousands of feet a second. 192 00:21:36,725 --> 00:21:39,324 This is what did the damage. 193 00:21:39,324 --> 00:21:42,204 It's a steel, armour-piercing shell. 194 00:21:42,204 --> 00:21:49,282 When it hit a Sherman, it almost never failed, in the jargon of the day, to "brew up". 195 00:21:54,162 --> 00:21:59,761 3rd Royal Tanks were clear of Cagny when the Luftwaffe 88s opened fire. 196 00:21:59,761 --> 00:22:08,039 The regiment crossed that railway line and immediately came under fire from anti-tank guns in this village. 197 00:22:08,039 --> 00:22:15,078 Major Bill Close remembered that they dealt with some German guns simply by running over them. 198 00:22:15,078 --> 00:22:18,878 "The anti-tank guns were a different matter. 199 00:22:18,878 --> 00:22:24,197 "At very close range, they hit three of my tanks which burst into flames 200 00:22:24,197 --> 00:22:30,836 "and I could see that the squadron on my left also had several tanks blazing." 201 00:22:42,394 --> 00:22:46,913 The Royal Tanks had orders to bypass the village 202 00:22:46,913 --> 00:22:51,952 and pushed on under another railway line using tunnels like this. 203 00:22:51,952 --> 00:22:57,191 The regiment could now see its final objective, the Bourguebus ridge. 204 00:23:01,790 --> 00:23:08,629 By midday, the British were making slow but steady progress across the battlefield. 205 00:23:08,629 --> 00:23:15,868 Yet if the bombing had at first anaesthetised the Germans, its effects had now worn off. 206 00:23:15,868 --> 00:23:21,227 The defenders of the villages ahead were ready for the British attack. 207 00:23:21,227 --> 00:23:26,786 Worse still, the experienced 1st SS Panzer Division crept round Caen 208 00:23:26,786 --> 00:23:32,305 and by midday, its tanks and assault guns were in position on that ridge. 209 00:23:44,903 --> 00:23:49,503 Despite earlier losses of about 12 tanks apiece, 210 00:23:49,503 --> 00:23:54,542 the Royal Tanks and the Fife and Forfars still had 40 tanks each. 211 00:23:54,542 --> 00:23:59,381 Early in the afternoon, they began to attack that ridge. 212 00:23:59,381 --> 00:24:04,740 The Royal Tanks on this side of the line made for Hubert-Folie and Bras. 213 00:24:04,740 --> 00:24:07,300 One officer wrote... 214 00:24:07,300 --> 00:24:13,779 "I saw many Shermans in flames and thought there'd soon be nothing left." 215 00:24:13,779 --> 00:24:18,698 MUSIC: "Four Sea Interludes" by Benjamin Britten 216 00:24:38,734 --> 00:24:42,894 Wounded crews came back here to the embankment. 217 00:24:42,894 --> 00:24:50,932 The Royal Tanks had lost 41 of their Shermans. It was clear that, for the time being, the attack had stalled. 218 00:25:02,491 --> 00:25:10,129 Regiments in the rear were still advancing when wounded men and crippled tanks began to limp back, 219 00:25:10,129 --> 00:25:14,329 withdrawing from the ferocious German fire. 220 00:25:17,208 --> 00:25:22,247 Thick pillars of smoke marked the fate of the two leading regiments 221 00:25:22,247 --> 00:25:27,246 when the 23rd Hussars advanced in the hope of supporting them. 222 00:25:27,246 --> 00:25:35,005 Lieutenant Geoffrey Bishop described hearing his squadron leader give his orders in an excited, clear voice. 223 00:25:35,005 --> 00:25:37,765 They were to be his last. 224 00:25:37,765 --> 00:25:44,804 Then it was the familiar story of Shermans brewing up. The regiment lost 26 very quickly. 225 00:25:44,804 --> 00:25:47,403 Lieutenant Bishop was about here. 226 00:25:47,403 --> 00:25:54,362 He describes how "the medical officer had fixed up a dressing station in a signal box 227 00:25:54,362 --> 00:25:59,401 "and casualties started streaming back from the burnt-out tanks. 228 00:25:59,401 --> 00:26:03,920 "The chaps were all blackened, their clothes burnt. 229 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:09,039 "A tank which had survived came roaring back with the wounded." 230 00:26:09,039 --> 00:26:16,118 The Northamptonshire Yeomanry made the last charge of the day and lost another 16 tanks. 231 00:26:16,118 --> 00:26:21,557 By now it was perfectly clear that there wouldn't be a breakthrough. 232 00:26:22,637 --> 00:26:30,196 The British, however, held their ground and managed to push further forward over the next two days. 233 00:26:30,196 --> 00:26:35,635 The total advance was just seven miles, but it was a valuable gain. 234 00:26:36,755 --> 00:26:41,994 Montgomery issued a press release extolling the success of Goodwood. 235 00:26:41,994 --> 00:26:47,033 But when it emerged how small the advance had been for such losses, 236 00:26:47,033 --> 00:26:52,152 he found himself in hot water with the politicians and his superiors. 237 00:26:55,192 --> 00:27:01,751 One historian called Goodwood, "the death ride of the armoured divisions". 238 00:27:01,751 --> 00:27:07,590 The British and Canadians lost 400 tanks and nearly 6,000 men. 239 00:27:07,590 --> 00:27:12,189 The battle was more a blood bath than a breakthrough. 240 00:27:12,189 --> 00:27:19,548 The best we can say of it is that it brought the Allies one step closer to liberating Normandy. 241 00:27:23,227 --> 00:27:31,066 This memorial on Montormel commemorates the Allies who died at the end of the battle for Normandy. 242 00:27:31,066 --> 00:27:38,585 Less than a week after Goodwood, the Americans began Operation Cobra and soon broke out deep into France. 243 00:27:38,585 --> 00:27:46,103 In early August, the Germans were trapped between the Allied armies down there in the Falaise pocket. 244 00:27:46,103 --> 00:27:53,302 In these killing fields, the Germans were strafed by aircraft and bombarded by artillery. 245 00:27:53,302 --> 00:27:58,621 About 10,000 of them were killed and 50,000 were captured. 246 00:27:59,821 --> 00:28:04,740 By the end of August, the struggle for Normandy was over. 247 00:28:04,740 --> 00:28:12,579 A historian must never say "never", yet we may hope it marks the end of a barbarous dynasty of battles, 248 00:28:12,579 --> 00:28:17,618 which had ruled Western Europe for more than five centuries 249 00:28:17,618 --> 00:28:24,817 since English archers and French knights fought to the death on the field of Agincourt. 250 00:28:48,333 --> 00:28:52,852 Subtitles by Keir Murray BBC Scotland - 1996