0:00:19 > 0:00:24MUSIC: "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller
0:00:32 > 0:00:37In July 1944, the British Army staged its biggest-ever tank attack.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Many hoped that it would be the great breakthrough,
0:00:41 > 0:00:47a charge to shatter the Germans and win the battle for Normandy.
0:00:47 > 0:00:54Referring to the glories of British horse racing, it was codenamed "Operation Goodwood".
0:00:58 > 0:01:06On the 6th of June 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy in the greatest-ever seaborne invasion.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11In the days and weeks that followed, they poured in men and equipment.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Some of them landed here at Arromanches
0:01:15 > 0:01:20at the artificial Mulberry Harbour whose durable remains are behind me.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26There were two harbours.
0:01:26 > 0:01:33Each as big as the port of Dover, they enabled the landing of men and equipment on an unparalleled scale.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38By the end of June, less than a month after the landings,
0:01:38 > 0:01:44the Allies had 875,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy.
0:01:44 > 0:01:50MUSIC: "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller
0:01:54 > 0:01:56But they were going nowhere.
0:01:56 > 0:02:03Landing in Normandy was relatively easy. Breaking out into France was much more difficult.
0:02:03 > 0:02:11The landings, along a 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast, had been a huge success.
0:02:11 > 0:02:19But the Allies found it hard to exploit their advantage and were slow to begin their advance inland.
0:02:21 > 0:02:28I'm going to follow the route the Allies took in early June as they attempted to move inland,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32beyond the coast they'd seized on D-Day.
0:02:32 > 0:02:37Their forces moved west of Caen into the countryside known as Bocage.
0:02:37 > 0:02:43It's made up of fields surrounded by hedges growing out of high banks.
0:02:43 > 0:02:50In 1944, it covered a huge area, and the Allies had no choice but to fight their way through it.
0:02:51 > 0:02:59There's less "bocage" than there once was, as ancient hedges get grubbed up to make big new fields.
0:02:59 > 0:03:06But we can still gain a very vivid sense of how terrifying it must have been to fight here
0:03:06 > 0:03:12with minimal visibility and knowing the enemy might be round the corner.
0:03:12 > 0:03:19The area seemed made for defence and the Germans pinned the Allies down.
0:03:19 > 0:03:27In this war of attrition, the Allies had a big advantage over the Germans in that they had many more tanks.
0:03:27 > 0:03:34But tanks were of limited use in the labyrinth of the bocage, and were very vulnerable.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43This is cheap and simple. It's called a "Panzerfaust" - tank fist.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48This shaped charge will go through the armour of a Sherman tank.
0:03:48 > 0:03:56To fire it, you simply flip up the sight - it's only sighted to 60 metres - cock it, aim and fire.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58You chuck it away and grab another.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03Germany infantry used these in their hundreds in the bocage,
0:04:03 > 0:04:11taking on tanks from point-blank range and then scampering back to another hedgerow to try again.
0:04:11 > 0:04:18This fighting style wore men out and led some Allied commanders to wonder how they'd EVER get out of Normandy.
0:04:20 > 0:04:27Their tanks were obviously not going to get them through the bocage, so the Allies relied on their infantry.
0:04:27 > 0:04:35For them, it was every bit as dangerous as the First World War. They suffered very high casualties.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37But after four weeks of fighting,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42they were still stuck fast, just a few miles from the sea.
0:04:45 > 0:04:52This cemetery at Bayeux is the largest Second World War British cemetery in Europe.
0:04:52 > 0:04:59It is tragic evidence that by July 1944 the Allies had suffered severely.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04The British had lost nearly 25,000 men, killed and wounded.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07When considering what to do next,
0:05:07 > 0:05:13British commanders were anxious to let armour plate bear the brunt.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18The British Army was simply running out of men.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31In the air, however, it was a different story.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38Allied fighters and bombers enjoyed absolute command of the skies.
0:05:38 > 0:05:45The Allied commanders planned a new break-out that would utilise their air power.
0:05:45 > 0:05:51Their target was the city of Caen, the historic capital of Normandy.
0:05:54 > 0:06:01It's a thriving city today, showing little sign of the horrors that it witnessed in 1944.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06But the town's new university is symbolic.
0:06:06 > 0:06:14It represents the resurrection of a city that was all but obliterated by the Allies who came to liberate it.
0:06:15 > 0:06:23I'm up on the battlements of William the Conqueror's castle in Caen, just a few miles from the sea.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28Caen had been a D-Day objective, but the Allies had failed to take it.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33A month after the landings, it was still in German hands.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Allied bombing proved to be a blunt instrument.
0:06:37 > 0:06:43Caen and its people suffered badly; the Germans, scarcely at all.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47Andre Heintz was a resistance worker in Caen.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53- You were here during the war?- Yes. - How many aerial raids do you recall?
0:06:53 > 0:07:01- Well, I remember at least 24 after D-Day until the liberation of Caen. - And which was the worst?
0:07:01 > 0:07:08They were all bad, but especially the four that involved more than 300 planes.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13- Were many people killed? - Probably 6,000, which is a lot,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18but at one time, we thought there might be many more than that.
0:07:18 > 0:07:25- What did people do while all this was going on?- The people all rushed towards that church over there -
0:07:25 > 0:07:29the Abbaye aux Hommes, the men's abbey.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34There were at least 16,000 people sheltering there.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40On the night of the 7th of July,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44the city was pounded by 460 heavy bombers.
0:07:44 > 0:07:52The British hoped to obliterate the Germans, take the city and then sweep into the open country beyond.
0:07:52 > 0:07:58The bombing produced so much rubble that the advance ground to a halt.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Caen's southern suburbs remained in German hands.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07Yet another Allied breakthrough attempt had failed.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15The need to achieve the elusive break-out
0:08:15 > 0:08:22was becoming an increasing problem for the Allied ground forces commander, Sir Bernard Montgomery.
0:08:23 > 0:08:30Montgomery set up his headquarters here at Creully, near the invasion beaches.
0:08:30 > 0:08:37It was typical of the spartan Monty to live, not in the chateau itself, but in a caravan in the garden.
0:08:37 > 0:08:45His armies, Bradley's Americans to the west and Dempsey's British and Canadians to the east, were stuck.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Montgomery was under pressure to do something.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54In mid-July, he wrote that he'd decided to have a real showdown
0:08:54 > 0:09:00and to send three armoured divisions into the country south-east of Caen.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04We can't be sure if he really expected to break through,
0:09:04 > 0:09:12or simply to attract German armour so that the Americans could stage an attack of their own called "Cobra".
0:09:12 > 0:09:17In any event, this was the genesis of Operation Goodwood.
0:09:18 > 0:09:25Goodwood was to be a tank battle on a scale never seen before in Western Europe.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29The British had 2,500 tanks in Normandy.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34Montgomery planned to use them to take the pressure off the infantry.
0:09:35 > 0:09:42The workhorse of Allied armoured divisions in Normandy was the American-built Sherman.
0:09:42 > 0:09:50The Allies had almost limitless supplies of Shermans, with thousands leaving American production lines.
0:09:55 > 0:10:02Victory in Normandy would depend on the performance of the Sherman and its crew. Men such as Ken Tout.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08- Well, Ken, shall we look inside? - Why not?
0:10:10 > 0:10:15Ken, you were a Sherman gunner in Normandy. Who else was in the crew?
0:10:15 > 0:10:21You had five on the Sherman, which had this 75mm gun.
0:10:21 > 0:10:29There would be the commander - Ken Snowden from Darlington - whose knees would be stuck in my back,
0:10:29 > 0:10:36and where you are, there would be the loader, Tommy Tucker, who was always eating.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42In front was Rex Jackson, who got the Military Medal, and lives in Braintree.
0:10:42 > 0:10:49Rex was the co-driver with his own machine gun, and the driver was Stan Hickin.
0:10:49 > 0:10:55The five of us were a family living together, in touch with each other.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58What did your job actually involve?
0:10:58 > 0:11:03Well, as the gunner, you were simply concentrating on this gun.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07You had a periscope here to look through
0:11:07 > 0:11:12which gave you a sort of camera angle on the outside.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17You could then control the gun here, which is fired by triggers.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23I've got two little triggers down here - left foot or right foot.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26What was it like living in a tank?
0:11:26 > 0:11:34You had the stench of the cordite as the tank gun opened up and ejected all the gas and smells.
0:11:34 > 0:11:41You had the sweaty smell from fear and unwashed bodies - you didn't often get the chance to shower.
0:11:41 > 0:11:48You had the difficulty of natural functions - you couldn't get out to do the toilet.
0:11:48 > 0:11:55So you'd take an empty ammunition tin and you'd discreetly do a pee in the corner.
0:11:55 > 0:12:02All that together and worse things - it's not unknown to vomit with fear.
0:12:02 > 0:12:10This, after say 24 hours, in this little space, accumulated a smell which is undescribable.
0:12:10 > 0:12:17It was only equalled by the smell outside of literally thousands of dead cattle unburied
0:12:17 > 0:12:24and bodies unfound and unburied, which pervaded the atmosphere from the beaches upwards.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29This was the Allied front line.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34Goodwood was to take place on the 18th of July, south-east of Caen.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39The landscape is open, rolling plain. It was good tank country.
0:12:39 > 0:12:46It was the best option for a break-out, led by the armoured divisions.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51The plan was for a massive aerial bombardment to breach German lines,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56then British armour would pour into the open country beyond.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01Montgomery may not have been confident of a breakthrough,
0:13:01 > 0:13:06but the Goodwood creator, General Dempsey, was optimistic.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11"It's more than possible," he wrote, "that the Huns will break."
0:13:15 > 0:13:21The Germans had fortified a belt of villages running across the plain
0:13:21 > 0:13:25and extending about six miles in depth.
0:13:25 > 0:13:32Most villages had a small garrison made up of tanks, artillery, infantry and anti-tank guns.
0:13:35 > 0:13:43They were to be attacked by three full-strength British armoured divisions, following 2,000 bombers.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46The effect was to be shattering.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52MUSIC: "Four Sea Interludes" by Benjamin Britten
0:14:23 > 0:14:30The bombardment was on a vast scale, many times greater than the raid that had devastated Caen.
0:14:30 > 0:14:38The villages themselves were almost wiped off the map. Centuries of history obliterated in a morning.
0:14:38 > 0:14:46The school in Demouville may look old, but it was rebuilt from a pile of rubble after the war.
0:14:48 > 0:14:54So many of these Norman villages were completely destroyed and only rebuilt after the war.
0:14:54 > 0:15:00The war memorial lists the civilians killed, including the mayor.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05It was hellish even for the Germans. Their tanks were thrown like toys.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10One remembered how it was a regular carpet bombardment,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13"Amongst the sound of the explosions
0:15:13 > 0:15:18"we could hear the screams of the wounded and those driven mad."
0:15:20 > 0:15:25To take advantage, the British had to quickly launch their tanks.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30But there was a problem.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36Most still had to cross the Orne and the Caen Canal to reach the plain.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43The British built three pairs of bridges - one here, one upstream and one downstream -
0:15:43 > 0:15:46to ferry the three attacking divisions.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51There were over 8,000 vehicles in all.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Surprise was essential for the success of Goodwood.
0:15:56 > 0:16:03But the Germans could observe the area from the chimneys of a factory outside Caen.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08So the river crossing had to be made at the last minute.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14It was a bottleneck and the armoured divisions were crawling forward
0:16:14 > 0:16:17when they had to be at full speed.
0:16:17 > 0:16:24To make matters worse, this area, which the attackers had to cross, was a minefield.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30Some narrow gaps had been made, and at 7.45 the two leading regiments -
0:16:30 > 0:16:363rd Royal Tanks and the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry - squeezed through.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42This is an anti-tank mine. It is buried just below the surface.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47It supports the weight of a soldier, but blows up when a tank crosses it.
0:16:47 > 0:16:54Ironically, it's a British mine. The British laid hundreds of mines here in the weeks before Goodwood.
0:16:54 > 0:17:00They hadn't marked their position properly and the whole area had been disturbed by shell-fire.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06Of the first British tanks blasted, many were blown up on British mines.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20I've walked about two miles south from the minefield.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27In 1944, there was a railway line here and the leading tanks got this far with little difficulty,
0:17:27 > 0:17:35passing ruins and shell-shocked Germans with British artillery fire falling just in front of them.
0:17:35 > 0:17:42The battlefield was so narrow that the attackers were stacked behind a single regiment, 3rd Royal Tanks.
0:17:42 > 0:17:49Just behind them were the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry with Lance Corporal Ron Cox.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54"We moved forward some distance behind a barrage and then stopped.
0:17:54 > 0:18:02"I remember opening a new tin of jam and spreading it thickly on biscuits and passing them round the crew.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04"We exchanged banter.
0:18:04 > 0:18:11"I think the humour was a bit forced for we were all aware that this would be something big.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15"My own emotion was a kind of numbed fatalism."
0:18:19 > 0:18:23The Allied tank crews knew the dangers that lay ahead.
0:18:23 > 0:18:31Most German tanks had better guns and the Sherman had a fatal tendency to explode as soon as it was hit.
0:18:31 > 0:18:37The worry was that you knew just behind you - that distance away -
0:18:37 > 0:18:43you had a massive engine and petrol tank notorious for exploding
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and you'd just seconds to get out.
0:18:46 > 0:18:52It'd go up in flames. The Germans called the tank a "Tommy cooker",
0:18:52 > 0:18:57which was funny unless YOU were the Tommy involved.
0:18:58 > 0:19:05The depressing thing was that the Allies' tanks were not as powerful as the German tanks.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10You knew you were a featherweight going up against Mike Tyson.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15It was horrifying that there was a Tiger tank out there
0:19:15 > 0:19:20that could knock you out from a mile and a half.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25- What range would you have to get to? - With this gun, about 200-300 yards!
0:19:27 > 0:19:34The Allies expected to lose at least five Shermans for every Tiger they managed to destroy.
0:19:34 > 0:19:42It was a dreadful rate of exchange, but the Allies could afford it much better than the Germans.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50By mid-morning, the attacks seemed to be going well for the British.
0:19:50 > 0:19:543rd Royal Tanks had passed Cagny, just in front of me,
0:19:54 > 0:20:00and the Fife and Forfars were coming on between here and that hamlet.
0:20:00 > 0:20:07At this stage, Major Hans von Luck, a regimental commander in 21st Panzer Division, arrived.
0:20:07 > 0:20:13Luck reached Cagny to see four 88mm Luftwaffe guns, barrels skywards.
0:20:13 > 0:20:20He told them to face the tanks, but their captain wanted to hit bombers.
0:20:20 > 0:20:27Luck drew his pistol and told the officer that he could win a high decoration or die on the spot.
0:20:27 > 0:20:34The officer did the rational thing and soon that field was filled with burning Shermans.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39MUSIC: "Four Sea Interludes" by Benjamin Britten
0:21:24 > 0:21:29The 88s firing from here were anti-aircraft guns
0:21:29 > 0:21:36and these huge brass shell cases pushed their shot out at thousands of feet a second.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38This is what did the damage.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41It's a steel, armour-piercing shell.
0:21:41 > 0:21:48When it hit a Sherman, it almost never failed, in the jargon of the day, to "brew up".
0:21:53 > 0:21:593rd Royal Tanks were clear of Cagny when the Luftwaffe 88s opened fire.
0:21:59 > 0:22:07The regiment crossed that railway line and immediately came under fire from anti-tank guns in this village.
0:22:07 > 0:22:14Major Bill Close remembered that they dealt with some German guns simply by running over them.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18"The anti-tank guns were a different matter.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23"At very close range, they hit three of my tanks which burst into flames
0:22:23 > 0:22:30"and I could see that the squadron on my left also had several tanks blazing."
0:22:41 > 0:22:46The Royal Tanks had orders to bypass the village
0:22:46 > 0:22:51and pushed on under another railway line using tunnels like this.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56The regiment could now see its final objective, the Bourguebus ridge.
0:23:01 > 0:23:07By midday, the British were making slow but steady progress across the battlefield.
0:23:07 > 0:23:15Yet if the bombing had at first anaesthetised the Germans, its effects had now worn off.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20The defenders of the villages ahead were ready for the British attack.
0:23:20 > 0:23:26Worse still, the experienced 1st SS Panzer Division crept round Caen
0:23:26 > 0:23:31and by midday, its tanks and assault guns were in position on that ridge.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Despite earlier losses of about 12 tanks apiece,
0:23:48 > 0:23:53the Royal Tanks and the Fife and Forfars still had 40 tanks each.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58Early in the afternoon, they began to attack that ridge.
0:23:58 > 0:24:04The Royal Tanks on this side of the line made for Hubert-Folie and Bras.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06One officer wrote...
0:24:06 > 0:24:13"I saw many Shermans in flames and thought there'd soon be nothing left."
0:24:13 > 0:24:18MUSIC: "Four Sea Interludes" by Benjamin Britten
0:24:38 > 0:24:42Wounded crews came back here to the embankment.
0:24:42 > 0:24:50The Royal Tanks had lost 41 of their Shermans. It was clear that, for the time being, the attack had stalled.
0:25:01 > 0:25:09Regiments in the rear were still advancing when wounded men and crippled tanks began to limp back,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13withdrawing from the ferocious German fire.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21Thick pillars of smoke marked the fate of the two leading regiments
0:25:21 > 0:25:26when the 23rd Hussars advanced in the hope of supporting them.
0:25:26 > 0:25:34Lieutenant Geoffrey Bishop described hearing his squadron leader give his orders in an excited, clear voice.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37They were to be his last.
0:25:37 > 0:25:44Then it was the familiar story of Shermans brewing up. The regiment lost 26 very quickly.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Lieutenant Bishop was about here.
0:25:46 > 0:25:53He describes how "the medical officer had fixed up a dressing station in a signal box
0:25:53 > 0:25:58"and casualties started streaming back from the burnt-out tanks.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03"The chaps were all blackened, their clothes burnt.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08"A tank which had survived came roaring back with the wounded."
0:26:08 > 0:26:15The Northamptonshire Yeomanry made the last charge of the day and lost another 16 tanks.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20By now it was perfectly clear that there wouldn't be a breakthrough.
0:26:21 > 0:26:29The British, however, held their ground and managed to push further forward over the next two days.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34The total advance was just seven miles, but it was a valuable gain.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41Montgomery issued a press release extolling the success of Goodwood.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46But when it emerged how small the advance had been for such losses,
0:26:46 > 0:26:51he found himself in hot water with the politicians and his superiors.
0:26:54 > 0:27:01One historian called Goodwood, "the death ride of the armoured divisions".
0:27:01 > 0:27:06The British and Canadians lost 400 tanks and nearly 6,000 men.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11The battle was more a blood bath than a breakthrough.
0:27:11 > 0:27:18The best we can say of it is that it brought the Allies one step closer to liberating Normandy.
0:27:22 > 0:27:30This memorial on Montormel commemorates the Allies who died at the end of the battle for Normandy.
0:27:30 > 0:27:37Less than a week after Goodwood, the Americans began Operation Cobra and soon broke out deep into France.
0:27:37 > 0:27:45In early August, the Germans were trapped between the Allied armies down there in the Falaise pocket.
0:27:45 > 0:27:52In these killing fields, the Germans were strafed by aircraft and bombarded by artillery.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57About 10,000 of them were killed and 50,000 were captured.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04By the end of August, the struggle for Normandy was over.
0:28:04 > 0:28:11A historian must never say "never", yet we may hope it marks the end of a barbarous dynasty of battles,
0:28:11 > 0:28:16which had ruled Western Europe for more than five centuries
0:28:16 > 0:28:24since English archers and French knights fought to the death on the field of Agincourt.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52Subtitles by Keir Murray BBC Scotland - 1996