Batailles & blindes No 84
Batailles & blindés 84A central dossier, made up of five articles, offers us the hard fighting around Caen from 6 June to the end of July 1944.
- Caen the martyr. The ordeal of the ” Normandy capital”. Caen was the great priority objective of the Anglo-Canadians for the opening of the Western Front in Europe. The inability of the Allies to take it in the wake of D-Day led to intense fighting that lasted two months. Loïc Becker retraces the different stages of this high-intensity struggle.
- ” Small fish ” against ” young wolves “. Canadians vs. ” Hitlerjugend ” on the road to Caen (June 7-12, 1944). Sylvain Ferreira gives us a dynamic account of the very hard fighting between the Canadians and the young fanatics of the 12th. SS-Pz-Division engaged for the first time and in scattered order. Six days of intense fighting. A well-balanced account with the vision of both sides.
- Butchery for an airfield. Canadians vs. ” Hitlerjugend ” at Carpiquet (July 4-10, 1944). Second round report between the same opponents. Again by Sylvain Ferreira.
- Crocodile versus Hitlerjugend. The 14th Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps attacking Caen. The Avre, Flail and Crocodile tanks engaged in operations with too mixed results. By Laurent Tirone.
- Kurt Meyer, the youngest general in the Waffen-SS. Xavier Tracol offers us an uncompromising biography of this SS officer with an emblematic career. Without mercy and without remorse… A very complete synthesis.
- With sources and bibliography.
The other articles:
- B1bis from Gaudet to Réthel. The marching company of the 37°BCC with De Lattre de Tassigny. Very tactical engagements and logistical difficulties of French heavy tanks. Anecdotal. By Jean-Robert Gorce.
- Baranow-Sandomierz. August 1944. Bridgehead too far or nightmare for Tiger II? An article by Vincent Bernard on an operation on the fringes of the immense Soviet advance of the summer of 1944: ” Bagration “. Strengths and weaknesses of the belligerents, operations and the first more than mixed engagement of the last German heavy tank, the Tiger II… Classic and well illustrated.
- The ” News “ sheets cover: 1- the new modern equipment of the Russian infantryman 2- the structural and material difficulties of the Bundeswehr in holding its own in NATO…
