Operation Goodwood - Cromwell, King Tiger & Stug III

So, as promised,  here's part 2 of my tracked vehicle medley. Following the Hobart Funnies which kicked off this 'land ship' excursion, I acquired 3 additional Airfix models of tanks used in and following those Normandy landings. These were, two tanks making the debut in the field of combat, the Tiger II and Cromwell, and a surprising tracked vehicle, the Stug III. As a backstory to these models, I selected the Allied's July operations to break out from the Normandy beachheads and subsequent the liberation of two strategic towns, St Lo and Caen, which opened the way to Paris and the Franco-German border.

Having successfully landed at Sword & Juno beaches on the opening day of Operation Overlord, D-Day 6th June 1944, the British and Canadians armies hit a brick wall at Caen. Bisected by the river Orne, it was a vital road and rail junction which Montgomery had planned to take on D-Day itself, however, congestion in the beachhead delayed the arrival of armour and allowed the Germans, recognising Caen's strategic importance, to consolidate their forces for counter attack. 

If you had to design anti-tank defences, one would be hard pushed to create anything more effective than the ditches and high banks topped with thorny hedges found surrounding the farmland along the Normany coast; this was a landscape soon to be known, to the Allied soldiers cost, as the bocage. These banks, ditches and hedges not only offered excellent defensive positions in which to hide anti tank guns, mortars and snipers but were also very difficult to launch a viable attack against. The roads were narrow, in some cases too narrow for tanks and if wide enough, there was normally insufficient room to traverse a turret, so tanks could be taken out by those lying in wait, at their leisure, like sitting ducks! 

Cromwell, Stug III, King Tiger standoff!

Naturally, these conditions were known to the planners and this was why Britain's newest edition to its armoured division, the Cromwell tank, also know as the Cruiser Mk VIII, was fitted with a specialised hedge clearing attachment. While not specifically one of Hobarts Funnies, which I shared in an earlier post, I think the Cromwell tank's accessories should at least warrant an honouree entry in his inventory, 

Cromwell tank with hedge clearing attachment

as in addition to the hedge clearing attachment, it could also be fitted with a snorkel over its engine vents so as to allow it to wade ashore from its landing craft! While probably never in reality seen on the same vehicle at the same time, making full use of artistic license, I've ensured both of these accessories were seen fitted to my model of this D-Day equipped version.

An interesting factoid about the decals on this model: the white star, usually associated with the American forces, was actually adopted for all Allied ground vehicles during the second world war, so it is very much OK to see it adorning this British Cromwell tank.

Cromwell tank with snorkel

So, what about Operation Goodwood? Well, while there were a two preceding operations (Epsom & Charnwood) in the attempt to liberate Caen, Goodwood was distinctive in that Montgomery, commander of the Allied ground forces, went against his mechanised battle doctrine of never using tanks without infantry support. It was July 1944, the British Army were struggling to fill gaps in its ranks but had plenty of tanks. Montgomery was under pressure from the RAF to secure forward airfields, from Churchill to capture the V1 sites which had started launching flying bombs on London and from the Americans to take the pressure off their Operation Cobra to liberate St Lo. So, Montgomery released 3 armoured divisions of 2,650 tanks to envelop Caen in the largest tank battle that the British ever fought. While it was costly in men and machines, with a third of the entire British tank strength in Normandy lost, its success was seen some 60km to the west, where as the Germans believing this British flank attack to be the most dangerous, emptied St Lo of vital supplies. This left the door open for the Americans to break out toward Falaise and encircle what was to be known as the Falaise Pocket. Operation Goodwood had effectively been a decoy enabling the breakout and the ultimate destruction of most of Germany's Army Group B west of the Seine.

The Normandy campaign, saw both the British and Germans bring 2 new tanks into the war. The Germans introduced their very expensive heavy tank, the Tiger II or King Tiger, while the British rolled out their medium tank, the Cromwell, a scaled down version of the Churchill tank, which you may recall was the base vehicle for many of Hobarts Funnies.  The Cromwell was powered by a Rolls Royce Meteor engine, which was inspired by the famous Merlin engine of the Spitfire after many from crashed aircraft were actually converted for earlier tank use. It could reach an impressive 40 mph and cover 170 miles on its 500 litres of fuel, meanwhile, the King Tiger, could only reach 25 mph and had to stop to replenish its 860 litre tank at least every 100 miles. While the inadequacy of its original 6lb main gun was resolved by boring it out to take the same 75mm shell used by the Sherman, it did enter the conflict with an improvement over the Sherman, in having a lower profile, harder to hit, and thicker armour enabling it to sustain more damage. That said, it would need its superior speed and unique ability to lay down accurate fire on the move to out gun the King Tiger!

Stug III

While the King Tiger ay have been latest edition to Germany’s highly effective war machine, it already had 2 very powerful and feared stablemates in the form of the Tiger I and Panther, both of which were more than a match for most of what the Allied forces could at the time muster.  However, another interesting factoid: it was neither of these new nor existing heavy tanks which made the biggest impact on Allied tank losses; indeed it was not even a tank, but the Stug III self propelled gun and tank destroyer. This was basically a 75mm gun stuck on the body of an old Panzer III. While less easy to aim, it costed a third of the price of a turreted Panzer III, and found success due to its considerably lower profile, making it the perfect weapon to camouflage in wait for its prey, protected by the ditches, banks and hedges of the Brocade. 

It was the most prolific tracked vehicle to be produced by Germany during the war, and it occurs to me that, due to its low cost, its effectiveness on the battlefield, and for being in service from the start to the end of the war, it could be somewhat likened to the Allied’s extensive use of the mass produced American Sherman tank and a-typical of what I had considered to have been Germany’s usual approach: to create and exploit the most expensive and bespoke new armaments possible! 

Lovers of flight may be be please to learn that my next post will return us again to the air.

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The Models:

Brand: Airfix

Title: Tiger Ausf.B 'King Tiger' Starter Set

Number: A55303

Scale: 1:76

Type: Full kit

Released: 2012 | Rebox (Model set)

Brand: Airfix

Title: Stug III 75mm Assault Gun Vintage Classics

Number: A01306V

Scale: 1:76

Type: Full kit

Released: 2018 | Rebox (Changed box only)

Brand: Airfix

Title: Cromwell MkIV Starter set

Number: A55109

Scale: 1:76

Type: Full kit

Released: 2011 | Rebox (Model set)