Under General Bernard Montgomery's direction, roughly 750 tanks of Britain's Second Army rolled out of the Normandy bridgehead in Operation Goodwood, aiming to seize ground south of Caen and draw German armor away from American forces preparing to break out further west. Despite an enormous preliminary bombing raid, German anti-tank guns and dug-in positions inflicted heavy losses, and the offensive gained only a few miles at a cost of over 400 tanks.
At dawn, more than 2,000 Allied bombers pounded German positions south of Caen in one of the heaviest tactical bombing efforts of the war, meant to smash a path for the armored divisions following behind. The tanks of the 11th Armoured, Guards, and 7th Armoured Divisions surged forward across open, cratered farmland, expecting to punch through a shattered German defense.
Instead, they ran into a defense-in-depth anchored by 88mm anti-tank guns and Tiger and Panther tanks dug into villages and orchards south of the bombed zone, largely untouched by the bombardment. British Cromwell and Sherman tanks, lighter and more vulnerable, took catastrophic losses as they advanced across the exposed Bourguébus Ridge.
By the time the offensive wound down after three days, British and Canadian forces had advanced only about seven miles and lost over 400 tanks, though German casualties and armor losses were also severe. Goodwood's true strategic value remains debated by historians: Montgomery claimed it succeeded in tying down German panzer divisions that might otherwise have opposed the American breakout at Operation Cobra, launched just days later, but critics point to the disproportionate cost for the ground gained.