Operation Jupiter was an offensive by VIII Corps of the British Second Army from 10 to 11 July 1944 during the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. The objective of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division (Major-General Ivor Thomas) was to capture the villages of Baron-sur-Odon, Fontaine-Étoupefour, Château de Fontaine-Étoupefour and to capture the high ground of Hill 112 in order to deny its use as an observation point. An attached brigade of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division would take Éterville, Maltot and the ground up to the River Orne and then the tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade, supported by infantry, would advance through the captured ground and secure several villages to the west of the River Orne. It was hoped that the initial objectives could be captured by 9:00 a.m., after which the 4th Armoured Brigade would exploit the success.
The British advance went well at first but fighting for Hill 112 took all day and Maltot changed hands several times. On 11 July, counter-attacks by the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen, 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg and the schwere-SS Panzer Bataillon 102 (102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion) in the afternoon, forced the British off the top of Hill 112 to positions on the north-facing slope. The operation was a tactical failure for VIII Corps but a strategic success for the Allies, attrition having reduced the II SS Panzer Corps to a condition from which it never recovered. British operations of the Second Battle of the Odon conducted in the Odon valley continued in July and the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division occupied Hill 112 almost unopposed on 4 August, after the Germans withdrew during Operation Cobra and Operation Bluecoat further west. A stone memorial to the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division was built on the hill in the late 1940s.
Background
Operation Epsom
The first battle for Hill 112 was fought at the end of Operation Epsom, when the tanks of 11th Armoured Division broke out from a bridgehead established by the 2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, part of 227th (Highland) Infantry Brigade 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, at Tourmauville. Hill 112 was an intermediate objective on the way to the River Orne crossings but such was the German reaction, that the 23rd Hussars were only able to capture and hold the hill with difficulty. Hill 112, at the end of a narrow salient, was held by the infantry of the 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own). Here they remained under shell and mortar fire until Ultra decryption of German radio traffic, showed that the II SS Panzer Corps was arriving. Before the German reinforcements could attack, General Bernard Montgomery ordered a withdrawal from the hilltop. Montgomery intended to hold the Panzer divisions (approximately seven), on the British-Canadian front, while the First US Army continued the Battle of Cherbourg and broke out from the beachhead. The American objective was feasible, because they had only the equivalent of 1+1⁄2 panzer divisions facing them, despite German attempts to disengage panzer units from the east end of the bridgehead.
Operation Charnwood
Operation Charnwood took place from 8 to 9 July, to capture Caen and prevent the transfer of German armoured units from the Anglo-Canadian front in the east to the American sector. Three infantry divisions supported by three armoured brigades, attacked behind a creeping barrage and made gradual progress against the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division. By the end of the day the 3rd Canadian Division, the British 3rd Infantry Division and the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division had reached Caen. At dawn, the attackers met the rearguards of German units which were retreating across the Orne; Carpiquet airfield had fallen to the Canadians during the morning and by 6:00 p.m., the British and Canadians had secured the north bank of the Orne. With the remaining bridges fortified or impassable and with German reserves close by, the British I Corps ended the operation. Charnwood was mutually costly but a tactical success for the Allies. The Germans were expelled from north of the Orne but established a defensive line south of the city and continued to transfer formations to the American front.
Prelude
British plan
The intent of the operation was to capture the bridges over the Orne near Feuguerolles to provide a bridgehead for the Second Army to attack over the open ground to Bretteville-sur-Laize and Falaise. The 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division (Major-General Ivor Thomas) which had arrived in Normandy in time to play a supporting role in Operation Epsom, would capture the spur running eastwards from Hill 112 to the confluence of the Odon and Orne rivers. The 129th Infantry Brigade would capture the top of the hill and establish observation posts as the 130th Infantry Brigade took the lower ground to the south-east of Hill 112. The infantry brigades were to be supported by Churchill tanks of the 31st Tank Brigade and flame-throwing Churchill Crocodiles of the 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (141st RAC) from the 79th Armoured Division. The 4th Armoured Brigade with the 214th Infantry Brigade would exploit success by forming a bridgehead on the east side of the Orne but the use of troop-carriers was cancelled. The 46th (Highland) Infantry Brigade of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division was placed under the command of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division to capture Verson and Éterville and the land between the confluence of the Odon and Orne. The Highland Brigade would then advance either side of the Odon to the Orne as a flank guard s the 129th Infantry Brigade guarded the right flank on Hill 112.
Artillery plan
The attacking brigades were to be supported by the divisional artilleries of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, 11th Armoured Division, 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division and the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division. The medium and heavy guns of the 3rd Army Group Royal Artillery (AGRA), 8th AGRA and part of the 5th AGRA, the corps artillery of XXX Corps, to the west. Thirteen field gun regiments, ten medium gun regiments and 2½ heavy regiments were to participate - three hundred and twelve 25-pounder howitzer-field guns, a hundred and sixty 4.5-inch and 5.5-inch medium guns, twenty-four 155 mm 'Long Tom' heavy field guns and sixteen 7.2-inch heavy howitzers. The battleship HMS Rodney with nine 16-inch guns, the monitor HMS Roberts with two 15-inch guns and the light cruiser HMS Belfast with twelve 6-inch guns in the Bay of the Seine were to contribute their firepower. The army artillery amounted to 512 pieces and the naval contribution was 23 medium and super-heavy guns. The heavy 4.2-inch mortars of the 8th Middlesex and the 3-inch mortar of the infantry were to participate and Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers were to operate over the German-occupied roads leading to the area.
German dispositions
Hill 112 was held by the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg with SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 21 on the hill, SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 22 between the hill and the Orne and SS-Panzer-Regiment 10 in reserve with the Tiger tanks of schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 102 (SS Heavy Panzer Battalion). The German defences comprised a line of outposts down the north slope of Hill 112 with a main line of resistance along the Caen–Évrecy road. A second line ran from Feuguerolles westwards from the Orne to Bully, Avenay and Évrecy and another outpost line ran through St Martin; another main line of resistance from Bully to Amayé sur Orne to Évrecy. The Orne crossings were held by the pioneer and reconnaissance battalions and artillery support was provided by the 10th SS Artillery Regiment and the 8th Werfer Brigade. When the 3rd Canadian Division took Carpiquet on 9 July, the Germans lost observation westwards over the south-eastern slope of Hill 112 but could still observe from positions further east across the Orne.
Battle
Operation Jupiter began from the Odon bridgehead, which ran from Verson to Baron, after the 214th Brigade crossed the river during the night of 8/9 July. After a preliminary bombardment the first battalions of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division reached Éterville and the north slope of Hill 112 by 8:00 a.m. and the advance to Maltot began. The village was entered but determined German defenders, mortar-fire and armoured counter-attacks made the British position in the village untenable, without control of Hill 112. The German defenders on the hill were dug into cornfields and tanks were hidden in copses. The Germans stopped the advance of 5th Somerset Light Infantry and C Squadron 7 RTR at the Caen–Évrecy road and below the crest on the flanks. In the evening the 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (5th DCLI) of 214th Brigade and A Squadron 7th Royal Tank Regiment (7th RTR) attacked the hill and reached the hilltop and woods nearby, which brought the four 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division brigades onto the ridge. To the north of Éterville, troops of the 3rd Canadian Division had crossed the Odon and extended the salient to the east.
German counter-attacks began around midnight and got into Éterville several times; on the hill, the 5th DCLI was forced back to the Caen–Évrecy road, after all its anti-tanks guns were destroyed and it suffered 240 casualties. During the battle, General Heinrich Eberbach, the commander of Panzergruppe West had made the defence of Hill 112 the priority (Schwerpunkt) of the II SS Panzer Corps but the British advance had taken the north slope and got half-way across the hilltop. The German defenders had been subject to naval bombardment, air attack and artillery fire but held much of their ground, with the support of Tiger tanks of schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 102, which had arrived in Normandy two days previous.
Aftermath
Analysis
Exploitation of a German retirement from Caen after Operation Charnwood had not been possible, since the Germans only withdrew to the south bank of the Orne. The British had attacked up open slopes to reach the top of Hill 112, commanded by dug in German units and tanks on the reverse slope. Narrow front attacks were tactically unwise but lack of troops and force of circumstances had made them unavoidable, despite congestion behind the British front line and the delays this caused in delivering supplies and reinforcements. Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor, the VIII Corps commander, recommended that more account be taken of topography in the selection of objectives and that the occupation of high ground be favoured over attacks on villages. The British and Canadians had used their increasing experience and kept the initiative but the Germans had not withdrawn, despite the cost of such defensive operations. The commanding views from Hill 112 were of great tactical importance but the highest point of the hill was relinquished by the British and left as a no-man's-land, with the opponents dug in on either side.
Several villages in the vicinity had been taken (although the British were pushed out of Éterville) and the Germans had been provoked into counter-attacking British penetrations. The 9th SS Panzer Division, which had been moving out of the line to form an operational reserve, was brought back to contain the attack and the Germans were exposed to Allied naval and ground artillery and attack from the air, which inflicted severe casualties and deprived the German defence of the ability to conduct a counter-offensive. Tank-versus-tank engagements continued to take place at less than 1,000 yd (910 m), at which the 150 mm (5.9 in) frontal armour of Churchill tanks was insufficient to resist hand-held hollow-charge weapons or the German high-velocity 75 mm and 88 mm anti-tank guns. British tank-mounted, medium-velocity 75 mm guns could not penetrate the frontal armour of a Panther or the armour of a Tiger from any direction.
Casualties
The 43rd (Wessex) Division suffered 2,000 casualties in the operation and 7,000 casualties from 10 to 22 July. The 31st Tank Brigade lost 39 tanks, some 25 per cent of its establishment. The 9th SS Panzer Division suffered 746 casualties from 2 to 18 July; had 19 operational Panzer IV, 50 Panthers and 25 StuG III on 9 July, 20 Panzer IV, 50 Panthers and 27 StuG III on 10 July and 13 Panzer IV, 35 Panthers and twelve StuG III on 12 July. The 10th SS Panzer Division suffered 403 men killed, 1,263 men wounded and 470 missing in July; had 27 Panzer IV and 25 StuG III operational on 9 July; 17 Panzer IV and eight StuGs on 12 July. schwere-SS Panzer Bataillon 102 had 25 operational Tiger tanks when it went into action on 9 July, 14 on 11 July and ten a day later.
Commemoration
The importance of the battles for Hill 112 is remembered by the erection by the 5th DCLI in August 1944 of a memorial labelled Cornwall Wood. A larger wooden memorial to the 43rd (Wessex) Division was built by the residents of Normandy to the combatants and civilians who were killed soon afterwards. A stone memorial was built at Hill 112 by the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division in the late 1940s (carved by German masons) and similar memorials are at Wynyard's Gap in North Dorset, Castle Hill, Mere in Wiltshire and Rough Tor in Cornwall. In Vieux there is a memorial to the 10,000 men that lost their lives during the battles to get control of the hill featuring a Churchill tank, 25-pounder field gun and 112 trees planted to form a cross.