The Battle of Caen 1944 stayed carried out in the period from June 6/7 to July 19, 1944. The battle was fought between German troops and mainly British and Canadian units. It is assumed that during the entire battle, 7 infantry divisions, 8 armored divisions and 3 heavy tank battalions were involved in the Axis. On the Allied side, 3 armored divisions and 11 infantry divisions took part in the entire battle. The above numbers apply to units participating in the battle throughout its duration (June-July 1944), and thus smaller forces were involved in it at one time - especially at the beginning of June 1944. The Battle of Caen was fought shortly after the landing of the first Allied troops in Normandy (Operation Overlord), and its goal on the British-Canadian side was to capture this important city. The original Allied plan was to seize Caen on June 6, 1944, but it backfired. On the other hand, later attempts to encircle the city, undertaken by British-Canadian troops under the command of BL Montgomery, met with tough and decisive resistance from the German side - especially the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Division and the 21st Panzer Division. In early July 1944, after a series of unsuccessful encirclement attempts, the Allies decided to launch a frontal attack on Caen. With the involvement of significant air forces, the city was finally liberated on July 19, 1944 by the Allies.
PzKpfw IV (Panzerkampfwagen IV) was a German medium tank from the Second World War. The first prototypes of the vehicle were created in 1936, and serial production continued in the period 1938-1945, ending with the production of about 8,600 vehicles. The D version of the tank was powered by a single Maybach HL 120 TRM engine with a capacity of 300 HP. It was armed with 1 75mm KwK 37 L / 24 gun and 2 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns.
The PzKpfw IV was created as a result of a competition announced at the end of 1934 by the German Armaments Department for a medium tank weighing up to 18 tons and armed with a 75 mm gun. The competition was won by the Krupp company, whose vehicle was put into mass production - as it turned out, it was a vehicle that can be safely called the "workhorse" of German armored forces during World War II and one of the most intensively developed and modernized Wehrmacht tanks. Numerous variants of the PzKpfw IV were created in the course of production. Chronologically, the first was the A version, armed with a 75mm short-barreled gun and a 230hp engine. However, versions B and C appeared quickly, in which several significant changes were made: first of all, more powerful engines (265 HP in version B and Maybach HL 120 TRM with 300 HP in C version - which were installed in PzKpfw IV until 1945 year), and the armor of the entire car was improved. The F1 and F2 versions turned out to be a real revolution, in which the frontal armor was increased to 60 mm, and the main armament was changed to the great, long-barreled 75mm KwK 40 L / 43 cannon, which in 1942 and 1943 allowed them to fight any Allied or soviet. The most frequently produced versions of the PzKpfw IV were the G, H and J versions, which were very similar to the F1 and F2 versions. The main armament has not changed significantly (it was still the KwK 40 cannon), as well as the engine and chassis. On the other hand, the armor was slightly strengthened, and from the beginning of 1943 armored screens (Schurzen) were installed on them. Numerous other vehicles were built on the chassis of the PzKpfw IV, such as the StuG IV assault gun, the Nashorn tank destroyer or the Wirbelwind self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. PzKpfw IV tanks were used on almost all fronts of World War II - from the September campaign in 1939, through the campaign in France in 1940, the Barbarossa and Typhoon operations in 1941, the Battle of Kursk in 1943, to the last operations of the German army against The USSR and the Western Allies in 1944-1945.
Mercedes-Benz L 1500 is a German universal light truck from World War II. The first copies of this vehicle appeared in 1941, and serial production continued in 1941-1944. Approximately 9,000 copies of this car of all versions were produced. The vehicle was powered by a single Daimler-Benz M 159 engine with a capacity of 60 HP.
The Mercedes-Benz L 1500 was developed and produced in two variants: A and S. The first (L 1500 A) had an undeveloped rear part of the car and was most often used in the German armed forces under the designation Kfz.70 to transport soldiers - it was in able to carry up to 7 people. In this version, it was used on many fronts of World War II, including: on the Eastern Front in 1942-1945, in North Africa or in Italy in 1943-1945. The second version (L 1500 S) had a built-in rear part of the vehicle and was used as a classic truck or as a vehicle for specialized tasks - for example as a fire engine.
The first tanks in the German army appeared at the end of World War I - these were the A7V machines. After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the German armed forces were forbidden to develop armored weapons, but the German side did not honor these restrictions and secretly developed armored weapons. However, after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, this development became fully official, and in 1935 the 1st Armored Division was formed. In the period 1935-1939, further divisions were formed, and their main equipment was the Pz.Kpfw cars: I, II, III and IV. A single armored division at that time was composed of a tank brigade divided into two armored regiments, a motorized infantry brigade and support units, among others: reconnaissance, artillery, anti-aircraft and sappers. It consisted of about 300 tanks in full time. It is also worth adding that the German armored forces (German: Panzerwaffe) were trained and prepared to implement the doctrine of lightning war, and not - as in many armies of the time - to support infantry activities. Therefore, emphasis was put in training "pancerniaków" on the interchangeability of functions, independence in decision-making by officers and non-commissioned officers and the best technical mastery of the tanks owned. All this resulted in great successes of German armored weapons in Poland in 1939, but especially in Western Europe in 1940. Also in the course of the fighting in North Africa - especially in the period 1941-1942 - the German armored forces turned out to be a very difficult opponent. Before the invasion of the USSR, the number of German armored divisions almost doubled, but the number of tanks in these units decreased to about 150-200 vehicles. Also in the course of the fighting on the Eastern Front - especially in 1941-1942 - the German armored forces were superior in training and organization to their Soviet opponent. However, contact with such vehicles as the T-34 or KW-1 forced the introduction of the Pz.Kpfw V and VI tanks to the line in 1942 and 1943. Growing losses on the Eastern Front, as well as lost battles - at Stalingrad or Kursk - made the German Panzerwaffe weaken. Its structure included heavy tank battalions (with 3 tank companies), and in 1943, armored grenadier divisions were established. There was also an increasingly clear advantage of the Soviet side, and from 1944 - the need to simultaneously fight the Soviet troops in the east and the Allies in the west. It is also assumed that it was then (in the years 1944-1945) that the training of the German armored forces was weaker than in the previous period and did not constitute such a significant advantage on the German side than before. The last large-scale operations of the German Panzerwaffe were the offensives in the Ardennes (1944-1945) and in Hungary (1945).