ASLComp Cavalry: Hill 112 EVERYMAN Edition

Outside CAEN, Normandy, 26 June 1944: Some 63,000 men from multiple nations fought for and around Hill 112 over a seven week period, starting with the launch of Operation Epsom on 26 June 1944. The aim of the attack on the hill was to open up maneuver room, beyond the still clogged beachheads. Air and naval bombardments had done little to harm the Germans on D-Day and the enemy remained ensconced on Hill 112, supported by Tiger tanks of the Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 101. The British would put the 11th Armoured and 15th Scottish Divisions in the van, spearheading 'Epsom' and hurled into the teeth of the German defenses. While Hill 112 was truly an intermediate objective on the way to the Orne River, its importance in fixing the Germans was tantamount, and on 26 June the attack was successful in capturing the hill. For a time. A German counter-attack took back the hard-won ground, beginning a capture-loss-re-capture battle that continued until both sides gave up the feature and renamed the place "Calvary".