The Battle of Villers-Bocage
The Battle of Tilly-sur-Seulles
Memorial.
8-19 June
From Bayeux take D 6, stop to Jerusalem Cemetery, then continue to Tilly-sur-Seulles. From June 8 to June 19, 1944 fighting raged near that village between the 30th British Army Corps and the German Panzer Lehr Division. The British forces were able to break through on the evening of June 18 and after severe German counterattacks, Major General Fritz Bayerlein ordered a retreat. The area around Tilly-sur-Seulles had changed hands 23 times; finally on June 19 the 50th British Infantry Division was able to take and hold the area. During the fighting 76 civilians from the nearby village had been killed, one tenth of the population of Tilly-sur-Seulles.
Gebirgsiäger and German Panzer-Lehr-Division had 190 tanks at the start of the battle, of which 66 remained after the battle. In addition to the lost tanks, the Germans lost 5,500 men. Today there is a British military cemetery in Tilly-sur-Seulles, as well as a museum that gives information about the battle.
An M10 tank destroyed knocked out in the Villers-Bocage area, being examined by a junior officer from an Army (Heer) tank unit.
Jerusalem Cemetery: the smallest British Cemetery in France. 46 British soldiers and 1 Czech soldier are buried there, killed at Chouain the first day.
A Sherman of the Royal Armored Support Group on the way to Tilly-sur-Seulles on June 13.
The remains of a universal carrier blown up by a mine in Tilly-sur-Seulles, 19 June 1944. Note the massive destruction at the back.