Bourgebus Ridge, south and east of Caen, Normandy.
Kampfgruppe von Luck, 21 Panzer Division, 84 Corps, Seventh Army, Army Group B.
21 Panzer Division was based around Caen when the Invasion began in early June. It's unceasing pressure compressed the Allied beachheads on its eastern flank, thwarting Montgomery's breakout plans time and again. The storms of late June had given the Germans a brief breathing space, but the Canadians and British were once again ready to attack by mid-July. Vast swarms of American bombers swept over the forward positions of 84 Corps, obliterating the Luftwaffe division holding the front line, demoralizing 21 Panzer's panzergrenadiers, and tossing the tanks and assault guns of Kampfgruppe von Luck about like so many toy cars. von Luck, having just arrived at his HQ after a brief leave, discovered a great gaping hole where his kampfgruppe was supposed to be. An entire British armoured division was pouring through his rubbled positions, and charging for open ground. von Luck went quickly to work, corralling all surviving armour (including the assault guns of Major Becker's 200 Battalion, built on the chassis of various French tanks found at the Hotchkiss works in Paris), anti-tank guns, and a Luftwaffe antiaircraft battery conscripted at gunpoint. The unsupported Shermans of 11 Armoured Division impaled themselves on the massed 88mm fire of von Luck's makeshift defences.
