The Bloody Battle for Tilly

Book excerpt: The fierce battle to capture the French village of Tilly-la-Campagne was an exceptionally bloody episode in the story of the allied breakout from Normandy in the summer of 1944. Small Allied infantry units faced an almost impossible mission, hampered by the proximity of the elite German 1st SS Panzer Division and 'friendly fire' from the erratic USAAF bombing raids. If that was not enough, appalling tactical errors by Allied commanders resulted in infantry attacks which were as costly pro rata as the losses suffered on the first day of the Somme. Drawing on vivid eyewitness accounts and the recollections of many who were there in 1944, Ken Tout's masterly portrayal of the bloody battle is a fitting tribute to the British and Canadian youth, who fought, and the many who died, during the breakout from Normandy in the last summer of the war in Europe.