![]() Seizing the opportunity to bypass the German Panzer-Lehr Division blocking the direct route south in the area of Tilly-sur-Seulles, a mixed force of tanks, infantry and artillery, based on the 22nd Armoured Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division, advanced through the gap in a flanking manoeuvre towards Villers-Bocage. On the right flank of the British Second Army, the 1st US Infantry Division had forced back the German 352nd Infantry Division and opened a gap in the German front line. On 9 June, a two-pronged British attempt to surround and capture Caen was defeated. In the days following the D-Day landings on 6 June, the Germans rapidly established strong defences in front of the city. ![]() The Allies and the Germans regarded control of Caen as vital to the Normandy battle. After one day of fighting in and around the small town of Villers-Bocage and a second day defending a position outside the town, the British force retreated. The battle was the result of a British attempt to improve their position by exploiting a gap in the German defences west of the city of Caen. The Battle of Villers-Bocage took place during the Second World War on 13 June 1944, one week after the Normandy Landings, which had begun the Western Allies' conquest of German-occupied France.
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