Second Battle of the Odon

Second Battle of the Odon
Part of Battle for Caen
Vicinity of operations Greenline and Pomegranate
Date 15–17 July 1944 Location Normandy, France 49°04′47″N 00°28′16″W / 49.07972°N 0.47111°W / 49.07972; -0.47111 Result Indecisive
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
General Miles Dempsey	General Heinrich Eberbach
Strength
6 infantry divisions 5 tank/armoured brigades	4 infantry divisions 3 Panzer divisions 1 heavy tank battalion
Casualties and losses
3,000–3,500	c. 2,000
Évrecy class=notpageimage| Évrecy, a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of France

The Second Battle of the Odon comprised operations fought by the British Second Army during the Second World War. Attacks took place in mid-July 1944 against Panzergruppe West, as part of the Battle of Normandy. Operations Greenline and Pomegranate were intended to draw German attention away from Operation Goodwood, an attack from the Orne bridgehead on 18 July.

The British wanted to prevent the Germans from withdrawing panzer divisions from opposite the Second Army to create an armoured reserve which could oppose the First US Army during the Operation Cobra offensive in the west. The operations in the Odon valley kept three German armoured divisions in the front line west of Caen, away from the Goodwood battlefield, east of the Orne.^[a]

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