Editing Operation Totalize (section)

==Canadian plan==

The German defences on Verrières Ridge remained very strong.{{sfn|D'Este|2004|p=423}} The forward infantry positions were well dug-in, with wide fields of fire.{{sfn|Bercuson|2004|p=221}} The main concentration of one hundred [[7.5 cm PaK 40|75 mm]] and [[88 mm gun|88 mm]] [[Anti-tank gun|anti-tank guns]] was deployed around the villages of Cramesnil and [[Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil]] {{cvt|3|mi}} behind the German forward positions, to halt any breakthrough by tanks along the Caen–Falaise road.{{sfn|D'Este|2004|p=423}} The front line and defences in depth were held by the 89th Infantry Division, [[85th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)|85th Infantry Division]] (recently arrived from [[Rouen]]) and the remnants of the [[272nd Grenadier Infantry Division]] (severely depleted by the Canadians in Operation Atlantic).{{sfn|Van der Vat|2003|p=166}} The [[12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend|12th SS Panzer Division ''Hitlerjugend'']] with an attached heavy [[Tiger tank]] battalion, with fifty tanks, was in reserve a further {{cvt|3|mi}} back. Some of the infantry were commanded by the German [[LXXXVI Army Corps (Wehrmacht)|LXXXVI ''Korps'']] but most of the sector (and the 12th SS Panzer Division) was under the command of the I SS Panzer Corps, which had arrived in the area during Operation Goodwood.{{sfn|Bercuson|2004|p=228}}

Simonds knew that infantry assaults supported by massed artillery had failed to overcome the German forward lines in Operation Atlantic and Operation Spring. During Operation Goodwood, a bombardment by aircraft of [[RAF Bomber Command]] had assisted British tanks to break through the German front but they had then suffered many casualties from intact German defences arrayed in depth beyond the bombing. Infantry had been unable to follow up quickly enough to support the leading tanks or to secure ground behind them (follow-up units were also slowed). To solve the tactical problem presented by the terrain and the deep defences, Simonds proposed a radical solution, the first large attack by mechanized infantry.{{sfn|Van der Vat|2003|pp=160, 166}}

Some [[field artillery]] regiments in Canadian and British infantry divisions had been temporarily equipped with [[M7 Priest]] 105 mm self-propelled guns for the landings. When they were replaced by towed [[Ordnance QF 25-pounder|QF 25-pounder]] gun-howitzers, these vehicles were superfluous to operations. Simonds had the Priests converted into [[Kangaroo (armoured personnel carrier)|"Kangaroo"]] [[Armoured personnel carrier|armoured personnel carriers]] which would allow infantry to follow the tanks closely on any terrain.{{sfn|Bercuson|2004|p=228}} Permission was first requested from the Americans, from whom the M7s had been borrowed, to convert them into APCs.{{sfn|Van der Vat|2003|p=166}}

Simonds made [[air power]] fundamental to his plan for breaking through the German defence zones.{{sfn|Perrun|2003|p=139}} The preliminary [[aerial bombardment]] called for RAF bombers to saturate the German defences on both flanks of a {{cvt|4|mi}}-wide corridor along the axis of the Caen–Falaise road, during the night of 7 August. During the early hours of 8 August, two attacking forces of tanks and armoured personnel carriers would advance along the corridor. West of the road under the 2nd Canadian Division were the 4th Canadian Infantry Brigade and 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade. East of the road, under the 51st (Highland) Division were the 154th (Highland) Brigade and the 33rd Armoured Brigade. These two columns would bypass the front-line defenders and capture the main German anti-tank defences around Cramesnil and Saint-Aignan de Cramesnil at dawn.{{sfn|Van der Vat|2003|p=165}}

The second phase would follow immediately. While the remaining four infantry brigades of the 2nd Canadian Division and 51st (Highland) Division cleared up the isolated German forward defences and the 3rd Canadian Division and 49th (West Riding) Division (I Corps) began subsidiary attacks to widen the base of the salient captured in the first phase, the 4th Canadian Armoured Division and 1st Polish Armoured Division would move up the corridor to Cramesnil and prepare to advance further south. To prepare for their attack, bombers of the US [[Eighth Air Force]] would bombard the German reserve positions at [[Hautmesnil]]. The ultimate objective was the high ground north of Falaise, {{cvt|15|mi}} beyond the start line.{{sfn|Zuehlke|2001|p=168}}