Editing 3rd Canadian Division (section)

====Fighting in Normandy====
The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division served extensively in the [[Operation Overlord|Battle of Normandy]] as a component firstly of [[I Corps (United Kingdom)|I British Corps]] and later under the command of [[II Canadian Corps]]. On [[D-Day (military term)|D-Day]]+1, units of the division became the first among the Allies to secure their D-Day objectives. The villages of Authie and Carpiquet both saw heavy fighting between the Canadians and German defenders of the [[12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend|12th SS Panzer Division]]. Over the course of five days, the 12th SS launched a series of counter-attacks in an attempt to crush the Canadian bridgehead and throw them back into the sea. The attacks cost the 12th a third of their armoured strength and they were forced to retire in the face of stubborn resistance, Allied naval gunfire and aerial superiority. On 4 July 1944, the 3rd Canadian Division, along with the British [[3rd Division (United Kingdom)|3rd]] and [[59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division|59th Infantry Division]]s and supported by elements of the 79th Armoured Division launched [[Operation Windsor]], capturing the Carpiquet Airfield and the surrounding areas from the 12th SS after several hours of confused and hard fighting. On 8 July, the 3rd Canadian Division participated in [[Operation Charnwood]], the British Second Army's final advance on the northern parts of Caen. Once again the Canadians excelled and captured all their objectives after suffering, once again, heavy casualties.

On 18 July, [[Operation Atlantic]] was launched, the Canadian advance that would coincide with [[Operation Goodwood]], happening further east by British forces in the area south of Caen. The [[2nd Canadian Division|2nd]] and 3rd Canadian divisions, supported by integral armour support, advanced towards Caen, one of the objectives being the village of Colombelles and the surrounding hills. This village and the surrounding area was defended by the battle-proven [[21st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)|21st Panzer Division]]. After several hours of confused fighting on the 18th and the 19th, the Germans were forced back from the outskirts of the town and pushed back over the river Orne. The 3rd Canadian Division continued the advance on the 20th and the lead units came under heavy machine-gun and small arms fire from a chateau close to Colombelles. The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, with support from the [[17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars]], pushed forward once again despite heavy casualties and captured the heavily fortified village of Gibberville. The rest of the 3rd Division captured Colombelles through the course of the day. The Canadians were then faced with the formidable German defensive positions on the Verrières Ridge, where the SS troops had created excellent field fortifications, deployed hundreds of field artillery pieces, including [[Nebelwerfer]]s, and dug numerous trenches and foxholes for defence. The 2nd Canadian division's 4th and 6th brigades assaulted the ridge, but suffered heavy losses and were forced to fall back. The attack went in during heavy rain, which turned the ground to mud and bogged down the Canadian armoured support and kept the Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber support from the [[Royal Air Force]] from showing up. After the failed attack, troops from both the 2nd and 12th SS Panzer Division counter-attacked; it was only with support from the 3rd Canadian Division's 8th Brigade that they managed to beat the Germans back.

[[File:Canadian-Cross-61.jpg|thumb|The original Cross erected for religious services in the New Forest, Southern England, by men of the 3rd Canadian Division. It is now maintained as a war memorial by local people and the UK Forestry Commission. The bronze plate at the foot of the Cross is inscribed "ON THIS SITE A CROSS WAS ERECTED TO THE GLORY OF GOD ON 14th APRIL 1944. SERVICES WERE HELD HERE UNTIL D-DAY BY MEN OF THE 3rd CANADIAN DIVISION RCASC."]]

Meanwhile, the British 3rd Infantry Division faced considerable resistance and advanced only with great cost of life. Tiger tanks from the [[503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion|''schwere Panzerabteilung'' 503]] ("503rd Heavy Armour Battalion") caused ferocious losses among the British armour support. The [[7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)|7th Armoured Division]], [[11th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)|11th Armoured Division]] and [[Guards Armoured Division]] faced opposition from the 1st and 12th SS Panzer divisions and suffered heavy losses.

The offensive continued for two more days before the Allied offensive ground to a halt in face of stiffening German resistance. The German [[Panzer division]]s in the area had been bled completely dry, losing a staggering number of tanks and men, which could not be easily replaced. Two days later, on 25 July, the [[First United States Army|United States First Army]] launched [[Operation Cobra]], since there were no German panzer divisions to stop them as nearly all of the available panzer units had been sent to stop the British/Canadian advance. The 3rd Canadian Division and the other units involved in the offensive were allowed to catch their breath and they dug in, expecting a German counter-attack which never came.

On 5 September, 3rd Canadian overran the [[Fortress of Mimoyecques]], revealing the infrastructure for the unknown [[V-3 cannon]] destroyed by the [[Tallboy (bomb)|Tallboy bombs]] in July.<ref name="Zaloga14-16">{{harvnb|Zaloga|2008|pp=14–16}}.</ref> Between 17 and 22 September 1944, 3rd Canadian were intimately involved in the liberation of [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]], during which a French civilian guided the Canadians to a "secret passage" leading into the walled old town and by-passing the German defenders.<ref name=offhist>{{citation 
|last = Stacey
|first = C P
|chapter = Clearing the Coastal Belt and the Ports September 1944 <!-- Operation "WELLHIT"; The Capture of Boulogne -->
|title= Volume III The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, 1944-1945
|series=[[Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War]]
|publisher = Department of National Defence
|year = 1966
|pages=336–344
|url = http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/Victory/Victory-14.html |via=Hyperwar Foundation
|access-date = 24 June 2009 }}</ref> By 1 October 1944, the Division had also liberated [[Calais]].