Operation Windsor
| Operation Windsor | |||||||||
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| Part of Battle for Caen | |||||||||
 Rockets fired from a Hawker Typhoon of No 181 Squadron, RAF, at buildings on Carpiquet airfield. The 3rd Canadian Division took Carpiquet on 4 July. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Canada
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 Nazi Germany
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Rod Keller
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Kurt Meyer
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 4 Infantry Battalions 1 Machine Gun Battalion 2 Armoured Regiments |
1 battalion each from SS Panzergrenadier Regiments 26 and 1 1 Flak Battery 15 tanks initially |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 377 casualties 17 tanks |
c. 270 infantry and c. 20 tanks | ||||||||
Operation Windsor (4–5 July 1944), was a Canadian attack, which was part of the Battle of Normandy during the Second World War. The attack was undertaken by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division to take Carpiquet and the adjacent airfield, from troops of the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitler Jugend of Panzergruppe West. The attack was originally intended to take place during the later stages of Operation Epsom, to protect the eastern flank of the main assault but was postponed for a week.
On 4 July, the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade and an attached battalion of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division attacked Carpiquet, supported on the flanks by the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade. The village was captured by mid-afternoon but German resistance in the south defeated two attacks on the airfield, despite significant Allied tank and air support. Next day the Canadians repulsed German counter-attacks and held the village, which served as a base for Operation Charnwood, a Second Army attack on Caen, involving the rest of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division on 8 July and the airfield was captured by the Canadians on 9 July.
Caen was an Operation Overlord goal for I Corps of the Anglo-Canadian Second Army, which landed forces on two Norman beaches on 6 June 1944, to capture the city and the Carpiquet area. German resistance prevented the town from being captured on D-Day, a result considered possible by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey the Second Army commander. For the next three weeks, positional warfare took place around Caen as both sides attacked and counter-attacked for minor tactical advantage on the Anglo-Canadian front and as part of a strategic intent to force the Germans to keep their most powerful armoured units away from the US First Army, as it captured Cherbourg and then pushed southwards through the bocage towards St. Lô.
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