The Battle of Verrières Ridge was part of the Battle of Normandy, in
northwestern France, during the Second World War. Two Canadian infantry
divisions—with additional support from the 2nd Canadian Armoured
Brigade—fought elements of three German SS Panzer divisions. The
battle began on 19 July 1944 as part of the British and Canadian
attempts to break out of Caen. The immediate Allied objective was
Verrières Ridge, a belt of high ground dominating the route from Caen
to Falaise, which was invested by battle-hardened German veterans. Over
six days, Canadian and British forces made repeated attempts to capture
the ridge, with heavy Allied casualties for little strategic gain. The
battle is remembered for its tactical and strategic miscalculations,
including a controversial attack by The Black Watch (Royal Highland
Regiment) of Canada on 25 July, the costliest single day for a Canadian
battalion since the 1942 Dieppe Raid.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verri%C3%A8res_Ridge>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1843:
SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship that had both an
iron hull and a screw propeller, was launched in Bristol, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain>
1903:
French cyclist Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1903_Tour_de_France>
1989:
After suffering an uncontained failure of an engine which
destroyed all of its hydraulic systems, United Airlines Flight 232 broke
up during an emergency landing in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., killing 111
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232>
2014:
Unidentified gunmen perpetrated an armed assault against an
Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert, killing at least 22
border guards.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2014_Al-Wadi_Al-Gedid_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
crowd in on:
(transitive, idiomatic) To join when not wanted; to force one's way into
a situation where one is unwelcome.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crowd_in_on>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hell is that state where one has ceased to hope.
--A. J. Cronin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._J._Cronin>