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. 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 Nebelwerfers, 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. Meanwhile, the British 3rd Infantry Division faced considerable resistance and advanced only with great cost of life. Tiger tanks from the schwere Panzerabteilung 503 ("503rd Heavy Armour Battalion") caused ferocious losses among the British armour support. The 7th Armoured Division, 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 divisions 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 United States First Army launched Operation Cobra, since there were no German panzer divisions to stop them as nearly all of