In the reworking of Operation Epsom, around July 2nd and 3rd, the job of taking Carpiquet, an industrial suburb of Caen which included the airfield, was allotted to the Canadians. It was clear to both sides that the Allied capture of Carpiquet was strategically essential in the attempt to take Caen by encirclement, and that if the Germans lost the high ground covered by this little town, it would be impossible for them to continue to hold Caen. The 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade, with an extra regiment, the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, were to be supported by tanks from the Fort Gary Horse and flame throwers from the 79th Armoured division.

They had a total of 428 ground artillery guns, and supporting fire from the battleships Rodney and Roberts; but, Carpiquet was held only by 150 teenagers from the Hitler Youth and 2 or 3 tanks which were called up out of reserves. The Canadians, therefore, outnumbered their opponents about 18 to 1. But despite this nearly ridiculous advantage in manpower, the Germans had an advantage in being able to defend high ground from underground blockhouses which were very well built and were interconnected, providing them safe and surprising transport around the town. They also had a very efficient radio intelligence squad who were able to predict nearly every move the Canadians made.

Although the Canadians were able to attain the village on July 4th, largely through hand to hand combat, they could not take the air-field, and therefore could not secure total possession of Carpiquet. The Canadians suffered relatively enormous losses in a horrible, three day battle of attrition over this one village with this single German regiment.

The historians of the Chaudiere recorded the following about the afternoon of the 4th:

"At approximately 1400 hours, after 8 hours of fighting, we held our position in the village under a shelling that became more and more intense each minute. The mortars, the rockets, and the artillery never stopped, and for the next five hours Carpiquet was an inferno. There was not a piece of ground as small as a man's thumb which had not been touched. The bombardment was so continuous that hardly anyone ventured out of the trenches and dugouts. Under it, the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, who in the second phase, were to have taken the control building on the airfield, were unable to do so. In the evening, we attempted to put down a minefield along our front, but the bombardment caused us so many casualties that we had to leave it until the next day, and the next day it was the same. In fact, it remained the same, each side barely resisting attack after counterattack, until late July 8th , when the invasion of Caen proceeded in earnest, and Meyer and his members of the 12th SS had to retreat before being encircled.

Ironically, Carpiquet was the original objective of a Canadian armoured regiment on D-Day, and was then taken relatively easily by Sergeant Gariepy and his unit, the only men to reach their objective on June 6th. June 7th they were called back to assist their comrades, who were stuck in the mire of a German front only three miles in from shore.

"I witnessed a real carnage of German infantry troops close to Carpiquet," wrote Sergeant Gariepy of his second attempt to take the hill. "You will not read it in any official document, but ask anyone who was there, and he will tell you in a hush-hush tone. The Germans had succeeded in infiltrating the advance post of the Regiment de la Chaudiere, tough, rugged French-Canadians who brawl on weekends for diversion at home. We were very close when the alarm sounded at around 0400 hours. The Regiment de la Chaudiere scurried in the semi darkness, and actually slit the throats of most soldiers they found, wounded as well as dead. This horrible carnage I actually saw from the turret of my tank at first light. These boys were actually crazed by some frenzy at being caught napping; the officers of the Regiment had to draw their pistols against their own men to make them come back to reason. This was shortly before the so called 'massacre' of some Canadian prisoners by the SS. Are you surprised?"