I could find more pics, but it's starting to get boring :
http://moore-familytree.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moore-Sidney-Sherman-firefly-tank-144th-RAC-1944.jpg And if there were no Bocage near Caen, why is Villers Bocage called Villers Bocage?

And something else that looks a little "bocage-y" http://www.afpu44.co.uk/communities/0/004/010/222/650/images/4569259095.jpg

No doubt these look like the bocage in the western part of Normandy. This picture here though is from a road that borders a large estate to the southeast of Caen.This pic was taken during Operation Goodwood. It crosses through fairly open fields on each side. There are roads like this all through this part of the Caen area.
If you look at the terrain where the 12SS Pz had it's main line of defense before the start of Operation Epsom around the 25th of July it is very wide open.just as it still is. I "flew" over this area a lot with my mouse and Googleearth. Of course the pics you posted are like the bocage but the classic feature of that Norman area is the large burms with thick bushes and/or trees on top surrounding fairly small fields in a patchwork pattern that can go on for kilometers with sunken roads cutting through all this.
Lots of words to say you are covered historically but that the classic bocage country is not around the Caen area.
J

I couldn't resist this last one! A clssic bocage with sunken lane: http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/53516342.jpg
This one's in the Noyers Bocage region between Villers Bocage and Caen!

I did originally state the heavy bocage was further west and in the Cotentin Peninsula, because of the prevailing weather conditions found there. But there is still bocage (increasingly less dense) eastwards towards Caen.

I could have (and should have) called this a hedgerow in my opening post. But then, "bocage" is just the French terminology for the English "hedgerow"! But enough of this tempest in a teacup!

Hi Biggles ,

congratulations with the nice diorama !

'' Bocage '' in French means small bushes . Jusing the term Hedgerow in English for Bocage is because there is no other name for it in English to specify it IMHO.

Hedgerows in French is ''Les Haies''

Kurt

This is the backstory for my dio, which I should have elaborated at first: Aug 1, 1944; Operation Bluecoat - the British operation to support the US Operation Cobra. This is elements of British 3rd Inf Div supporting 11 Armoured Division near Le Beny Bocage. This PaK is sited down the main axis of the British armoured advance and is holding up the tanks. A small detachment of 3rd Inf has outflanked the PaK and neutralized it.

Hello all,

Sorry to jump in on this.... Just my two penn'orth...
First, nice model
Reading through the comments I was going to suggest setting the diorama later when 3 Div were transferred further west but on reading the last comment that's redundant.
Basically, speaking as someone who lives here, everyone's right. The bocage is/was much denser further west but there certainly are hedgerows further east, it's just that the fields are bigger.

* For those that wish to verify what was or wasn't a hedgerow 70 odd years ago, the following site if useful. Most of the useful photos are from 1947 but three years after these events not a great deal had changed....
You need to click on "remonter le temps", then "vues aériennes" and it's pretty self explanatory.
Once you've got the hang of it you can find some stunningly detailed views of remnants of the events of 1944...
I've lost hours on this site... *

http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/accueil

Cheers,

Sean

Yeah...the area to the north and east of Caen is pretty well wide open - tank country. And a tank graveyard thanks to F.M. Montgomery! The bocage country just starts around Caen, and gradually gets denser to the south-west, and towards Cherbourg.