Lest we forget – D-Day and the Battle of Normandy

“Ready, aye ready” again

By the time of the Normandy invasion, Canada had been at war for almost five years. On the first day of September 1939, Germany, in an unprovoked act of aggression, invaded Poland. Britain and France had pledged to protect Polish sovereignty and, after the demand for a German withdrawal went unanswered, declared war on Germany on September 3.

A depression-wracked country, Canada neither sought nor secured any influence on the diplomatic events of the 1930’s that led Europe down the road to war. The country wanted peace and endorsed British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s attempts to appease the Nazi Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. In the end, however, it was to be war. Canadians abhorred the prospect of another conflict. Barely a generation had passed since the four-year long clash in the fields of France and Flanders where 66,000 of their young men and women died.

However, as had been the case during the First World War, ancestral ties proved strong. This, combined with a growing realization of the grave threat which Nazism posed to freedom and democracy, led the Canadian Parliament to declare war on Germany on September 10.

Germany sweeps westwards

This policy of limited involvement was quickly abandoned following Germany’s lightning conquest of Western Europe in the spring and summer of 1940. In just two months, Norway, Denmark, and the Low Countries were overrun, and France was defeated. Thousands of British and French troops narrowly evaded capture thanks to a motley flotilla of naval vessels and pleasure craft that succeeded in evacuating them to England from the port of Dunkirk. They lived to fight another day, but most of their armour, vehicles, and artillery were left behind.

Battle of Britain

In the meantime, Britain, and the Commonwealth were all that stood between Nazi Germany and total victory. A small number of Canadians were among the intrepid group of pilots who, in their Spitfires and Hurricanes, held off the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain during the summer and autumn of 1940, thereby thwarting Hitler’s plans to invade the British Isles. Soon after, Canadian bomber crews began the nightly ritual of braving enemy anti-aircraft fire and increasingly skilled night fighters to bomb German industrial sites. Meanwhile, Canadian sailors escorted the merchant navy convoys that kept open the supply line to Britain across the North Atlantic.

Limited action, endless training

The status of the Canadian Army was radically different. Well into 1942 its role in the war was largely passive. To that point, the only major action experienced by Canadian soldiers had been the heroic but futile defence of Hong Kong. The defence included a brigade headquarters and two infantry battalions against a superior Japanese force in December 1941. In this gruesome engagement, and afterward in the prisoner of war camps, the Canadian contingent of nearly 2,000 suffered 40 percent casualties. More than 550 never returned home.

Viewed by its commander as “a dagger pointed at the heart of Berlin,” the Canadian Army in Britain had, for three long years, endured an endless regimen of training, garrison duty, and coastal defence. The soldiers waited anxiously and impatiently to make some meaningful contribution to the war effort. Their inactivity was about to come to an abrupt and tragic end.

Baptism of fire – Dieppe

Their losses were catastrophic. Of the almost 5,000 Canadians who formed the assault force, 3,367 became casualties including 907 killed in action and 1,946 made prisoners of war. Hitler’s Fortress Europe seemed impregnable. However, the sacrifice was not wholly in vain. D-Day’s success two years later was in some measure purchased by the lives of those Canadians who died at Dieppe.

The Italian campaign

The Canadians landed there on July 10, 1943. They acquitted themselves well in a four-week battle over rugged mountainous terrain. The cost was heavy, but the Canadians had proven themselves in battle.

No easy victory

Then followed a grueling campaign on the Italian peninsula. Italy surrendered unconditionally in September 1943 but the Germans immediately took control of the country. There would be no easy victory against the seasoned Wehrmacht. Throughout the final months of 1943 and the first half of 1944, infantry and tanks of the 1^st Canadian Corps (the 5^th Canadian Armoured Division came to Italy from Britain at the end of 1943) joined other Allied troops in what amounted to a painstaking crawl up the Italian boot. Geography favoured the defenders, and the Germans were well-trained and skillful in carrying out rearguard action.

“Little Stalingrad”

Usually opposed by elite enemy units who fought tenaciously, the Canadians suffered heavy losses, most notably at Ortona in December 1943, in a battle which the press called “Little Stalingrad.” Being fierce fighters themselves, the Canadian divisions earned the respect of their adversary and helped clear the way for the Liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944. In all 93,000 Canadians served in the Italian campaign. More than 25% of them became casualties and, tragically, more than 5,900 died. However, the campaign had tied up twenty German divisions. This was of great significance as the long-awaited liberation of Western Europe got underway.

Invasion plan

The invasion plan called for five infantry divisions to wade ashore on a 50 mile (80 kilometre) stretch of the French coast. The British Second Army including units of General H.D.G. Crerar’s First Canadian Army was to form the left side of this front, the First U.S. Army the right. Three airborne divisions, one on the British flank incorporating the 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion, and two on the American, would precede them to delay enemy movements and facilitate expansion of the bridgehead.

Canada’s role

The invasion commanders designated the 3^rd Canadian Infantry Division, commanded by Major-General R.F.L. Keller, along with the 2^nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, to take part in the seaborne assault. Two of the 3^rd Division’s three brigades were to land in the first wave at Juno Beach. The Regina Rifle Regiment and The Royal Winnipeg Rifles of the 7^th Infantry Brigade, as well as an attached company of The Canadian Scottish Regiment, led in “Mike” sector, with the rest of The Canadian Scottish in reserve. “Nan” sector was to be tackled by the 8^th Brigade’s Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada and The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, backed up by Le Régiment de la Chaudière.

The tanks of the 1^st Hussars and The Fort Garry Horse would land ahead of the infantry to soften up the defences and provide covering fire. Guns of the Royal Canadian Artillery were to be quickly put ashore to lend additional support. The Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps would treat the wounded. All the while, the sappers of the Royal Canadian Engineers would blast a path through enemy obstacles and the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals would ensure smooth communications. Later, the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps would see to it that all were adequately supplied with food, fuel, ammunition, and the other necessities of warfare.

The opponent

That enemy, though weakened, was still very dangerous. Five years of harsh fighting on several fronts especially in the Soviet Union had battered the Nazi forces. Nonetheless, the battle-hardened and expertly-led Wehrmacht remained the best fighting force in the world.

As the likelihood of an invasion increased, German defences in France were strengthened. Previously enemy troops used the Normandy region for training, resting and refitting. Under the direction of the famous “Desert Fox”, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, huge steel and concrete-reinforced pillboxes, barbed wire, mines, artillery, machine gun nests, mortar pits, and beach obstacles had been constructed to form the Atlantic Wall. New units moved into position, including first-rate Panzer divisions and SS troops whose morale and determination had become legendary. These German forces also boasted superior weaponry, such as Panther and Tiger tanks and the deadly 88mm dual purpose antitank/antiaircraft gun.

All this guaranteed a hostile reception for the Allies. If the enemy’s static formations on the Normandy shore could hold out long enough for their armoured and motorized reserves to reach the coast, it could also be a fatal one.

D-Day

Stormy weather on June 5 forced a postponement of the invasion with many units already embarked and at sea. Conditions did not promise to improve substantially, but Allied meteorologists predicted a small window of opportunity on June 6. Aware that the moon and the tides would not be favourable again for some time, General Eisenhower gave the go ahead. There could be no turning back.

Air assault

Canadian airmen and sailors were among the first into action. The Royal Canadian Air Force had already been involved for several months in bombing key enemy targets in the invasion area: roads, bridges, railways, airfields, and command and communications centres. Now they flew as part of the 171 Allied squadrons that attacked on D-Day. As H-Hour approached, RCAF Lancasters of No. 6 Bomber Group dropped thousands of tons of explosives on German coastal defences. Canadian fighter pilots fought the Luftwaffe in overcast skies, contributing in large measure to the

While it was still dark in the early hours of June 6, Allied paratroopers, including 450 Canadians, jumped from aircraft or landed in gliders behind the German coastal defences. Separated by gusty winds, outnumbered, and only lightly armed, they nevertheless captured a German headquarters, destroyed a key bridge, and seized an important crossroads, all the while sowing confusion and disorder within enemy ranks.

Juno Beach “Mike” sector

Meanwhile, the Canadian soldiers scheduled to land at Juno Beach warily approached the coastline in their landing craft. Wet, cold, and seasick, they were also confident. On “Mike” sector, most of the 1^st Hussars’ tanks managed to get ashore in good order to provide covering fire as the Regina Rifles touched down just after 8:00 a.m. That was fortunate since the preliminary bombardment had failed to knock out many German defensive positions. The near invulnerable pill-boxes could be destroyed only by direct hits through their observation slits but, working in tandem, the tanks and infantry succeeded in fighting their way off the beach and into the nearby town of Courseulles-sur-Mer where they became engaged in house-to-house combat. They were moving inland by late afternoon. Other Reginas never reached the beaches—a reserve company suffered terrible losses when its landing craft struck mines hidden by high tide.

Hard earned victory

The company of Victoria’s Canadian Scottish and most of The Royal Winnipeg Rifles at “Mike” made it ashore without much trouble, the beneficiaries of accurate naval gunfire which neutralized the German battery that dominated their area of the beach. The Winnipeg company at the western edge of Courseulles was not so lucky. There the bombardment had missed its targets, and the landing craft came under brisk gunfire while they were still far offshore. Although forced to “storm their positions cold [they] did so without hesitation,” the unit’s war diary noted. Many men died the instant they waded into the chest-high water. Nonetheless, the survivors advanced past the beach defences, cleared the minefields, and occupied the adjoining coastal villages. The victory did not come cheaply. In a few hours, the company lost almost three-quarters of its men.

But none of the “Little Black Devils”, as the regiment was nicknamed, “had flinched from his task, no matter how tough it was [or] failed to display courage and energy and a degree of gallantry.” They had not been alone. The Winnipegs’ commanding officer later paid tribute to The 1^st Hussars’ “gallantry, skill and cool daring” in coming to the assistance of his battalion “time and again throughout D-Day, without thought of their own safety or state of fatigue…”

Juno Beach “Nan” sector

At “Nan” sector on Juno Beach, The North Shore Regiment and The Queen’s Own Rifles also encountered enemy gun emplacements that had survived the preliminary bombardment. One concrete bunker and its defenders inflicted heavy casualties on the North Shores and destroyed several Sherman tanks of The Fort Garry Horse before being silenced. The North Shore’s other companies made it ashore without incident, but needed six hours and armoured support to take the town of Tailleville.

Toronto’s Queen’s Own Rifles received the worst battering of any Canadian unit on D-Day. The initial bombardment on their sector of “Nan” had barely dented the enemy’s fortifications. The DD tanks, supposed to “swim” in ahead of the infantry to diminish German resistance, had been forced by high waves to land after them, “within a few hundred yards of the muzzles of the beach defence guns,” one tank commander recalled afterward. Only a few made it into action.

Beach landing, heavy losses

A half-hour late, the landing craft carrying the Queen’s Own hit the beach more or less intact. Then the bloodbath began, the men making a mad dash from the shoreline to a seawall 183 metres away with no cover in between. A hidden German 88 opened up on the lead platoon of one company, decimating two-thirds of it before being silenced. Only a handful survived to get off the beach.

A second Queen’s Own company landed directly in front of an untouched enemy strongpoint and very quickly lost half of its men, until three riflemen eliminated it with hand grenades and small arms fire. The price had been high, but the Queen’s Own moved off the beach. The war diary of this, one of the oldest regiments in the Canadian Army, reflected the unit’s unflagging spirit under onerous conditions.

Reserve units add support

The reserve units of the Canadian Scottish and the Chaudières arrived on the heels of the initial assault. The Scottish suffered the lightest casualties of any Canadian battalion on D-Day. But, coming in on the rising tide, many of Le Régiment de la Chaudière’s landing craft struck concealed mines, and their occupants had no option but to throw off their equipment and swim to shore. Soon, both regiments were surging forward. By noon, the 9^th Infantry Brigade was on its way to the beaches to exploit the 3^rd Canadian Infantry Division’s hard-won gains.

Breaching the wall

Although only one Canadian unit reached its D-Day objective, the first line of German defences had been completely smashed. By evening, Canadian troops had progressed further inland than any of their Allies. It was a remarkable achievement but, despite casualties being less than expected, it was an expensive one, too. “The German dead were littered over the dunes, by the gun positions,” a Canadian journalist reported. “By them, lay Canadians in bloodstained battledress, in the sand and in the grass, on the wire and by the concrete forts. . . . They had lived a few minutes of the victory they had made. That was all.” To ensure that D-Day would succeed, 340 Canadians had given their lives. Another 574 had been wounded and 47 taken prisoner.

And a resounding success it was. The British and Americans had also come ashore and pushed inland; the Allied beachheads soon formed a continuous front. By the end of D-Day, the Allies had landed as many as 155,000 troops in France by sea and air, 6,000 vehicles including 900 tanks, 600 guns and about 4,000 tons of supplies and, astonishingly, had achieved complete surprise in doing it. The Atlantic Wall had been breached. But the battle had just begun. The bridgehead had to be secured and expanded to prevent the Wehrmacht from driving the Allies back into the sea.

Germans counterattack

That attempt was not long in coming, and the Canadians were to feel its fury. On June 7, Canadian troops renewed their advance. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles and The Regina Rifles reached their original D-Day objectives with comparative ease. It was a different story for The North Nova Scotia Highlanders and The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment (27^th Armored) ordered to occupy two villages on the outskirts of Caen. At Buron, the Canadians grappled with ready and waiting German Panzer troops. Intense house-to-house fighting ensued before the Germans were driven out of the town.

That was only the beginning, as the bulk of the Canadian force bypassed Buron and moved on Authie. There they ran into the elite 12th SS Panzer Division which consisted of fanatical Hitler Jugend. These inexperienced 18 year olds proved willing to die for their Fuehrer. Moreover, they were led by tough officers, all veterans of the savage fighting on the Eastern Front. These ruthless troops gave no quarter, and the Canadians facing them had never before seen their like.

Outmatched and overwhelmed

The Germans fell upon the Canadians with devastating results. One company of North Novas was obliterated. The shells of the Sherbrookes’ tanks simply bounced off the armour of the German Mark IVs, whose longer-range guns soon reduced many of the highly-flammable Shermans into burning hulks. The losses were high on both sides as ferocious hand-to-hand fighting broke out. The Canadians inflicted considerable casualties, but on this day they were outmatched and overwhelmed. Driven out of Authie and Buron, the North Novas and Sherbrooke Fusiliers barely survived.

There was more punishment to come. The next day the SS troops attacked The Regina Rifle Regiment and The Royal Winnipeg Rifles. The outcome was just as calamitous. Surrounded and running short of ammunition, the Winnipegs at Putoten Bessin had to retreat under incessant fire. That night, The Canadian Scottish and tanks of The 1^st Hussars succeeded in recapturing the town at heavy cost. “Never a wounded man whimpered,” the Canadian Scottish war diary claimed; “the opposite in fact was the case and time and again badly wounded men had to be ordered back.”

No sign of wavering

The Reginas had a much closer call. SS tanks and infantry overran the infantry battalion’s front line and infiltrated its headquarters area. A wild night-long mêlée took place. The regiment’s war diary recorded, “The whole sky was lit up by blazing roofs and burning tanks . . . . ” Only some inspired work with PIATs (the infantry’s anti-tank weapon) and the propitious arrival of The Sherbrooke Fusiliers’ Shermans salvaged a desperate situation. “Everyone fought magnificently and although the picture looked black, there was no sign of wavering anywhere.” The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (MG) and 12th Field Regiment along with an unidentified Anti-tank unit were also involved in this action. A Military Cross was earned by Captain Hal Gonder from the Cameron Highlanders.

Holding the line

All in all, it had been a grim indoctrination for Canada’s citizen soldiers. In two days, the North Novas, Sherbrookes, Winnipegs, and Scottish suffered almost 600 casualties. But, while it bent, the Canadian line did not break. The contest between the two armies had ended in a draw. And though the Canadians had painfully learned to dread the cold efficiency of their adversaries, they also realized that they could hold their own. The 12th SS had momentarily stopped the Canadian advance, but it had paid dearly for the privilege.

Canada strikes back

The Canadians struck back on June 11, but the gains were limited. Elements of Le Régiment de la Chaudière and the Fort Garry Horse joined British units in a hotly contested, but ultimately successful, attack on the SS in the town of Rots. However, an assault on the village of Le Mesnil Patry by the Queen’s Own Rifles and the 1^st Hussars ended in tragedy. Riding aboard the fast-moving tanks, the Canadians came under lethal fire from well-sited enemy armour and artillery. Some of the attackers penetrated the village on sheer daring alone, but it was all for naught. “I have never witnessed a battle of this intensity, before or since,” recalled one officer of the Queen’s Own. Nineteen Shermans from the lead squadron of the Hussars were destroyed and only two escaped the fire of the terrible Nazi 88s. In all, the two Regiments

Even so, the Nazis proved resourceful, stubborn, and deadly. The Allies had carved out a foothold on the French mainland but had yet to achieve a decisive breakthrough. The plan devised by the commander of all Allied land forces on the continent, British General Bernard Montgomery, envisaged the Canadians and British principally tying down the main German armour and infantry units in the east by threatening and then taking the strategic city of Caen. This constant pressure aimed to free the Americans to break out from their positions. It also meant that the Canadians continued to confront the best of the enemy’s troops.

Carpiquet

Once returned to the front in early July, the 3^rd Canadian Division’s role in this scheme was to capture the airport at Carpiquet, a small town outside of Caen. Defended by the fearsome 12th SS, the Canadians knew only too well what awaited them. General Keller’s staff decided to muster as much firepower as possible for the attack: four battalions of infantry backed up by an armoured regiment and every available piece of artillery.

All this would not be enough on that July 4^th. The Canadians had barely started their advance through the chest-high wheat fields when the Germans began to lob shell after shell on top of them. Soon, one padre recalled, “everywhere you could see the pale upturned faces of the dead.” The survivors of The North Shore Regiment and occupied Carpiquet village after merciless fighting at close quarters. “Carpiquet has become a true inferno,” the Chaudières’ war diary observed.

The Royal Winnipeg Rifles were also ravaged. As they crossed open runways to attack the airport, continuous fire from enemy bunkers and pill-boxes raked their lines. The Winnipegs pressed forward twice, only to be ordered to withdraw that night. During the night, the Germans rained mortar and artillery fire onto the Canadian positions, and mounted several violent counter-attacks against them. Some of the Chaudières were trapped and taken prisoner. Yet, the rest of the Canadians held their hard-earned ground.

Partial victory comes at a cost

The price of this partial victory had once more been high. The Winnipegs had 40 fatalities out of a total of 132 casualties; the North Shores reported 46 killed and 86 wounded. Carpiquet is still remembered as the graveyard of the North Shores because these were the heaviest losses it suffered during the entire campaign. “I am sure that at some time during the attack every man felt he could not go on,” one of the North Shores recalled. “Men were being killed or wounded on all sides and the advance seemed pointless as well as hopeless. I never realized . . . how far discipline, pride of unit, and above all, pride in oneself and family, can carry a man, even when each step forward meant possible death.” It had been another hard lesson for Canadian soldiers who were quickly becoming accustomed to such horrors.

Caen

On the first day of the attack, July 18, the battle-weary veterans of the 3^rd Infantry Division bore the brunt of the fighting. There was frenzied hand-to-hand combat against dogged resistance in the twisted rubble of industrial areas and there were grave losses. However, by the 19^th, the division had crossed the Orne and reached the outlying suburbs of Caen.

The 2^nd Division had an easier time in reaching its objectives beyond the Orne River. Its luck, however, would not hold. It was the 2^nd Division which had been decimated at Dieppe two years earlier. Now retribution did not come easily.

Verrières Ridge

On July 20, the division set out to capture Verrières Ridge, an 88 metre-high kidney-shaped hill that overlooked the main road running south from Caen. It was defended by the 1^st Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, yet another zealous formation of SS veterans which just 48 hours before had destroyed one of the best units in the British army. Against these select troops, the novice 2^nd Division stood little chance.

South Saskatchewan Regiment

The attack began well enough, with the Canadians on the right and left flanks slowly but surely pushing the enemy back. But in the middle, chaos reigned. As The South Saskatchewan Regiment moved forward, a torrential cloudburst grounded its air cover. From their commanding heights, the enemy tanks were free to reap the advantages of their superiority. They did so with precision. Soon over 200 South Sasks were dead, wounded, or captured. The survivors were in full retreat, colliding with The Essex Scottish Regiment, two companies of which then also fell back. But the remnants of the Essex stood fast and stopped the German counterattack in its tracks.

The Black Watch intervenes

It was but a temporary reprieve. The next morning, with inclement weather still grounding Allied air sorties, the Germans struck The Essex Scottish again, creating a salient between them and the neighbouring Les Fusiliers Mont Royal. Disaster loomed until The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, aided by a heavy artillery bombardment and the support of two armoured regiments, recaptured the lost ground and stabilized the brigade’s front. The Canadians had demonstrated uncommon valour but to little avail. The Germans retained their tight grip on Verrières Ridge, and the South Sasks and Essex Scottish had suffered more than 450 casualties in trying to wrest it from them. The 2^nd Canadian Corps had lost almost 2,000 men over four days of fighting.

The Disaster of July 25

At great cost, Canadian and British troops continued to carry out their part of the Allied plan by keeping the bulk of German forces concentrated around Caen. But bad weather conditions forced the Americans to delay their offensive. Another attack was considered necessary in the east, and Montgomery ordered the 2^nd Canadian Corps to lead it with Verrières Ridge once more one of the operation’s objectives. Choice enemy troops again made up the opposition.

The attack took place in the early hours of July 25. Trouble ensued almost immediately. As the Canadians moved into position, they found themselves subjected to enemy fire from all sides. Mining tunnels and ventilation shafts allowed the Germans to move inside, behind, and along the sides of their advance. Worse still, Simonds’ plan to guide the assault troops by beaming searchlights off the clouds to produce “artificial moonlight” served only to silhouette the soldiers and make them even more vulnerable to Nazi machine-guns. The 3^rd Division’s North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the 2^nd Armoured Brigade’s Fort Garry Horse paid the price. Ordered to withdraw, only about 100 men and just four tanks made it back to their lines.

Germans spring a trap

The worst was yet to come. The 2^nd Division’s Royal Hamilton Light Infantry took the town of Verrières, but when the lead company of The Royal Regiment of Canada tried to push onward it succumbed to the combined fire of 30 enemy tanks. Meanwhile, approximately 300 members of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada ascended Verrières Ridge, riddled by enemy fire all the way. With extraordinary resolution, 60 members of this old Montréal regiment reached the crest of the slope. But there, the well-entrenched and well-camouflaged Germans had prepared a trap. Only 15 of the Black Watch lived to tell about it. The exhausted Canadians’ terrible ordeal this day was still not over. Just before nightfall, a furious German counterattack engulfed The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. Several enemy tanks broke through, but after a frantic struggle the regiment held its position. By the time it was called off, the operation as a whole had produced huge losses: more than 1,500 casualties of whom about 450 had perished. Except for Dieppe, it was the bloodiest day of the war for Canada.

The breakout begins

The British and Canadians had done their job by pinning down the German formations opposing them and weakening the enemy defences facing the Americans. The same day that Canadian troops were being hammered by the Germans, the Americans finally launched their offensive. After a brief setback, US forces pierced the enemy lines and quickly fanned out across the countryside. The stalemate had at last been broken.

The German army was now in a precarious situation. Circumstances ought to have dictated a withdrawal into new defensive positions behind the River Seine before it was too late. Hitler would not hear of it. The one man who might have stood up to him, Rommel, had been seriously wounded in an air attack a week earlier. Soon, the Field Marshal was forced to commit suicide for his complicity in a plot to kill the Fuehrer.

Hitler’s doomed plan

Unopposed and inflexible, Hitler decreed a major attack against the American front which he believed would crumble under the strain. The plan was doomed to fail since the Germans no longer possessed adequate manpower and materiel to see it through. The Canadians and the British had seen to that. Moreover, the Allies had long since deciphered the German codes and knew what was coming.

The grand allied scheme

A prime opportunity thus presented itself to lure the Germans into a vulnerable position, blunt their thrust, and then defeat them in a pincer movement. The potential existed to destroy the whole German Army in Normandy in a narrow, exposed pocket. For the scheme to work, the Canadians and British had to close the German escape route by driving south from Caen to the town of Falaise, and there to link up with the Americans who were racing from the other direction.

Normandy’s final stage

The First Canadian Army was to attempt this bold manoeuvre. Fully operational by the end of July, it constituted the largest battlefield force ever commanded by a Canadian. The bruised and bloodied 3^rd Canadian Division was finally pulled out of the front line after fighting almost without interruption since D-Day. Its replacement was the eager but untested 4^th Canadian Armoured Division, commanded by Major General George Kitching. Another newly arrived formation, the 1^st Polish Armoured Division, consisting of men who had fled their Nazi occupied homeland, as well as the 1^st British Corps, rounded out the multi-national First Canadian Army. It now prepared to enter the final stage of the Normandy campaign.

The Road to Falaise

Lieutenant General Guy Simonds developed an innovative plan to break through to the critical road junction at Falaise. Using radio beams, searchlights, and tracer fire to steer them, the Canadians would attack at night in conjunction with an immense air bombardment. To help nullify the German anti-tank defences, Simonds instructed his men to convert some of their self-propelled artillery into armoured personnel carriers the first of their kind. With the infantry riding in relative safety inside what were soon dubbed “Kangaroos,” with the enemy blasted from above by American bombers, and using darkness as a screen, Simonds intended to puncture the enemy line.

A murky battlefield

But not long after the attack had begun the plan started to go awry. Canadian units lost their way in the dark. The haze of dust and smoke manufactured by the bombing and hundreds of vehicles made it almost impossible for the troops to get their bearings. Many casualties resulted, but most of the Canadians reached their objective villages in which their comrades had previously fallen, as well as the infamous Verrières Ridge by the middle of the day. They then repulsed the inevitable German counterattacks.

The operation reaped some initial rewards, but the prolonged confusion on the congested and murky battlefield, combined with obstinate enemy resistance, soon robbed it of momentum. In his plan, Simonds expected air support would break the logjam. Unfortunately, American Flying Fortresses accidentally dropped some of their bombs on Canadian and Polish troops, killing or wounding 300 of them.

Quesnay Wood

To prevent the attack from petering out completely, Simonds ordered infantry from The Algonquin Regiment, piggybacked on tanks of The British Columbia Regiment, to occupy the high ground near Quesnay Wood that rose above the main road from Caen to Falaise. Once again, however, the units got lost trying to advance in the black of night and on August 9 stumbled into the midst of the depleted but relentless 12th SS. Cut off in an open field with nowhere to hide and no chance to dig in, the Canadians fought gallantly but were systematically demolished. Over the course of the day, they lost 240 men killed, wounded, or captured, and 47 tanks.

On August 10, The Queen’s Own Rifles and The North Shore Regiment attempted to clear the enemy from Quesnay Wood. On one side of the woods, the Hitler Youth waited until the last minute and then attacked the Queen’s Own. On the other side, the North Shores suffered equally. The Canadians had not flinched but altogether they sustained 165 casualties including 44 killed. Simonds’ attack had stalled.

Germany in the “Cauldron”

In the interim, the doomed German offensive against the American front had failed miserably and, Hitler’s orders notwithstanding, enemy forces had instinctively begun to flee eastward. Their pocket was gradually contracting, and unremitting Allied air attacks made life for the Germans caught inside this “Cauldron” unbearable. But every day that the inferno’s exit point at Falaise remained open allowed more of them to escape. It was imperative that the Canadians take the town.

Operation “Tractable”

Simonds therefore launched his second major attack, Operation Tractable. This time the plan called for a daylight assault under a smokescreen with two armoured groups in the lead, accompanied by infantry in their Kangaroos. Considerable air and artillery support were to assist them. Speed and secrecy were of the essence.

Canada forges on

Bad luck again dogged the Canadians. Just as the attack got underway on August 14, Allied aircraft once again mistakenly bombed Canadian and Polish soldiers causing almost 400 casualties. As the armoured phalanx zoomed ahead, struggling to maintain direction through yet another dense shroud of smoke and dirt, German guns pelted its tightly packed columns. Almost oblivious to the mayhem around them, the Canadian tanks lumbered onward until they reached the Laison River. The armour became mired on the banks and bed of the stream, but in a gritty display of initiative and improvisation the Canadians forded the river.

On August 16, the 2^nd Canadian Infantry Division set out to take Falaise. The following day, its ruins finally fell. Meanwhile, the 4^th Canadian and the 1^st Polish Armoured Divisions hurried to block the German line of retreat just east of the town. As American and Free French forces sped from the south toward Chambois, the 4^th Canadian Armoured occupied Trun from the north on August 18. While the division prepared a line of defence along the Falaise Trun Chambois highway to bar the Germans from breaking out of the pocket, most of the 1^st Polish Armoured took up position further east to head off the imminent enemy attempt to break in and extricate their comrades. The rest of it drove on to Chambois and there joined forces with American troops on August 19.

Mace hill

The Falaise Gap was closed at last, but a few small and dispersed openings remained to be plugged by the Canadians and Poles. And for that task they were on their own, trying to fend off two converging enemy forces bent on their destruction. The bulk of the 1^st Polish Armoured Division to the east of the Canadian line occupied a wooded hill which its General named “Maczuga,” or “mace.” It was here that the Poles intended to force the Nazis into submission. But there would be a battle of epic proportions. Throughout August 20, German units able to slip past the Canadians, together with SS troops on the other side of the gap, stormed the Polish position ceaselessly. Surrounded, and running low on food, fuel, and ammunition, the Poles held fast until relieved the next day by The Canadian Grenadier Guards. In all, they lost 2,300 men. But in a stunning display of valour, the unwavering Polish soldiers had sealed the fate of the German forces in Normandy.

By then, the Canadians to the west had ended the enemy hopes of retreat. Exceptional heroism and sacrifice had been in abundance here as well. On August 18, armoured cars of The South Alberta Regiment and infantry from The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada left Trun for the village of St. Lambert Sur Dives, just north of Chambois. Through it ran the last road out of the pocket.

David Currie’s bravery

Over the next two days, outnumbered and isolated Canadians waged war against a desperate enemy. It was David Currie, the thirty-two year old commander of the South Alberta Regiment, who made the difference. With all his officers either killed or wounded, Currie popped up all along the Canadian line, shouting encouragement to his thinning ranks and directing the fire of his few remaining guns. He even single-handedly knocked out one of the giant German Tiger tanks. “We knew at one stage that it was going to be a fight to the finish,” one of Currie’s men later recalled, “but he was so cool about it, it was impossible for us to get excited.”

When it was all over, Currie and his tiny band of soldiers had destroyed seven enemy tanks, 12 of the fearsome 88’s, 40 vehicles, and had killed, wounded, or captured almost 2,000 Germans. For his “courage and complete disregard for personal safety . . . his conspicuous bravery and extreme devotion to duty”, Major David Currie was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration in the British Commonwealth.

Aftermath

The battle of Normandy had ended but the war continued for almost another year. The First Canadian Army now had to subdue the isolated German garrisons defending several fortified French ports which the Allies had bypassed. At the beginning of September, the 2^nd Division returned in triumph to Dieppe. Boulogne and Calais fell soon after.

Battle for the Scheldt

The Canadians were then ordered to clear the approaches to the strategically important port of Antwerp, Belgium. The resulting battle for the Scheldt estuary took place in appalling conditions of mud and water against skilled enemy units. It took over a month, and more than 6,000 casualties, but after what Montgomery called “a fine performance, and one that could have been carried out only by first-class troops,” the Canadians opened the water route to Antwerp, thus ensuring that the final Allied assault on Germany itself would be sufficiently supplied.

Crossing the Rhine

After three months of small actions, the Canadians were again in the thick of action by February 1945. General Crerar’s First Canadian Army played a key part in operations in the Rhineland which were intended to break through key German defensive lines. Late in March, fighting through heavily forested areas against Nazi soldiers protecting their homeland, the Canadians crossed the Rhine River, the last natural barrier to the heart of Germany.

Germany defeated, the war ends

By that time, the 1^st Canadian Corps, having driven the Germans in Italy north of Rimini, joined their compatriots in northwest Europe. The Canadian troops fighting on the continent had finally been reunited. Under one command for the first time, the Canadians rapidly pushed north and helped liberate the Netherlands in April. Squeezed between the British, Canadians and Americans to the west, and the Russians to the east, Nazi Germany’s defeat was now only a matter of time. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30. German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2. Those in northwest Europe capitulated five days later. Almost six years after it had begun, the war in Europe was finally over.

Canada and Normandy

Canadians had figured prominently in the defeat of Hitlerism. In Normandy they had been in the vanguard of the Allied victory. The Nazi losses there were horrific—300,000 men. Moreover, most of the enemy’s equipment had been destroyed, including more than 2,000 tanks. The backbone of the German Army in the west was broken in Normandy, and the Canadians had played a monumental role.

Allied casualties during the battle had also been heavy, including 18,444 Canadians, of whom 5,021 would never see their homes again. Of all the divisions which formed part of Montgomery’s 21 Army Group, none suffered more casualties than the 3^rd and 2^nd Canadian.

Punching above our weight