by Mark Zuehlke
The Sasks were also lashed by mortar and machine-gun fire short of the bridge, and Radley-Walters lost another two tanks to anti-tank guns. “The infantry went to ground; the tanks went into firing positions; and everything came to a standstill,” he recalled.
Lieutenant Colonel Fred Clift grabbed a rifle from a nearby man. Radley-Walters saw Clift and intelligence officer Captain N.H. Hadley run to the head of the column. Clift “was a great marksman and he ran forward to where the first platoon was and began firing.”49 After Clift shot three of the gun crew, the survivors blew up the gun and fled.
The Sasks spilled down the slope, splashed over the river, and scaled the opposite bank, while the tankers busted through the bridge’s barricade.50 Clearing houses and rooting out the still fanatically resisting Hitler Youth began. It was slow, dangerous work. The Germans were spread out, fighting in small groups or even singly. Every sniper had to be cornered and killed. Few surrendered. Night fell and the battle raged on.
Radley-Walters recalled: “It was dark and we had to move through Falaise, which was burning; the whole bloody town was on fire; the streets were blocked. The city had been bombed and as we came in on the right hand side, we saw the castle … and close to it, the big Gothic church where I believe [William the Conqueror] was baptized. Everywhere we went there were obstacles—buildings burning and those that had burned had fallen down into the street and the rubble slowed us down.
“We were taking a long time to get through the city and Freddie Clift was forcing us, saying, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ I was trying to get my people to move faster but it was tough going. I tried two or three different approaches on streets running parallel to the main drag but didn’t have too much luck. I got behind Lieutenant Charlie Williams and as I did, I noticed he was moving very slowly, but the attack got going.”51
The fires silhouetted the infantry. Private Goodman felt spotlighted when his company passed the burning cathedral. He expected the Germans to rake them with machine guns, but they slipped past untouched and started clearing towards the railroad on the eastern side of town.52 By midnight, the Sasks controlled most of their assigned area and by 0300 hours had established a firm base alongside the rail line. “Although the men were tired they had carried out their work efficiently,” Brigadier Young observed. “On the other hand the Camerons … continued to make slow progress.” By 0500 hours, a perturbed Young discovered they were only about five hundred yards from the river with another fifteen hundred yards required to reach the other side of Falaise. “They were pressed for more hurried action.”
It was about 1000 hours when the Camerons gained the eastern outskirts and were sent on to the tiny village of Saint-Clair about a mile beyond. Here they and the supporting tanks were to dig in and fend off counterattacks. Behind them, Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal had entered Falaise and begun painstakingly searching it for bypassed resistance. The Fusiliers learned from one of the few remaining civilians that a large four-storey stone building surrounded by a heavy stone wall held fifty to sixty Hitler Youth sworn to fight to the last. At 1800 hours, tanks punched a hole through the outer w all. Ten Fusiliers slipped in only to be driven back by the young fanatics. At 0200 hours on August 18, the Fusiliers assaulted with anti-tank guns, Bren guns and mortars covering. As the attack began, German fighter-bombers unexpectedly flew over, dropping bombs and flares. The large building was seton fire. Inside, the French Canadians and Hitler Youth shot it out. Only a few Germans surrendered; a handful of others were picked up trying to escape through the Saskatchewan lines.53
A 12th SS officer attempted to escape through Major Jacques Dextraze’s ‘D’ Company. Armed with a Schmeisser, he wounded several men before dashing for the cover of a nearby shed. A Fusilier killed him with a grenade.54
By 0500 hours, there “were several piles of German dead around the [building] and burnt bodies within.”55
Seizing Falaise largely concluded 2nd Division’s role in closing whathad become known as the Falaise Gap. Its remaining duties over the next few days included establishing a perimeter running northeast from Falaise to the Dives River in order to prevent any German attempt to break out of the pocket via this route.
A Canadian convoy heads across the wide, flat terrain near Caen en route to the front lines on July 31. The photo was taken from an Auster aircraft, which took off from the Allied-built airstrip in the background. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-129123.
Soldiers of 4th Infantry Brigade are mounted in Kangaroos and lined up in columns just before the kick-off of Operation Totalize on August 7. H.A. Barnett photo. LAC PA-129174.
Canadian troops advance near Ifs on July 25 as part of Operation Spring. Ken Bell photo. LAC PA-116528.
Flames and smoke boil up from ammunition and fuel dumps next to the Caen-Falaise highway on August 8. The fire was the result of misdirected bombs dropped by U.S. b-17 bombers. Photographer unknown. LAC PA-154826.
Lieutenant General Guy Simonds, General Bernard Montgomery, and Lieutenant General Harry Crerar determined how, where, and when First Canadian Army fought. Possession of author.
A Fascine and a Petard tank assemble near Bretteville-le-Rabet in advance of Operation Tractable, August 14. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-116523.
Armour forms up for Operation Tractable near Bretteville-le-Rabeton August 14. The nearest vehicle is a 17-pounder self-propelled anti-tank gun. Immediately behind is a Crocodile flame-thrower tank with attached fuel trailer. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-116525.
A Fusiliers Mont-Royal patrol supported by a Sherman tank searches for snipers in Falaise on August 17. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-115568.
A Canadian soldier uses a fountain for cover in the badly bomb-damaged central square of Falaise. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-116503.
Canadian soldiers examine damage to the inside of the Falaise cathedral. Possession of author.
German prisoners caught in the Falaise Gap stream towards the Canadian rear lines on August 19. Many look quite content to be out of the war. Possession of author.
Major Dave Currie speaks with a French Resistance fighter (left), while a member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders takes the surrender of an officer. The man had led his convoy directly into Saint-Lambert, resulting in its complete capture. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-111565.
Major Dave Currie (left, with pistol in hand) of the South Alberta Regiment directs captured German troops towards the Canadian rear at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives on August 19. Donald I. Grant photo. LAC PA-116586.
[ 27 ]
Guns Chattering
THE PAST TWO days had been disastrous for the Germans. On August 15, Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge’s car was shot up by Allied aircraft. Although he survived, all wireless sets were destroyed, and the small command party only reached General der Panzertruppen Hans Eberbach’s headquarters after nightfall. His unexplained absence fuelled Hitler’s suspicion that von Kluge was negotiating a ceasefire with the Allies.
Hitler was demanding a renewed counterattack by Eberbach’s hopelessly weak five armoured divisions. “To cling to a hope that cannot be fulfilled by any power in the world … is a disastrous error. That is the situation!” von Kluge shouted upon hearing this order. Finally, Hitler acceded to a withdrawal east of the Orne and then the Dives, with Falaise held “as a corner post.” Von Kluge ordered the withdrawal begun that very night. Fifth Panzer Army and Seventh Army would “withdraw without delay to the sector of the Dives and the line Morteaux-Trun-Gacé-Laigle [L’Aigle].” This was von Kluge’s last instruction. On August 17, Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model arrived with a letter from Hitler relieving von Kluge and appointing Model in his place. En route by plane to his rear headquarters at Metz, von Kluge took poison. He was dead when the plane landed. Von Kluge left a letter declaring unwavering loyalty to Hitler, National Socialism, and Germany. Model came to Normandy with no intention of returning to the offensive. Even Hitler seemed to belatedly recognize the time for that was past. The priority was to
keep Falaise Gap prized open and to extricate as many as possible of the approximately 100,000 Germans inside the pocket.1
At 1530 hours, meanwhile, General Bernard Montgomery called Lieutenant General Harry Crerar and instructed First Canadian Army to immediately capture Trun, in the centre of the gap and midway between Falaise and Argentan. Crerar immediately phoned Simonds with Montgomery’s new directive. No real adjustment to Simonds’s current plan was required, for he was already pushing towards Trun.2 At 2200 hours on August 16, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders with ‘C’ Squadron of the South Alberta Regiment had started this effort by advancing from Olenden five miles southeast to Damblainville. Lieutenant Colonel Dave Stewart had wanted to gain the village by first light. Because of the distance involved, Stewart mounted ‘B’ Company into Kangaroos and sent it ahead with the South Albertas’ tanks. The rest of the Argylls had followed on foot.3
In one tank, Trooper John Neff believed the nighttime move offered a first taste of France unscarred by war. The column moved through “grand rolling country, all young pine forests [and] cider apple orchards. Moving through the orchards, the crew commanders hunched in the turrets to avoid being hit by overhead branches. Ripe apples plopped through open hatches and soon the tank floors were covered in a pulpy, sweet smelling mess of fruit crushed underfoot.”4
Shortly after midnight, the tankers and ‘B’ Company reached a large hill overlooking Damblainville. As the night wore on, the rest of the Argylls arrived. Stewart sent the scout platoon into the village. They found no Germans, “with the exception of enemy tanks moving through the town from time to time.”5
At first light, the Argylls advanced ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies. The move proved to be “a matter of walking in and taking over,” recorded the regiment’s historian. “It all seemed unbelievable. The other companies soon followed and the town was occupied completely.”6 The village and a bridge over the Ante River were secured by 0830 hours.7 There was one moment of anxiety when the Argylls spotted a Tiger squatting in a narrow street.8 Before anyone could react, however, the crew blew it up and surrendered. “While getting into position, ‘A’ Company saw a good many Germans in the woods in front of their position, and these seemed of two minds what to do. Our men made signs to these people, some of whom surrendered, while the rest ran into the woods.”9
The previous night, two Algonquin Regiment ‘A’ Company platoons under Lieutenant R.H. Scott had also advanced aboard carriers left of the Argylls in an attempt to seize a Dives River bridge crossing at Couliboeuf. The aim, as Algonquin Major George Cassidy put it, “was in the nature of coppering our bets, because our main effort was to be closer in, through … Damblainville and over the Ante and Traine Rivers. As it turned out, it was a master stroke. Their effort was successful in seizing a bridge before the enemy could destroy it.”
By noon, the Algonquin Regiment—less Scott’s two platoons—arrived at Damblainville. The Algonquins were the lead element in a long column of 10th Infantry Brigade and other 4th Armoured Division formations expecting to push across the Ante River bridge and advance on Trun. At the column’s head was the remaining platoon and headquarters section of ‘A’ Company. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bradburn had instructed Captain Clark Robertson to cross the river and proceed to Point 77, which dominated the Traine River.
Crossing the Ante, Robertson came to an east-west-running rail line close to Point 77. Seeing the line led to a small railway bridge immediately west of Point 77, Robertson ordered one section to seize it. The moment the section crossed the railroad, a “hail of small arms fire carpeted the entire area of the bridge, and not another man could get over the rail line.” Robertson spotted two gun positions covering the bridge and requested artillery. Bradburn instead ordered him to pull back, so he could tee up a heavier artillery program. Extracting the section across the tracks proved no easy matter, but the men escaped under covering fire from the rest of the company. When it was discovered that a seriously wounded man had been left behind, ‘A’ Company’s stretcher-bearer, Private A.J. Cote, went to gethim. As everyone else threw out fire, Cote dashed forward, found the man, quickly tended his wounds, and carried him to safety. “Quite the bravest act I saw during the entire war,” Robertson said later, even though Cote’s gallantry went officially unrecognized.
Behind ‘A’ Company, the situation had completely unravelled. Expecting a hasty passage, “the brigade column had been oozing over and down the hill … coming into perfect view of the German force only 1,800 yards away. Plastered against the forward slope of the hill, and jammed together in a nose-to-tail column, they made a dream target for the enemy artillery, and it wasn’t long in coming down.” Confusion reigned for three hours. There were so many vehicles, tanks, and infantry in Damblainville that nobody could move, and German artillery and Tiger tanks pounded it from the high ground south of the Ante.10
Major General George Kitching had just started breakfast at his tactical headquarters about two thousand yards from Damblainville when the German shelling began. With rounds landing nearby, Kitching and his staff finished eating in a ditch. Then Kitching went to see what was happening. Appreciating that forcing crossings over the two rivers at Damblainville was going to be a costly and time-consuming affair, Kitching remembered the bridge at Couliboeuf. By this time, the small Algonquin force had actually secured two bridges, the single-lane one at Couliboeuf and a wider, stronger bridge in the adjacent town of Morteaux-Couliboeuf. When he informed Lieutenant General Guy Simonds of this, Kitching was ordered to switch the division’s axis of advance to the bridges at Couliboeuf and Morteaux across the Dives and then to drive east cross-country to Trun.
A fair battle was by now under way at Damblainville. The Lake Superior (Motor) Regiment supported by British Columbia Regiment tanks had gained the rail line. Unable to go farther, infantry and tanks were caught in the narrow ground between the Ante and Trains Rivers. The Argylls and Algonquins were mired inside Damblainville. It would take hours to extricate these battalions. So Kitching ordered Lieutenant Colonel Bill Halpenny to send his remaining two armoured regiments eastwards, “head for the bridge at Couliboeuf and, once across, go as fast as possible to Trun.” As soon as feasible, the infantry brigade would hand over to 3rd Infantry Division and follow.11
THE DECISION TO strike east through Couliboeuf “across the rolling country and attack Trun from the northwest involved a colossal manoeuvre in the shortest possible time,” Algonquin’s Major P.A. Mayer wrote. “But the already weary troops responded to the call for speed with the result that by 1600 hours after a miracle of traffic control supervised by [the division’s divisional staff officer II] Major M.R. Dare … the greater partof the armoured brigade had crossed the Dives River through the Morteaux bridge and the single track Couliboeuf bridge.”12
Neither the Canadian Grenadier Guards nor the Governor General’s Foot Guards were close to full strength. The Foot Guards were organized into two squadrons. Captain George Taylor Baylay headed No. 1 Squadron, and Captain G.G. Froats had No. 2 Squadron. Major H.F. Baker was the regiment’s acting commander. It was early afternoon when the Foot Guards crossed the Dives at Morteaux, which was being heavily shelled.13 Once clear of Morteaux, the Foot Guards advanced alongside the river.14
The Grenadiers headed for Couliboeuf bridge. As the leading tank rolled up, its crew found a Sherman “set squarely in the roadway to cover the exit.” A Polish officer strode up and declared he was “under orders to fire on anyone attempting to cross.” Major Doug Hamilton tried unsuccessfully to contact brigade. So “to avoid international complications,” he went back to 4th Armoured Brigade’s headquarters at Perrières. Hamilton was told that, Poles notwithstanding, the Grenadiers were to get cracking and cut all routes leading from Trun “at any cost, by last light.”
Hamilton hurried back, explained things to the Polish officer, and got moving. He set a course that kept the Grenadiers to the north and parallel to the German front line. In this way they motored along L
es Moutiers-en-Auge “unchallenged and with all speed” until the lead tank was fired on from the left flank. “I think it is the Poles,” the crew commander said. “They are damned bad shots.”
A thousand yards north of Louvières-en-Auge they met two German trucks, shot them up, and took the surviving infantry aboard prisoner. Soon thereafter two signals trucks were discovered concealed in haystacks. Both were destroyed and the signallers killed. This was later revealed to have been a 1st SS Panzer Division signals-exchange unit, and its loss severed a vital link in the main German communication network. A thousand yards east of Louvières, the Grenadiers halted at dusk on the spur of Point 118. They had come eight miles from Couliboeuf.15
While the Grenadiers had enjoyed a brisk canter across Norman countryside, the Foot Guards brushed the German front soon after crossing the Morteaux bridge. Major Baker’s tank was struck by an anti-tank gun. Lance Corporal Richard Steele died, but the others aboard escaped. Baker and Lieutenant S.G. Checkland, however, were then wounded by sniper fire and evacuated. Captain Baylay assumed temporary regimental command.
Unable to raise brigade on the wireless, Baylay ordered the Foot Guards onward. On the edge of woods west of Les Moutieres-en-Auge, Baylay halted at nightfall. Everyone was told to maintain a high state of alert. Baylay believed they were in the blue, no friendly forces on either flank.16
