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Sketches of the Restigouche

The Graphic

        THE NORTH SHORE IN CANADA

        THE NORTH SHORE'S STORY (Part Three)

        CARPIQUET FALLS

        On the 3rd of July the march to Carpiquet began. During the night the Battalion concentrated in, and around Rots. At half-past five on the morning of the 4th-under a tremendous barrage of 640 guns-the men began the long and costly advance through the tall Normandy wheat. In no other action did the Regiment pay such a price. In ones and twos men fell, but the advance went on. Rifles struck - bayonets first - into the ground marked the location of the wounded. The stretcher-bearers task was grim and highly dangerous. Yet time after time they went out into the lethal rain of steel to bring in their wounded comrades. Some idea of the work these men did, and the tempo of German resistance, can be gained by reference to Charlie Company's casualty figures, seventy men killed and wounded. Other companies sustained serious losses also.

        By noon on that hot July day the town of Carpiquet was in Allied hands. The holocaust from the German guns was not to end then. For five days and nights the regiment hung on in the face of continuous bombardment and counter-attack. The position was an outcrop, or the bulge in the Division's line. Hence the Germans were able to shell and mortar from three sides. But although casualties continued to mount up - day-by-day - the position was denied to the enemy. A major counter-attack was launched at midnight of the 5thJuly after a heavy artillery and mortar barrage which destroyed and set on fire practically every building in the town. The men held their fire until the enemy was within 30 yards of the forward defended localities. Then, under the point blank fire of determined riflemen the onrushing Germans wavered, fell, finally the survivors broke and ran for their own lines. German Tiger tanks, at one point, over-ran the six-pounders of the right hand battalion, and had taken some of their crews prisoners. Major Ralph Daughney called up the M 10's, which knocked out three Tigers and forced the remainder to withdraw to the quarries beyond the airfield. He then reorganized the defense of the area and got the crews back on their guns.

        After five days of this continual blitz the unit pushed on to take the town of Bretuvilleaur-Odon which lay in the valley beyond Carpiquet. While occupying the town the unit was heavily shelled but refused to give up any of the ground won.

        At this time the City of Caen fell to another Brigade. The other Canadian Division came up and for the first time since the landing the men had a chance to rest, to bathe, to relax, to write home- in short to do all those things that hazardous days and nights of desperate conflict do not permit.

        ASSAULT ON COLOMBELLES

        This chase of the Normandy campaign was described as "the break-in". Along this section of the front the Germans were in great strength. It has been said that never before had the Germans concentrated so many division in the line. One should remember the words of General Eisenhower, when reviewing the Regiments part in this stage of the war. "A yard of ground…was worth miles on the other fronts." Progress was painfully slow sometimes -always the cost was heavy.

        Colombelles was an industrial suburb of Caen. It lay across the Orne River and with its many large factory buildings was ideally suited for defense.

        At eight o'clock on the morning of 18th July - after a heavy aerial bombardment - the companies moved off. Advancing closely behind a massed artillery barrage the approaches to the factory were seized and the task of clearing the Germans from the dugouts and gun emplacements began. This was a daylong job for the factory had a maze of cellars and the rubble and ruins provided excellent hiding places. At nightfall all enemy resistance had ceased.

        In clearing the factories Lieutenant Paul McCann (Mentioned - In - Dispatches) and Lieutenant S.L. Moore were both wounded.

        EIGHT DAYS AT BOURGEBUS

        Now that the British-Canadian drive had secured a foothold across the Orne and onto the Normandy Plain it was necessary to secure portions of the high ground dominating the flanks. The Regiment was, therefore, moved from Columbelles to a salient in the neighbourhood of Bourgebus, Grenthville, Tillyle-Campagne, Soliers, and Ifs. These villages were important because they stood at the approaches to Falaise. During the eight days the unit held Bourgebus and Grenthville the positions were being shelled incessantly by the German guns on the ridges around Rocquancourt. During one particularly vicious pounding Major G.E. Lockwood, Battalion Second-in-command with fifteen other ranks, were all wounded. Two jeeps and a half-track were completely wrecked and burned out.

        Nightly bombing and first light attacks from the Luftwaffe were among the other hazards peculiar to this period. Finally, on the 27thJuly, the Battalion had its first real test since the assault landing.

        Appropriately the rest area, Basily, was near St. Aubin-Sur-Mer. There the men had an opportunity to see- at their leisure- the formidable defenses through which they stormed fifty - one days before. While the work of re-equipping the Battalion went on, new officers and men were arriving to replace the battle casualties.

        DISASTER FROM THE AIR

        After this brief respite the Battalion, refreshed and re-equipped began a long convoy march to the Falaise approaches. On this convoy with the troops in TCV's occurred onr of these seemingly inevitable disasters which war brings in its strain. A large force of flying fortresses mistakenly identified this convoy as being German. The bombs rained down, and the minutes that followed were packed with horror. Trucks went up in smoke and flame, scores of men were wounded, many killed. When the planes had passed the convoy was a shambles. But quickly the situation was taken in hand, burning vehicles pushed off the road, wounded rushed back to the rapidly filling Field Dressing Stations. The blow fell most heavily on Able Company who had 25 men killed, 33 wounded. Other companies suffered also, but to a lesser degree. But the spirit of the men was such that the convoy reformed and went on into battle. The advance forward an identification of jtheir great heart and the fine example and leadership of the Non Commissioned Officers.

        To be continued... (QUESNAY WOOD)

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