by Mark Zuehlke
Rockingham planned to commit the Glens and North Novas to an early morning two-pronged advance. On the far left, the Glens would clear the ground bordered on either side by the Alter Rhine’s horseshoe-shaped arms. Their first objective—the farm complex of Grietherbusch—lay smack in the horseshoe’s middle and 2,500 yards from the start line. From Grietherbusch, the Glens would move on a smaller farm called Tillhaus to finish ejecting the Germans from the horseshoe.
The North Novas, meanwhile, would move up the right bank of the Alter Rhine’s eastern arm, relieve the Argyll remnants still holding the farm code-named in their honour, and then attack Bienan. With the HLI still tied up at Speldrop, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division agreed to send 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade’s North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment across the Rhine early to provide Rockingham with a reserve that would be operational just after sunrise.22
At 1930 hours, the Glens started relieving the 7th Black Watch. While the switchover of rifle companies would not occur until after dark because the forward lines were too close to the Germans, the swap of battalion headquarters and medical personnel happened at dusk. When medical officer Captain Phil Rance arrived at the new Regimental Aid Post (RAP), he saw “many dead Germans in the field outside caught by our mortars when they counter-attacked the Black Watch.”23
“It is a bright moonlit night, and a very noisy one,” the Glens’ war diarist, Lieutenant J.C. Kirby, wrote. “Our art[iller]y is putting up a terrific barrage and Jerry is putting over the odd shell, some of which land uncomfortably close to this HQ. We lend a cynical ear to the commentators who babble about the light resistance offered by the Jerries to our landings across the Rhine, and who talk about our great advances. From where we sit it looks rugged . . . The SDG [Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders] have the unique position of being on the left of the whole Allied push.”24
In a muddy slit trench dug into the ditch alongside a road leading from the river to Bienan, North Novas’ Lieutenant Donald Pearce observed that the “horizon all the way around was faintly glowing, more a murky glow than a definite light, the reflection of burning farms and towns in the distance; and occasionally there were angry, pulsing flashes low down along the horizon directly to our front.”25
At 0630 hours on March 25, the artillery supporting the Glens opened fire, and the infantry advanced. Despite the prevailing fine spring weather, the Glens slogged their way forward across ground still sodden from winter rains. Standing pools of water and mud-holes confined the rifle companies to a road that ran due north to just short of Grietherbusch before doglegging into it. Confined to the road, the Glens advanced with just ‘D’ Company out front until it reached a small farm that proved undefended. ‘C’ Company passed to the front for the next leg to another small farm, where two stragglers wanted only to surrender. Not until Major Jack Peterson took the lead at 0800 hours for the next five-hundred-yard push did the Germans suddenly awake to the approaching attack.26
Artillery and mortar fire bracketed the road. One shell landed on the roadside next to a Bren carrier from the battalion carrier platoon that was providing close machine-gun support and knocked it out.27 Nearby, despatch rider Private Larry McKay fell off his motorcycle with shrapnel wounds to his right shoulder and back. A second despatch rider, Private Carmen Piercy, suffered a right leg wound that required amputation. All this damage, McKay lamented, “from the same shell!” He was evacuated on the same Buffalo that had brought him across the Rhine less than twenty-four hours before.28
Closing on Grietherbusch at 0900, ‘B’ Company was forced to ground by heavy machine-gun fire. “‘B’ [Company] have really hit a snag,” Lieutenant Kirby reported. “They have been pinned down by MG fire and have sent for flame.”29 A number of men had been wounded. Major Peterson had been shot through “the upper end of his right femur.”30
Losing men with each lurch forward, ‘B’ Company crept towards Grietherbusch. The fire was so intense that platoon commanders were unable to coordinate each section’s actions. When the lead platoon’s lieutenant and sergeants were all wounded in a matter of seconds, Corporal John Handley took charge. After reorganizing the survivors to keep them in the fight, he ran back to the company’s headquarters section and arranged for the Wasp flame-throwers to come forward before going back to carry on running the platoon. Handley received a Military Medal.31
Despite withering German fire, the battalion’s No. 2 section of Wasps under Lance Sergeant Alvin Clifford Dolan rushed forward. “Without any covering fire, [Dolan] led his carriers forward to the strongpoint, flushing the enemy fortifications with flame and chasing the defenders screaming from their hide-outs,” read his Military Medal citation.32
Contrary to their reputation, the mere appearance of Wasps was often not enough to break the paratroops in Grietherbusch. Private James Allan William Whitacre’s No. 10 Platoon was pinned down trying to close on a fortified house surrounded by trenches and machine-gun emplacements on the outskirts. Loopholes punched through the exterior walls of the house allowed snipers and machine-gunners to shoot without fear of being struck by return fire. With just two men, Whitacre led a gun-blazing charge through the trenches and emplacements. As they broke into the house, the paratroops scattered. Another Military Medal went to a Glen.33
Despite such acts of bravery, ‘B’ Company and the Wasps were still fighting to get inside Grietherbusch at noon. Ordering them to stand fast, SDG commander Lieutenant Colonel Neil Gemmel had 14th Field Regiment smother the farm with shells and then advanced ‘D’ Company, under Captain John Alexander Dure, to renew the attack. Despite the artillery pounding, Dure “launched his attack in the face of intense fire from the enemy dug-in positions.” The lead platoon faltered, as had the one at the head of ‘B’ Company, but this time Dure ran out into the open ground and shouted for the men to cover him. With two sections following on his heels, Dure charged into the left-hand side of the farm complex and the rest of the company was soon forging through the buildings. Once the shooting ceased, ‘D’ Company counted fourteen Germans killed or wounded and another twenty-two taken prisoner. Grietherbusch was theirs, and Dure had earned a Military Cross.34
Pressing on quickly to Tillhaus, the Glens were able to drive the paratroops out before they could organize a defence. The Glens not only took the horseshoe but reported capturing a 6th Fallschirmjäger Battalion colonel and his adjutant to boot.35
[5]
The Enemy Fought Like Madmen
THE PRIMARY PURPOSE of clearing the Alter Rhine horseshoe had been to secure the left flank of the route that the North Nova Scotia Highlanders used to approach Bienan. Grietherbusch, parallel to Bienan, was expected to be taken before their attack went in. The North Novas also understood that the ground between Rosau—where the battalion headquarters had been established close to the windmill of a large farm—and Argyll Farm was free of Germans. Hence, Argyll Farm had been designated as their start line, and the approach to it was a simple matter of marching. An artillery bombardment, including covering smoke, was to begin at 0845 and the attack to start at 0900 hours. Further fire support came from the battalion’s 3-inch mortar platoon and the 4.2-inch tubes of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (MG), which were both set up behind buildings in Rosau. A single troop of tanks from the British 8th Armoured Brigade’s Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen’s Own Royal Regiment) would advance alongside the leading ‘A’ Company.1
A ten-foot-high dyke next to the Alter Rhine offered the only cover, so Lieutenant Colonel Don Forbes decided to advance two companies—one behind the other—alongside it to Argyll Farm. If the infantry hugged close to the western side of the dyke, its thick earthen wall would protect their right flank while the horseshoe to the left would be clear.
Delaying the move to Argyll Farm until 0815 hours, to allow the Glens time to secure the horseshoe, ‘A’ Company led off in single file beside the dyke. ‘B’ Company was in trail. Major Don Learment commanded ‘A’ Company, and Captain Jack Fair weather had ‘B’ C
ompany. Ten minutes later, a few hundred yards short of Argyll Farm, Learment’s men came under intense mortar and machinegun fire from Grietherbusch. Several men in No. 7 Platoon fell. Learment yelled for the company to flee to the other side of the dyke, but as the first men came up on top, they were met by sniper and machine-gun fire from positions to the south and east. Spotting a network of German slit trenches dug into the top, of the dyke, Company ‘A’ plunged into their cover just as mortar rounds showered around them.2 Learment reported that his men were pinned down.3
‘B’ Company fared no better. The leading No. 11 Platoon had been struck by fire from all the same points. Lieutenant W.G. Tulloch got his men under cover without anyone being hit, but there was no way they could advance. Fairweather ordered his company headquarters section and the other two platoons to dig into the side of the dyke for shelter and signalled Forbes that the advance was stalled.4
At 0845, the artillery bombardment started.5 The shells exploding in Bienan were of no use, but the smokescreen gave Learment a chance to lead ‘A’ Company in a full-tilt sprint towards Argyll Farm. Lieutenant E.J. Smith’s platoon led, racing in a line along a ditch. As the platoon started dashing across a dugout large enough to have hidden a tank, a machine gun to the east fired through its entrance. Smith and one section were out front and lunged for cover on that side, while the other two sections ducked back to get out of the line of fire. Regaining their breath, the following two sections dodged past the gap in clutches timed to the rhythm of the Germans changing ammunition belts. Reunited, the platoon soon took refuge in Argyll Farm, finding it held by just a few exhausted Argylls.
The rest of ‘A’ Company safely navigated the same hazardous course. Looking back from Argyll Farm, Learment saw that one of the British tanks was bogged down in mud by the dyke, the second had been knocked out by an anti-tank round, and the third was retreating. Directing one platoon into the house where Smith was located, he sent the third, under Lieutenant Bob Hart, towards another building on the left-hand side of the farm. As they closed on the building, Germans inside it opened up with rifles and light machine guns. Private P.A. Sidney immediately rushed the position with his Bren gun barking out rounds so accurately that the German gunners were forced to ground. Ramming home a fresh magazine, he dashed into the house. Nineteen paratroops surrendered. ‘A’ Company now had a toehold in supposedly secure Argyll Farm, but going for Bienan was impossible. Every time Smith ventured forth with his platoon, the fire from the village immediately drove them back. Several men were killed or wounded before Smith quit trying.
Captain Fairweather reached the farm with just twenty-five of his men, mostly from No. 12 Platoon. The rest of ‘B’ Company was stuck on the dyke.6 Back at battalion headquarters, the wireless reports coming in led the war diarist to accurately conclude that the North Novas “had quite definitely lost the initiative.” At 1030 hours, Brigadier Rockingham came up to look at the situation first-hand. He and Forbes walked from Rosau to where they could see Bienan in the distance. “Start from scratch and do the attack over again with the two remaining companies,” Rockingham said.7 As the two officers were looking towards Bienan, Rosau behind them was being shelled and mortared from the Germans on Hoch Elten’s commanding heights. Movement anywhere in XXX Corps’s bridgehead invited fire. The guns were relentless, preventing construction of bridges over the Rhine and equally harassing the assault on Bienan. Rockingham told Forbes that until he pushed through the gap so Hoch Elten could be dealt with, the entire bridgehead was in jeopardy.
Near the town of Millingen on a slight rise to the east of Bienan, more German gun batteries were bearing on the North Novas. A line of machine-gun positions were also dug in along the gentle slope running down to Bienan. Several self-propelled guns could be seen prowling in Bienan’s streets, and there were anti-tank guns dug in on its right flank. The entire southern edge of the village had obviously been heavily fortified, and these positions were too close to Argyll Farm for artillery to fire without risk of hitting the men there.8
Unable to walk the North Novas into Bienan, 14th Field Regiment pounded suspected and known German gun and mortar positions. When the attack went in, the gunners would create a screen of red smoke from Millingen west to Hoch Elten to blind the German artillery observers.9 A flight of Typhoon fighter-bombers would bomb and rocket Millingen. Rockingham scrounged a new troop of tanks from the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards.10 The 3rd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment’s 94th Battery was also called upon. The battery consisted of three troops. One was equipped with three self-propelled 17-pounders mounted on the turretless chassis of obsolete Valentine tanks, the second fielded four towed 17-pounders, and the third used Bren carriers to tow four 6-pounders. As the last two troops were too vulnerable to artillery, the North Novas would be supported by the Valentines.11
Rockingham and Forbes knew that the North Novas were going into action with a paucity of support compared to the firepower the Germans in Bienan could call upon. The paratroops also outnumbered the battalion and fought from fortified positions, while the North Novas must assault across open ground. The only improvement since the mauling of the first two companies was that the Glens had since won the horseshoe.
Forbes was still working up a plan when the XXX Corps commander, Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks, arrived and told him “that the advance should be hastened with all possible speed.”12 As if to emphasize the point, both Horrocks and Rockingham sat in on his briefing of ‘C’ Company’s Major Lloyd Winhold and ‘D’ Company’s Major Dave Dickson at 1315 hours. Another frontal assault would only fail, Forbes told them, so Dickson was to creep along the western edge of the Alter Rhine dyke and come up opposite Bienan just before the attack started. When the artillery opened up with its shells and smoke, it would also lay down a smokescreen in front of the village, so that the Germans would think a frontal attack was coming. Instead, Winhold’s ‘C’ Company with Wasp carriers in support would make a wide arc to the south and back towards the village inside the screen covering Millingen. Both companies should manage to cross the open ground before them and establish toeholds on opposite sides of the village before the paratroops realized they had been duped. Neither Rockingham nor Horrocks offered comment, and zero hour was set for 1430 hours.
WITH THE GLENS controlling the horseshoe, the two companies were able to gain their start lines unmolested and were ready when the supporting fire opened up at 1415. The artillery cast smoke in front of Bienan and hammered the village from its centre back to the northern outskirts.13 Across the river, 13th Field Regiment weighed in to help create the red smokescreen from Millingen to Hoch Elten.14 From positions inside Argyll Farm, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies fired everything they had at Bienan to create the appearance of a frontal attack. The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards tanks also shot directly through the smoke, screening the village.
Obscured by smoke, ‘C’ Company struck out on its wide arc, while ‘D’ Company headed single file along the western side of the dyke. Once the latter drew abreast of Bienan, two platoons would go over the top in line. Both platoons would make for specified clusters of houses on the village’s western flank—Lieutenant G.L. Monkley’s No. 17 Platoon on the right and Lieutenant Donald Pearce’s No. 16 Platoon on the left. Pearce’s main objective was a large three-storey fortified building. Once both platoons secured their objectives, Dickson would follow with his company headquarters, an artillery forward observation team, and Lieutenant Ron Boyce’s No. 18 Platoon. The work of clearing Bienan house by house would then begin.
Company Sergeant Major Harry Bishop thought the scheme so perilous that he convinced Dickson to leave fifteen men, who either showed signs of battle exhaustion or were recent reinforcements, back at the dyke. Neither could be considered reliable in a jam, he said. In a pinch, they could serve as a reserve.15
Lieutenant Pearce and his men, meanwhile, were lying on the edge of the dyke “in a long crouching, extended line opposite our objective,” watching the artillery hittin
g Bienan. “Only a few minutes and the town was smoking like a pile of autumn leaves.” Thirty yards away, the houses looked still and quiet.
Dickson waved an arm and the two platoons, together only fifty strong, scrambled onto the dyke, only to run headlong into a wall of fire. Ten of Pearce’s men fell dead or wounded, while the rest slithered down into a six-inch-deep ditch at the dyke’s base and flattened into its cover. The platoon’s two Bren gunners rose above the lip of the ditch with guns shouldered and were shot dead. Pearce saw paratroops firing machine guns out of the overlooking windows and others hurling stick grenades down from the top storey of the large building. “We’ve got to make a dash for it. We’ve got to get that house,” Pearce shouted to his corporal, who slumped over, wounded. The infantryman next to Pearce tried to sight in on a German machinegun position but cried out and collapsed on the lieutenant’s arm. “Take it easy,” Pearce told the man, even as his face turned greenish. Paratroops stationed north of Bienan had spotted the Canadians moving along the other side of the dyke and had alerted troops within the village. ‘D’ Company was ambushed.
Pearce feared they were all going to die, until Private Gordon Philip Cameron stood up in the midst of the massacre and “walked deliberately over to two of the German weapon-pits as if he were an invisible man.” Casually, the twenty-one-year-old from Springhill, Nova Scotia, dropped a grenade into each position, turned around, and started back to the company, before being fatally shot in the back. The exploding grenades killed four Germans and wounded three others, causing a sudden slackening in the drenching machine-gun fire. Knowing the respite would be brief, Pearce shouted at his men to follow him in a hasty retreat behind the dyke. Only one man did so; the others were all either immobilized by wounds or dead.16