On to Victory
Page 25
There was no rapid dash, the Superiors crawling along in inky darkness that even artificial moonlight beaming across the Ems failed to penetrate. What made conditions poor for movement perfectly suited ambush, and after only a few hundred yards several Germans opened fire with Panzerfausts. In the lead, ‘B’ Company piled out of its vehicles, and a firefight ensued. Fifteen Germans were taken prisoner. Like the dead scattered along the road, they wore civilian clothes, and the Superiors had no idea whether they fought soldiers or guerillas.
A few hundred yards farther on, a large roadblock barred a road junction, and ‘B’ Company established a cordon to protect the party of engineers called up from Meppen to clear it. The company also sent a patrol on the northward road to Lathen, while ‘A’ Company did the same along the road to Lohe. The latter company’s scout platoon ran into a party of paratroops and, after a rapid gunfire exchange, took two prisoner and sent the others running. They also discovered the road blocked by a network of barriers.
At 0200 hours on April 9, the engineers finished clearing the roadblock, and ‘B’ Company reported that its patrols up the highway had encountered neither obstacles nor German troops. As the Lathen route was the most direct to the Küsten Canal, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Keane radioed Moncel for permission to change course. Moncel, eager to see real movement, assented.16
It was the right decision. Keane put the scouts of ‘C’ Company’s No. 13 Platoon at the column’s head, with ‘B’ Company behind. Despite the continuing impenetrable darkness, the advance rolled smoothly forward. At 0430 hours, Lieutenant Bruce Wright picked up a member of the Volkssturm on the outskirts of Lathen. Wright was preparing to send the man to demand the town’s surrender when his carriers came under heavy fire. ‘B’ and the rest of ‘C’ Company, which had been following close behind, pushed into the town with support from a Canadian Grenadier Guards tank troop, and by 0800 hours, Lathen was taken. Among the hundred prisoners were a number who confessed they had been caught unprepared by the rapidity of the Canadian advance from Meppen. A further sharp fight to seize the railway station north of the town netted fifty-nine more prisoners.
‘A’ Company moved to the column’s head and was only five hundred yards from the station when it drew fire from several 20-millimetre anti-aircraft guns and a battery of anti-tank guns. They also found a rail bridge and the main highway bridge across a canal north of the station blown. Deciding a fight here was unnecessary, Keane made a quick decision to switch eastward along a road that bore straight from Lathen through to Sögel. Leaving ‘A’ Company to maintain control of Lathen until relieved by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, the regiment pushed off with ‘C’ Company leading. Once more the Germans were caught off guard, and the Superiors met no resistance in the eight-mile run that brought them to Sögel, which was undefended. Turning north, ‘C’ Company made another five miles before coming under heavy fire. Its commander pulled his men back to some high ground out of enemy range.17
Having outrun the rest of the battalion, ‘C’ Company was far ahead of the flying column’s main body, which was also having to shed units to temporarily garrison each German community through which it passed. A squadron of tanks from the Governor General’s Foot Guards and a Lincoln and Welland Regiment company held Sögel. Lathen was in Canadian Grenadier Guard hands. The Argylls and British Columbia Regiment were concentrated at Meppen. While the Superiors had been moving on Borge, the 12th Manitoba Dragoons had also taken the original route towards Lohe. Although the armoured cars had to work around roadblocks, mines, and craters, they reached Sögel unopposed and reported a good, intact bridge south of town that would well serve the division’s advance northward.
Evening of April 9 saw the column’s leading edge twenty-five miles from its starting point. Moncel contemplated pressing on through another night, “but it was apparent that his troops were much too tired; orders were therefore given to half the advance and dig in while artillery harassing fire tasks were laid on to soften up the enemy’s positions ahead.” Moncel, however, was not prepared to lounge around long. The Lincs were put on notice to move at 0600 hours the next morning towards Werlte, a village about eight miles east of Sögel—expanding the Canadian frontage east of the Ems to make contact with the British XXX Corps on 4th Division’s right flank.18
AT 0550 HOURS on April 10, the column rolled out of Sögel with six tanks from the Governor General’s Foot Guards Reconnaissance Squadron at its head. Two companies of Lincolns followed, with ‘B’ Company riding on the Shermans of the Guards’ No. 1 Squadron and ‘D’ Company on the battalion’s carriers. ‘C’ Company remained in Sögel, while ‘A’ Company moved into reserve east of the town.19 Sögel was bursting with Canadians. In addition to the Lincs, both Brigadier Moncel and the Superior’s Lieutenant Colonel Keane had their headquarters there, and the latter’s ‘D’ Company was deployed nearby. The 12th Canadian Light Field Ambulance had opened its advanced dressing station, and the engineers of 8th Canadian Field Squadron had set up shop in buildings near the medical team. In an open field on the town’s northeast corner, 23rd Field Regiment’s self-propelled guns were dug in—its regimental historian declaring the location an example of how “aggressively” Moncel was deploying artillery in this rapid drive into Germany. The position, the gunners soon realized, was actually in front of the infantry and armour they were to support, resulting in defensive fire plans submitted by the infantry in Sögel being sighted “either right on our gun position or at a range of 500 yards or less! Hardly the kind of thing to engender confidence in the situation!”20
April 10 dawned with heavy ground fog shrouding Sögel and the surrounding countryside. Bound for Werlte, a village six miles due east of Sögel, the column moved along a road bordered by invisible woods and the occasional equally obscured field. Sergeant J.G. Kimberley’s reconnaissance section of three tanks was well to the front when it entered dense woods about two and a half miles from Sögel and triggered an ambush. Hidden among the trees lining the road, 150 Germans let loose with a storm of fire that included machine guns, mortars, Panzerfausts, 20-millimetre anti-aircraft guns, and 75-millimetre anti-tank guns. A Panzerfaust round slammed into Kimberley’s tank, setting it ablaze. Although Corporal S.A. Roberts and Guardsman J. Crawford were badly burned, everyone managed to bail out of the burning wreck. Outside, Lance Corporal R.W. MacKay provided covering fire with his Sten while the other four men escaped. After being severely wounded in the abdomen, MacKay managed to stagger to safety. The remaining two tanks were struck repeatedly by 20-millimetre rounds, and a 75-millimetre shell ripped the bogey wheel off one track.21
As soon as the ambush was sprung, Major John Martin’s ‘B’ Company piled off the Shermans and engaged the Germans, while a bombardment from a medium artillery regiment was also called in. The speed and violence of this response broke the enemy force—twelve surrendering and another eighty “seen running down the [road].”22 This sharp action ended at 0830 hours.23
The moment the Germans broke, the unscathed Guards reconnaissance troop commanded by Lieutenant H.H.M. Griffin dashed into the fog towards Werlte.24 No. 1 Squadron’s leading troop under Lieutenant E.J. Canavan also headed into the blue without reloading any Lincolns, and both parties were soon a “long way out front.”25 As Griffin’s tanks raced up to Werlte’s outskirts, it ran into another ambush and all three tanks were knocked out, their crews escaping into slit trenches alongside the road. Although they tried to fend off the Germans until reinforcements arrived, the others surrendered when Guardsman Lawrence Frederick Bellafontaine was killed.26
Canavan’s troop arrived to find the tanks burning and concluded from “the equipment on the side of the road [that] . . . the three crews had been searched there after being made prisoner.” One of Griffin’s crew was found unhurt the following day, and a few days later a divisional casualty-clearing station reported that Griffin and Guardsman E.G. Ross were being treated there for second-degree burns to their faces and necks. The rest of the troop
members were assumed lost as prisoners.27
The rest of the column reached Werlte at 0930 hours. Lieutenant Colonel R.C. “Rowan” Coleman, figuring the assault was going to be a tough one, ordered Major E.J. Brady’s ‘D’ Company to advance along the north side of the road and Major Martin’s ‘B’ Company the south.28 The Foot Guards would provide support. The approach was across an open field backed by a row of brush with the town beyond. ‘B’ Company had just entered the recently ploughed field when the sun suddenly burned off the fog as if someone “had pushed a button and the curtain went up.” A machine gun spewed tracer from the woods ahead, and the company hit the dirt.
Brady managed to dash to the rear and tried to get the tankers to come up, but the commander refused to move into the open and expose his Shermans to anti-tank fire. “I was so goddamn mad, I couldn’t see,” Brady later said.29
No. 1 Squadron’s Major Allen Smith was no happier. Three tanks had been damaged on the road to Werlte, three more destroyed on its outskirts. The open field was a ploughed-up, muddy morass, and he had every reason to expect there were anti-tank guns and troops with Panzerfausts waiting in the woods. Smith’s tanks would provide covering fire from the shelter of the woods bordering the field, but they were not venturing into the open.30
The tanks shelling the woods enabled the Lincs to renew the advance. Brady could only watch his men go, for an accidental discharge from the rifle of a recently arrived reinforcement had left him with a leg wound. Sergeant Thomas Staszuk led, until a bullet shot out one of his eyes just as the men entered the woods. Company Sergeant Major C.E. Brown rushed forward and led ‘B’ Company on to the town. ‘D’ Company fought its way in at 1100 hours.31 Coleman, meanwhile, had brought ‘A’ Company forward from its reserve position back near Sögel and hooked it into the town to the right of ‘B’ Company.
The Foot Guards quickly ground into the town, and a bitter fight ensued. One machine-gun position after another had to be cleared and snipers were constantly active, but slowly the Lincs pushed forward. At 2030 hours, with darkness closing in, Coleman ordered the advance stopped, and the companies took up defensive positions. Renewing the attack in the morning, by noon the battalion had faced only a few stray snipers, which were “dealt with by the [tanks] and [troops].”32 Werlte cost the Lincolns forty-six casualties.33
THE FOG THAT had slowed the column’s advance on Werlte had also covered a strong German force that crept up on Sögel for a counter-attack at 0800 hours.34 Several hundred troops from 31st Fallschirmjäger Battalion launched a ferocious onslaught out of the woods to the north and east of the town, achieving complete surprise.35
The 23rd Field Regiment was “getting packed in anticipation of another move when small arms started to whistle around the area.” One truck exploded into flames, as the officers shouted at their men to hold fire because they could see no visible targets and feared escalating a possible friendly-fire incident. “Then mortars started dropping into the area and reports of casualties came in. Doubts as to the origin of the firing [were] rapidly dispelled. It was a counter-attack and there didn’t appear to be any infantry in front of us.” The regiment’s 36th Battery took heavy casualties, and Lieutenant Doug Denton was fatally wounded while loading an injured man into a half-track for evacuation. Gunner Victor Hubacheck died when struck by a bullet ricochet, and Gunner George Allan Buchanan fell mortally wounded. Another six men were injured by bullets and shrapnel. 36
Minutes after the counterattack began, the fog lifted and the gunners rallied to meet the attack. The battery’s ‘C’ Troop fired its 25-pounders over open sights, while other gunners grabbed up Bren and Browning machine guns and “sprayed . . . every part of the woods.” Lieutenant Harry Smith with Lance Bombardier Bruce MacArthur commandeered a tank used by the regiment for forward observation and brought its Browning to clear the enemy threatening the embattled battery. “A number of enemy were killed and half a dozen taken prisoner” before the attack broke.37
The counterattack on Sögel lacked coordination. Instead, paratroops popped up randomly throughout the town. Civilian snipers also fired on Canadian troops.
One group of thirty paratroops charged 12th Canadian Light Field Ambulance’s dressing station, forcing the medical personnel “to take up arms. Some of the enemy were killed within 10 yards of the . . . entrance. After about one hour a troop of tanks arrived who blasted houses from which the enemy were sniping. When the attackers were finally wiped out, we realized that we had been holding a small portion of the front. If we had not taken up arms we would have been shot up and the enemy would have gained access to the main street of the town. We ha[d] 5 of our personnel wounded, one seriously.” Two of the unit’s stretcher bearers were also wounded while evacuating injured engineers and members of a Royal Canadian Army Service Corps unit, which had been overrun in the opening moments of the counterattack.38
The headquarters of the Lincolns and of the Superiors were both embroiled in the fighting. The counterattack was finally driven off when the companies each battalion had retained in the town managed to come to grips with the Germans. By late morning, the paratroops had withdrawn to the woods northeast of Sögel. The Lake Superiors spent the rest of the day preparing a full set-piece assault with supporting arms in the form of Wasps, tanks, mortars and self-propelled guns, set to begin the following morning. ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies struck at first light behind a deluge of fire, only to find the woods “clear of enemy.” The infantry pushed on two miles northeastward to the village of Spahn “and cooked a hot meal.”39
Back in Sögel, an investigation by divisional intelligence staff confirmed that civilian snipers had been involved in the April 10 counterattack and that some Canadians killed had fallen to this fire. “Accordingly, as a reprisal and a warning, a number of houses in the centre of Sögel were ordered destroyed by the engineers to provide rubble” for road construction .40
Throughout the course of April 11, 4th Division concentrated its rear echelons around the town while preparing for the next big push. With 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade having rejoined the division from operations in the Almelo area, a two-pronged thrust to the Küsten Canal was planned. On the right, 4th Armoured Brigade would carry out the main thrust through Friesoythe to gain the canal where it intersected the headwaters of the Leda River about twenty miles to the north. Once across the canal, it would advance on Oldenburg.
To the left, meanwhile, 10 CIB had already started advancing on April 10 from Meppen along the east bank of the Ems River towards the canal. Meeting no opposition, the Algonquin Regiment, which led this column, gained the canal that morning and determined that all bridges had been destroyed and the Germans held the opposite bank “in some strength.” A hurried plan to force a crossing in the afternoon was soon cancelled by brigade headquarters.41
The 4th Brigade did not move towards the canal until the morning of April 11, when the Canadian Grenadier Guards No. 1 Squadron, with the Argylls’ ‘D’ Company mounted up, pushed out beyond Werlte at 0945 hours—even as the Lincoln and Welland Regiment was still clearing the place. The regiment’s reconnaissance troop led the way along a road bordered by farmhouses, which it set on fire with phosphorous shells while passing. Brushing aside roadblocks created by fallen trees, the force made good time and encountered no enemy. Closing on Lorup, after a four-mile advance, the tankers saturated the village with 75-millimetre shells, while a medium artillery regiment to the rear showered heavier ordnance on it. At 1730 hours, the Argylls entered the village and found it had been undefended. Grenadier commander Lieutenant Colonel E.A.C. “Ned” Amy wanted to press on with a night move, but Moncel ordered the force to stand down.42
Both brigades had by day’s end linked up south of the canal near Börger—a village about five miles north of Sögel. Meanwhile, the Algonquin’s ‘A’ Company with the British Columbia Regiment’s ‘A’ Squadron had bumped into major resistance at about 1000 hours, when it closed on the town of Breddenberg, four miles northeast of
Börger. As the lead tanks and mounted infantry closed on the town, they came under heavy machine-gun and Panzerfaust fire.43 The infantry scattered to either side of the road while the tanks pressed forward, only to have the forward troop leader, Lieutenant Ray Walmsley, killed by a sniper round to the head. He was a regimental old-timer from before the war, and his loss struck the Dukes—as the BCR was nicknamed—hard.44 Enraged, the tankers opened up on every building and clutch of trees that might harbour enemy, while the Algonquin’s Major Robert Stock had the two battalion Wasps flame the hedges bordering the road.45
The Wasps and tanks kicked up such a racket that Sergeant George Caya’s No. 7 Platoon were unable to hear his shouted orders, so he resorted to signalling them with a waved arm to charge a trench system. Dashing forward, Caya looked back to see his men had gone to ground and he stood alone on the lip of the first trench. Flee or fight, he thought. Deciding he would rather die with his face to the foe, Caya looked into the trench and saw only a single German—visibly shaking with fear—in its depths. Knowing he could not leave the man at his back, Caya killed him with a Sten gun burst. Moving to the next trench, he surprised two more Germans and cut them down with gunfire. At the third trench, Caya emptied his magazine into the single German there. Shaking uncontrollably, nerves shot, Caya reached the fourth trench, and a lone German popped up with hands raised. Had the Sten been loaded, Caya would have shot the man dead. Instead, he jerked the German’s bayonet from its scabbard and pointed back towards where his section was still holding. Caya’s actions earned a Military Medal.46