by Mark Zuehlke
Meanwhile, ‘A’ Squadron was trying to shake the ambush. One of MacKinnon’s troop knocked out the 88-millimetre gun, but armoured-piercing rounds continued to screech past the tanks—clear proof there were more hidden guns. On either side of the slope, dense foliage provided perfect camouflage for guns and the numerous snipers who plied their trade. Lieutenant J. Cowley was wounded by a bullet to the head, and the artillery FOO, Captain Mel Donnelly, was killed. A slug went through another tank commander’s steel helmet and out the side without leaving a scratch. With night falling, the tankers pulled back to await the morning.
Hearing that Lieutenant MacKinnon might have been left for dead in the ditch, the Strathconas’ medical officer, Captain A. Verdicchio, jumped into his medical Bren carrier. As he pulled up to the still-burning tank, Verdicchio found himself surrounded “by a large group of gibbering Germans. Using a mixture of English and French, he explained the mission. The Boches pointed to the tank with pride, probably the first they had scored, then told the M.O. that they had evacuated MacKinnon to a Dutch civilian hospital in Ede. As if to confirm their statement, they gave him the wounded officer’s identification card.” This report was verified three days later when 49th Infantry Division entered Ede and learned from hospital staff that MacKinnon had died of his wounds. 36
Despite failing to take Otterloo, the brigade had gained ten miles over difficult tank terrain. During the night, Brigadier Ian Cumberland considered the problem of Otterloo. The last thing he wanted was a fight for possession of the town. Instead, he and Lieutenant Colonel McAvity decided that the Strathconas and a company of Westminsters would punch right through shortly before dawn.
Reveille came at 0400 hours, the men eating biscuits with jam and bully beef washed down with cold water. As they climbed into the Shermans, artillery bracketed the town to cover the sounds of the column’s approach. ‘C’ Squadron led, followed by ‘B’ Squadron, then the regimental headquarters, the Westminster’s ‘C’ Company, and finally ‘A’ Squadron. Alternated one-by-one, each tank had its turret traversed so the gun was directed either to the right or to the left. The co-axial machine gun would rake the roadside verge bordered by hedges and trees. The immediate objective was an open field two thousand yards beyond Otterloo. Tucked behind the headquarters section were three Flails, two Badgers, and two armoured engineering vehicles called AVREs. At 0500 hours, the long column ground forward at a steady five miles per hour.
As each tank passed MacKinnon’s smouldering Sherman, it began raking the verges. Lieutenant A.D. Raisbeck’s lead tank easily ducked around a roadblock just outside the town while simultaneously engaging one anti-tank gun after another by firing at their muzzle flashes. With deadly accuracy, Raisbeck’s gunner knocked out one 88-millimetre, a 75-millimetre, and a 37-millimetre gun, plus two trucks. He also sprayed German infantry with the machine gun.
Behind, Major J. Smith’s Sherman was struck by a Panzerfaust while rounding the first roadblock, which set the personal kit and ammunition strapped on the outside of the hull ablaze. Everyone bailed out, taking cover in the ditch. The kit strapped on the back of Lieutenant Bill Guest’s ‘B’ Squadron tank was also set ablaze by a Panzerfaust round, but Guest jumped out of the turret hatch and kicked the stuff off. Several other tanks bogged down trying to get around roadblocks. They and their crews were left to fend for themselves, the column stopping for nothing. By 0800 hours, the majority of the regiment’s Shermans were circled like chuckwagons in the field outside of Otterloo with guns pointed outward. Westminster patrols were checking the nearby woods. The Strathconas later learned that at least one infantry battalion numbering about four hundred men had been hiding in the woods next to the town, the commander deciding against tackling the tanks. With Canadian troops on either side of Otterloo, it was also decided to give up the town.37
The British Columbia Dragoons pushed ‘C’ Squadron into the town at 0845 hours and soon took prisoner about three dozen Germans. During the rest of the morning, the regiment’s other squadrons concentrated in open fields about two miles to the north. When the infantry arrived, ‘C’ Squadron joined them.38
To the left of Otterloo, 8th New Brunswick Hussars had advanced on Lunteren and the heights to its east. It was a slow, difficult operation with tanks moving along poor secondary roads and regularly encountering infantry armed with Panzerfausts and the odd anti-tank gun. Often the tanks eliminated a resistance pocket, only to have its surviving infantry slip back to the position to cut off the armour. This was the situation when the squadrons forward reported having considerable wounded requiring evacuation. Trooper Horace Basil Parker charged up from the Regimental Aid Post aboard a Bren carrier. Driving straight through several strongpoints that showered his carrier with heavy machine-gun, rifle, and mortar fire, Parker reached the tanks and loaded up the wounded. Running the same gauntlet, Parker came to a position that had been significantly strengthened since his first run and had no choice but to stop. A German officer stepped out and directed him to drive to a nearby house where he and his passengers would be taken prisoner. Parker looked at the machine guns covering his carrier and punched the accelerator. As Parker roared down the road towards the Canadian lines, machine gun slugs shrieked over his head and pounded against the carrier’s thin armoured sides. But he and his charges carried on unscathed. Parker’s courage was recognized with a Military Medal.39
By noon, the Hussars gained the ridge east of Lunteren and formed a defensive circle. From some prisoners they learned that about three hundred Dutch SS troops were in a nearby wood. Lieutenant Colonel J.W. Eaton decided against bypassing such a strong force of fanatics. Yet the dense wood was no place for Shermans, and the single company of Westminsters was too small for the job. The afternoon was therefore spent teeing up a more brutally efficient solution.
While the Westminsters covered the wood’s southern edge, the Hussar squadrons lined up along the western side. Retreat to the east or north was barred by rough terrain. Eaton called in a “Murder” concentration by 8th Canadian Field Regiment (Self-Propelled) that had every gun firing constantly for three minutes. At the same time, the tanks slugged the wood with high-explosive shells and raked it with their machine guns. “The resulting concentration was tremendous. The entire woods seemed to blow up and as the survivors scattered they were cut down by MG fire. Very few surrendered and almost none escaped. The wood was soon blazing and fire accounted for most of the wounded. It is estimated that approx[imately] 200 were killed.” Eighty prisoners were taken.40
The Strathconas, meanwhile, had been bound for Barneveld, about eight miles northwest of Otterloo. They reached the town’s outskirts at 1300 hours and realized it was held in strength. Brigadier Cumberland ordered the regiment to pass by on the right, leaving a small force to isolate it. Dashing a couple of miles farther, the Strathconas cut the Amersfoort-Apeldoorn highway and paralleling railway tracks.41
Right of the Strathconas, the BC Dragoons had advanced from Otterloo to Voorthuizen—a town astride the Amersfoort-Apeldoorn highway. After a long ten-mile run, the Dragoons had encircled the town by mid-afternoon. Again it was Dutch civilians bent on welcoming their liberators, more than the Germans milling about, that caused the most concern, as a sporadic, running fight raged the rest of the day. Everywhere Germans were on the move, trying to escape westward rather than tangle with the tankers. Lieutenant Colonel Harry Angle realized that “the BCDs were some miles behind the German main position which was facing the other Canadian forces around Apeldoorn.” While some were eager to surrender, “other Germans would be firing mortars and grenades at any groups they saw regardless as to whether or not the groups also contained their own countrymen. The BCDs were fighting in all directions and the Germans obviously became more and more confused as the day progressed. The Canadians actually saw one small column of German infantry engaged and shot up by their own guns.” Angle “told the brigadier over the wireless that he did not know if the Canadians had surrounded the Germans or the German
s surrounded the Canadians.”
With the situation in flux at dusk, the regiment halted northeast of the town and each squadron formed a defensive circle. The Dragoons were within seven miles of the IJsselmeer and blocking the line of retreat from Apeldoorn.42
AS IMPORTANT AS 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade’s gains were to 5th Division’s operations, they also broke the stubborn defence of Apeldoorn and the IJssel River line. The brigade’s advance on April 16 convinced the Germans defending the southern stretch of the IJssel to withdraw, ensuring that 1st Division’s 2nd Brigade enjoyed an easy advance to Dieren. When engineers quickly erected a bridge over the IJssel at Dieren, Major General Harry Foster decided that rather than continuing to push his 3rd Brigade through the heavily defended woods south of Apeldoorn, he would send the West Nova Scotia Regiment to use it for an end run up the river’s west bank. At the same time, Foster directed 1st Brigade’s 48th Highlanders of Canada and the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment to cross the Apeldoorn Canal north of the city directly in front of Het Loo, Queen Wilhelmina’s summer palace. Although aware of 5 CAB’s gains, Foster still believed in the early evening of April 16 “that the enemy force in Apeldoorn was going to continue its stubborn resistance.”43
At 0230 hours, the West Novas loaded aboard trucks and an assortment of tanks, Crocodile flame-thrower tanks, and self-propelled guns that would support their advance. It took the column ninety-five minutes to reach Dieren. Two hours after setting out, the West Novas were over the bridge and progressing rapidly towards Apeldoorn, having had “almost no contact with the enemy.”44
As the West Novas had headed for Dieren, the Royal Canadian Regiment—holding all of 1st Brigade’s front—reported its companies “engaged in small arms duels across the canal.” At 0300 hours, however, the German “firing suddenly ceased.” A few minutes later, two partisans approached ‘C’ Company’s lines and reported that the Germans were quitting the city. Brigade instructed the RCR “to ease” one company across the narrow, partially damaged span of a canal lock to confirm the report. By the time these instructions reached ‘C’ Company, its commander had already slipped over a small patrol, which captured two German soldiers in the process of wiring explosives on the lock to a detonator. The patrol quickly defused the charges and the rest of the company crossed. Advancing into the city, it encountered no opposition. ‘A’ Company passed through and reached the main square without incident. By 0700 hours, the entire battalion was patrolling the streets of Apeldoorn and, aided by a large force of partisans, was rounding up German stragglers, who ultimately numbered 214.45
None of the battalions closing on Apeldoorn from all sides encountered any Germans except those anxious to surrender. They entered an Apeldoorn that had already erupted into joyous celebration. With its normal population almost doubled by 65,000 refugees, severe food shortages had developed—a situation I Canadian Corps had anticipated and began alleviating the very next day with delivery of eighty thousand army rations tallying forty tons.46 The West Novas “found the streets jammed with wildly cheering Dutch, thronging about the troops and vehicles, kissing the soldiers or seizing their hands and shaking them furiously.”47 On the northern flank, mounted on tanks, the Hasty Ps “made straight for Queen Wilhelmina’s Royal Palace and got there without firing a shot, except for the CO [Lieutenant Colonel Renison] who fired three shots in the air to clear some of the people away in order to get through.”48 Captain Farley Mowat commented dryly that the palace “was reached only after a prolonged struggle to escape civilians.”49
Foster’s immediate concern was to get cracking westward from the city to regain contact with the retreating Germans.50 “There was but little time for the troops to gaze at this fantasy of liberation,” Mowat wrote, “for there was still war beyond the next row of trees.”51 By 1000 hours, the Hasty Ps rolled away, with the rest of 1st Brigade following soon after. At the southern end of the city, 3rd Brigade similarly headed westward.52
PART FOUR
RISKY BUSINESS
[20]
A Stern Atonement
IN GERMANY, 4TH Canadian Armoured Division had mired on the night of April 13 before the heavily defended village of Friesoythe. Just a small village, Friesoythe held the keys to the Küsten Canal because bypassing it in the surrounding flat, featureless peat country was impossible. All roads running from the south converged on the village, and from its centre, two roads ran a few miles northward on opposing angles to bridges over the canal.
Major General Chris Vokes needed a crossing over the canal to advance the division to the spa town of Bad Zwischenahn, which offered better ground for a swing southeastward to Oldenburg than existed south of the waterway. A road and rail hub for the Wilhelmshaven peninsula, Oldenburg was a vital preliminary objective for any advance against the major naval ports to the north.1
Five hundred Germans, amply equipped with anti-tank guns, garrisoned Friesoythe, and Brigadier Robert Moncel convinced Vokes that it was better to try winning the place through stealth than with a head-on assault. While the Lake Superior (Motor) Regiment launched a feint up the main road to draw German attention, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders would sneak cross-country and attack from the east. The Argyll’s Lieutenant Colonel Fred Wigle liked the idea and decided to advance his troops through the night in one long column along a narrow track that ran through brushy peat country from a starting point two miles east of Friesoythe. At dawn, the Argylls would storm the village.
Before the main body set off, battalion scouts used white tape to mark the route to the village. Although the tape was needed to ensure that the troops stayed on course during the night advance, it was risk of being discovered by the Germans. It would take only a small ambushing party to foil the plan. Wigle was less worried about being detected by the enemy than losing his wireless link back to brigade. The Nos. 18 and 38 wireless sets used by foot troops were unreliable, so he had a vehicle-mounted No. 19 set—weighing over a hundred pounds—strapped to a stretcher, which the signals section would carry.2
Before the force set off in trucks to the start line at 2300 hours, Wigle dashed off a note to his parents in Hamilton. “This letter may be my last. I hope not but I am off on a very risky business and there’s a possibility. However you know I love you, always have and always shall. God Bless you both.”3
As the Argylls unloaded from the trucks in the inky darkness, 15th Field Regiment’s gunners shelled Friesoythe to harass the Germans and mask any sounds the infantry made moving through the brush.4 Personally leading the column, Wigle started down the path with his headquarters section behind. Taking turns, the signallers and others in the headquarters party struggled along with the stretcher.5 As the long, snaking column progressed, Pioneer Platoon commander Lieutenant Alan Earp saw Wigle step out of line, wait for the stretcher, and take a turn carrying it.6
The Argylls gained their rally point fifteen hundred yards from the village without incident and broke into battle formation, with ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies forward, Wigle’s headquarters in the centre, and ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies behind.7 Stalking slowly up to the edge of Friesoythe, the battalion lay down to await the dawn. A bitter north wind cut through uniforms damp from heavy dew.8
Wigle had timed the approach so that the wait was minimal, and as the glow of a rising sun cast a dim light, he stood and signalled his men forward. The Argylls surged into the town, and at 0635 hours Wigle sent a wireless report back to his battalion headquarters that the “dangerous manoeuvre was succeeding.” Fanning through the village, the Argylls encountered scattered resistance from a clearly disorganized and confused garrison.9
As the infantry moved into the village, Wigle established his tactical headquarters inside a modest two-storey house on its outskirts. Lieutenant Earp and several pioneers provided security, but were also responsible for guarding twenty prisoners locked in the cellar. With the attack going so well, however, nobody worried that the house might be vulnerable. Two pioneers climbed the steep
stairs to the second storey to catch a nap, “because the rifle companies had gone into the town and this was on the outskirts, so everything was alright.”10
Glancing out a window, Wigle spotted soldiers to the south and assumed they were Lake Superiors. He sent two scouts to confirm this. Signaller Private William Patrick remained at the window, watching as the men approached the soldiers and then suddenly thrust their hands into the air. From another window Earp realized the soldiers were Germans, now heading straight for the house. Inside, men scrambled to grab guns and started shooting out the windows and doors. Privates Ben Bowland and Vic Taylor had only just stretched out upstairs when “all hell broke loose. There was gunfire, so we came running downstairs.” Bowland took up a position close to the front door.
One German chucked a grenade through a window, and the explosion killed Privates John Brown and Cecil French. Wigle emerged from another room by the stairs and Bowland saw him pause, as if unsure whether or not to ascend to the next floor. At the same moment, Earp stepped into the foyer and a Schmeisser burst came through the open outer door. One bullet struck Earp in the head and knocked him backwards, but the rest of the burst caught Wigle full in the chest and he landed “right at my feet,” Bowland later said. “That was the end of him.” Two Argylls cut the German down with their Sten guns.