Disaster at D-Day by Peter G. Tsouras

Author:Peter G. Tsouras
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Canadians at Tournay

He was doing just that. The weight of more than ninety Mark IVs of the 2nd Battalion, Panzer Lehr Regiment, and the entire 901st Panzergrenadier had the 1st Tanks at a grim disadvantage in numbers. The British had been pressed back by the weight of the German attack, but its Cromwells were a match for the Mark IVs. The Desert Rats expertly fell back to one defilade position after another long enough to fire and brew up a few tanks or SPWs. Only the constant flanking pressure of the panzergrenadiers jimmied them out of each position before they could do more damage. By the time 1st Tanks had drawn back to a line parallel with the main column, they had traded eight Cromwells for twenty-three Mark IVs and a dozen SPWs. Most of the pressure on them now seemed to shift from the tanks to panzergrenadiers. The panzers were skirting 1st Tanks to swing around the open flank to link up with Markowski’s tanks.

They had crossed the Odon River and found an open road to the enemy rear near Tournay when the first three tanks were struck. All hell broke loose as concentrated fire swept over the head of the column. Fifteen Shermans of the Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers cut through the centre of the column firing up and down the road. In their speed to close the trap on the 7th Armoured, they had driven across the front of the armoured advance of the Canadian 9th Brigade. The Germans recoiled off the road and into the hedgerows and small fields in small groups of vehicles. The head of their column was trapped by the Sherbrookes who left eight Mark IVs and several SPWs and flak vehicles in flames in the sunken lane.

The Highland Light Infantry of Canada were attacking with the Sherbrookes and followed them into the maze of fields and hedgerows to hunt for the Germans. The fighting became a hundred little engagements as squads and individual tanks hunted each other. The North Nova Scotia Highlanders entered the battle from the west lapping around the Caen highway to take the Germans from the flank. The ferocity of the Canadian attack pushed the Germans east away from the 7th Armoured struggling to get out of the trap. The Canadian 8th Brigade led by the Shermans of the Fort Garry Horse came into the line to the west of 9th Brigade and made contact with the retreating 7th Armoured. The Canadians were now holding the open door for the Desert Rats. With the road to Tilly shut, Erskine ordered a retreat down the Caen highway, and his wounded battalions were eventually able to break contact with the slow pursuing Tigers and straggled through Canadian lines. By the time Bayerlein realized that the southern jaw of his trap had been hammered back, the Desert Rats had oozed out of his grip.

It was a sad husk of a great division that had escaped. Three Cromwells and thirty-seven infantrymen were all that survived of the rear guard’s tank squadron and infantry company.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.