NORMANDY '44 by James Holland

Author:James Holland [Holland, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473564077
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2019-05-15T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

EPSOM

Standartenführer Kurt Meyer was a troubled man on the evening of Saturday, 24 June. Driving back to the 12. SS divisional command post, he looked down from the Rauray Ridge and saw trucks still burning on the Caen–Villers-Bocage road, lighting up the sky. They had been full of ammunition for his men but had been caught by the dreaded Jabos. Back at his CP, he listened to a situation update and saw only worried faces. ‘Without talking about it openly,’ he noted, ‘we knew we were approaching a catastrophe.’1 His division was being chewed up. Panzer divisions were designed for movement, but instead they had been holding the line, largely static, as the Allies poured air, naval and artillery fire on to them. It had already cost the blood of some of Meyer’s best men and had destroyed much of their precious equipment. ‘We were already feeding on ourselves,’ he added.2 ‘Up to that point we had not received a single replacement for our wounded or killed soldiers or a single tank or artillery piece.’

In contrast, Stanley Christopherson, the still-new commander of the Sherwood Rangers, was now back up to scratch with replacement troopers and officers. He was happy enough to have these new boys, but worried that they lacked experience and knowledge of operating Sherwoods. They would have to sink or swim.

The regiment, rapidly becoming one of Second Army’s main fire-fighting units, was back in action on Sunday, 25 June. At daybreak, with low cloud, mist and drizzle, Operation MARTLET began, with two brigades of British infantry from XXX Corps leading the attack, supported by 250 field guns. The brunt of the attack was directed at 12. SS. MARTLET and the main event, EPSOM, which would be launched at dawn the following day, might have been separate operations for Second Army, but as far as the Germans, and Standartenführer Meyer, were concerned, they were really one and the same. Meyer himself had managed to snatch just a few hours’ sleep before being roused by this renewed British onslaught and immediately hurried forward to Fontenay where the remnants of his panzer-grenadiers were desperately trying to hold firm. The place was already pulverized; he could hardly recognize it, nor could he see much forward for all the smoke. Shells continued to crash into the village and around, and Meyer took cover in a crater as enemy tanks and artillery knocked out one after another of his anti-tank guns. He was still there when his I. Bataillon tank commander jumped in beside him to tell him he was preparing to counter-attack. Soon after, as the leading British tanks, the Sherwood Rangers included, began targeting the panzer-grenadiers, so the 12. SS panzers rumbled forward through the smoke. A comparatively rare tank-versus-tank duel erupted. Tanks on both sides were knocked out, filling the battlefield with thick, oily smoke. Then the leading company commander’s tank was hit and turned a few metres to the left. The hatches opened and Obersturmführer Ludwig Ruckdeschel somehow clambered out, jumped down and staggered towards Meyer before collapsing.

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