Forgotten Victory by Mark Zuehlke

Author:Mark Zuehlke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Canadian Battle Series, history, world war II, first canadian army, rhine, germany
ISBN: 9781771620420
Publisher: D & M Publishers
Published: 2014-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

As the clock had ticked down to 1330, the attack deadline of 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade’s Brigadier Jock Spragge, a report from either the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division or 46th Brigade headquarters had reported that “everything [was] going well, against light opposition” in Moyland Wood. The wood, in fact, was said to be completely clear all the way east to a road that cut across the wood from the village of Moyland to intersect the secondary road running from Bedburg to Calcar. About 550 yards west of this road was a narrow track selected to serve as the Regina start line, and it fell well inside the purportedly cleared area.

Like many 3rd Canadian Infantry Division regiments, the Reginas were not at the top of their combat effectiveness. Many veterans fighting since D-Day on June 6, such as Major Gordon Brown who led ‘D’ Company, “were near exhaustion.” Casualties in the eight months since “had been horrendous. Regiments lacked trained and experienced officers and non-commissioned officers, and many soldiers had no battle experience.” Brown felt the “gung-ho spirit of 1944 had been replaced with caution and apathy.” Some of this malaise resulted from the static period of warfare on the Maas that had stretched from November to the kickoff of Veritable. But it was also a symptom of knowing the end of the war was near, and nobody wanted to be last to die. That kind of thinking made men averse to unnecessary risks and encouraged officers to think as much about avoiding casualties as winning battles. Yet, as “understrength, cautious and lethargic” as they were, Brown also knew that “7th Canadian Infantry Brigade…had a reputation of being highly successful in the heavy going.” On February 16, he expected the Reginas would live up to that reputation.34

Brown had no idea how badly the cards were stacked against his regiment. As the companies marched to their start line, German machine guns opened up from a small wood behind and to the north of them. This was an area supposedly cleared by 46th Brigade. Lieutenant Colonel Al Gregory had Captain Doug Howat wheel ‘B’ Company about to drive the Germans off.35 Howat’s men were still so engaged when the brigade’s attack was ordered to proceed at 1330 hours. Consequently, the pre-arranged heavy bombardment by field and medium artillery regiments on “all enemy localities and objectives” ended well before the Reginas crossed their start line, and they lost any value it might have yielded.36

The battalion plan called for Major Art Gollnick’s ‘A’ Company to push northward across the secondary Cleve–Calcar road and clear the woods ahead through to the northern edge of the escarpment that looked out upon Moyland village. Gollnick’s men would then move eastward to “clear the north side of the wood.”37 Recently promoted from captain, Major Gordon Baird would lead ‘C’ Company’s simultaneous advance along the road bordering the wood’s southern flank to the “high ground overlooking Heselerfeld and Rosskamp—farmsteads about half a mile south of the Calcar end of Moyland Wood.

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