[Mark W. Tonner]

Putot - 8 Jun 44:

Source: Steel Inferno, I SS Panzer Corps in Normandy, by Michael Reynolds, P. 74:

"SS Major Bernhard Siebken's 2nd SS Panzer-Grenadier Battalion did not arrive in time to coordinate its attack on Putot with that of the 1st Battalion on Norrey. Recall that it had to attack off the line of march; its leading platoons, also advancing across open ground, encountered the enemy as soon as they tried to cross the railway line south of the village at about 0630 hours. Lieutenant Colonel Meldram's Royal Winnipeg Rifles had three companies on the line of the railway and D Company and Battalion Headquarters just east of Putot. But Siebken's young soldiers fought with tenacity and by 1330 hours A, B and C Companies of the Winnipegs were surrounded and cut off. The unit War Diary complains that no supporting armour reached the Battalion. But reports that the right half of the Battalion had been 'sliced off by enemy armour' can be discounted. The only German 'armour' in the area were the 75mm equipped SPWs of the 3rd Battalion attacking Brouay on the right flank. The remnants of the three Winnipeg companies managed to get out of Putot under the cover of smoke and join their comrades of D Company to the east of the village; they had suffered appalling casualties - 256, of which 105 were dead."