[Mark W. Tonner]

As requested by Carman;

Source: Blood and Honor, the History of the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth", 1943-1945, by Craig W.H. Luther, pages 183-184.

The Murder of Canadian Prisoners by the 12th SS Panzer Division (June 7-17, 1944)

"The murders at the Abbey Ardenne were not an isolated event, rather they were typical of behavior all too common to the 12th SS Panzer Division during the initial days of the Normandy campaign. In fact, SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) Court of Inquiry and Canadian investigations established that, from June 7-17, 1944, members of the division murdered at least 134 Canadian prisoners of war in separate incidents involving the 25th and 26th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiments, the 12th SS Reconnaissance Battalion and the 12th SS Engineer Battalion. The normal method of execution in individual shootings was a single aimed pistol shot fired into the base of the skull; executions by firing squads were carried out with Schmeisser machine pistols.

The majority of the killings took place following the first flush of combat. On June 7th, soldiers of the 3rd Battalion (Milius) of the 25th Regiment murdered in and about the villages of Authie and Buron some 23 Canadians after their capture. Most of the victims belonged to the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusiliers; some of them had already been wounded and disabled. The bodies were left unburied, and in some cases moved deliberately into roadways where passing tanks and other vehicles crushed them. The supplementary report of the SHAEF Court of Inquiry provides a detailed record of these murders, which included the following:

A prisoner, while lying unarmed and helpless owing to a serious wound, was bayoneted and shot to death by a number of soldiers of (the 12th SS), one of whom is believed to have been an officer.

A prisoner, while unarmed and with hands up in token of surrender, was denied quarter and shot to death.

A prisoner, while being searched and otherwise unarmed, was found to have on his person a grenade which he had evidently had no opportunity to discard. He was thereupon shot by one of his guards. While lying on the road dying, he was kicked and some 15 minutes later dispatched by shots fired into his head....

A prisoner, while standing in line with other prisoners some distance behind the battlefront, unarmed and with both hands above the head, was shot in the stomach for turning his head and died two days later at Caen....

Eight prisoners after capture were marched behind the lines and were sitting under guard at the side of a street in the village of Authie. They were told to remove their helmets, and the guards stepped into the street and with automatic weapons shot all the prisoners dead....

A large number of Allied Prisoners of War were being marched in column along a road in the vicinity of Caen, when a passing German truck was intentionally and at high speed driven into the column. Two of the prisoners were killed and another seriously injured."