Hi frends,
Yes,… Authie…, not easy, controversial and sore subject for both fighting armies. The Poles have identical places at Normandy where various stories about the methods of fight and stubbornness can be heard.
Quote:
Originally written by Tony Foster
The rumour of Canadian troops killing German prisoners that Kurt Meyer had heard two days earlier was confirmed with an on-site inspection by motorcycle. Dr. Gatternigg rode in the sidecar with him.
"After the Breteville attack I drove back to Authie. Wünsche reported that the attacking troops on the west side of Rots had dug in and that by now Kraa's 3rd Battalion of the 26th Panzer Grenadier Regiment had made contact with my left wing. Whereupon I drove from Ardenne to Kraa's Battalion HQ at Rots and discussed the situation with Hugo personally. After leaving Rots I drove south, under the railway viaduct."
A few hundred yards beyond the viaduct he came across a burned-out armoured troop carrier of the 21st Panzer Division and a radio car belonging to the 12th SS. On the opposite side of the road he saw ten bodies lying in a semicircle, one medic still holding a field dressing who had apparently been in the middle of giving aid to a wounded comrade when he was gunned down.
"They were all shot through the chest or head. Their weapons were still on the burned vehicle. Within the semicircle of bodies there were no weapons. In all my battles I have very rarely found a whole group of infantrymen dead in one bunch. That sort of thing happens in street or house fighting or on roads, but never in open countryside… After I returned to the Abbaye I spoke to the Divisional Commander on the telephone about the tactical situation and after… made this report…
"On 7 June, a notebook was taken from the body of a dead Canadian captain. In it were notes written apparently a few hours before the invasion. In addition to tactical orders the handwritten notes stated that 'prisoners are not to be taken'. Some Canadian prisoners were asked to verify these instructions. They confirmed that their orders were to take no prisoners if they were a hindrance to their advance."*
* Quoted from the petition of Hubert Meyer given before the Hamburg court in 1948 during the trial of SS Obersturmbannführer Bernhard Siebken.
Source:
Tony Foster
Meeting of Generals
Authors Choice Press, Lincoln 1986
ISBN 0-595-13750-4
pages 322-323
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Simply war...