Norrey-en-Bessin on June 9, 1944

[Crewman]

And one more interesting fragment:

Originally written by Jack L. Granatstein & Desmond Morton

On the morning of June 9th, in fact, tanks of the Fort Garry Horse, attached to the 1st Hussars and supporting the Reginas, caught a column of panzers in line in the open and destroyed them. "We got down the Bretteville-Caen road, with no trouble and put the infantry into the town," the Squadron commander of the Fort Garrys wrote shortly before he himself was killed in action, "… when I noticed a hell of a big tank with a long gun pass our front about 900 yards away and going at a good speed. We called up and told the right troops about it, when lo and behold six Panthers came up the crest in orderly fashion. We let them have it and knocked out the six, without them firing a shot at us or traversing their guns in our direction… We later found out a Company of Regina Rifles (at Norrey) had been isolated out there and overrun; these men were saved by our action." The officer added, "We finished off half our D-Day bottle (which I had carefully guarded for weeks for such an occasion) and retired to high ground."

It was a rare day when a Sherman tank could knock out a Panther, and the Fort Garry's success occurred because the German tanks had been hit on their lightly armoured sides. Some Shermans, the Fireflies, were armed with 17-pounder guns and could penetrate Panther armour at 600 yards; the ordinary 75mm Sherman shell literally bounced off the Panther.

Source:
Jack L. Granatstein & Desmond Morton
Bloody Victory: Canadians and the D-Day Campaign 1944
Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd., Toronto 1984
ISBN 0-88619-046-0
Page 66

"... tanks of the Fort Garry Horse, attached to the 1st Hussars..." --> maybe this sentence is a reason of the controversy which regiment destroyed the Panthers then? What do you think?

Best regards

C.