Kurt Meyer accusations against Canadians (was North Nova Scotia Highlanders History)

[klambie]

I have started a new thread on this since I've already contributed once to hijacking John McGillivray's NNSH thread here:

http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...&threadid=2302

See that thread for additional background.

The gist of Meyer's accusation from that thread:

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

I had speculated that D Coy of the Regina Rifles had been in this general area on 7 June. In some recent research on war crimes against the Reginas, I came across the following affadavits that confirm this idea. These affadavits were gathered in order to refute Meyer's accusation of Canadian atrocities at his trial. Ultimately, the court ruled Meyer's contention was not relevant to that proceeding, so this never went any further. I've only recently seen brief references to these affadavits in 'The Trial of Kurt Meyer' by BJS MacDonald and 'Casual Slaughter and Accidental Judgements' by Patrick Brode, but never any detail. Despite their existence, Meyer's accusation continues to pop up in discussions of crimes by 12 SS.

As John pointed out on the previous thread, the distances south of the railway viaduct mentioned by Meyer and the Canadians don't quite seem to match up. However, at least in December 1945, there seemed to be some consensus that these referred to the same incident. Other than that, most of the details seem to match up remarkably well.

It's also interesting to note that Meyer's account indicated that he saw these bodies on the morning of 7 June, while the Reginas indicate that this incident did not occur until around 1800 that day. MacDonald intended to use this to demonstrate that Meyer's accusation was a post facto rationalization.

***Edit: Although I saw the claim that Meyer said this happened on 7 June in multiple locations, a closer look at the blurb from Foster's book indicates he says it was after the Bretteville attack, which was the night of 8/9 June.

[klambie]

Sworn Statement of Maj. HS Roberts, Royal Regina Rifles

1. On 7 June 1944 I was Platoon Comd of 16 Pl, D Coy, Royal Regina Rifles.
2. About 1200 hours 'D' Coy took up a position just south of the Caen-Bayeux highway. My platoon was deployed on the North side of the railway line protecting the southern approach to La Villeneuve.
3. We had a 6 pdr A/Tk gun sited covering the railway viaduct which was the only possible approach for vehicles from the south.
4. We had had several officer casualties during the landing and subsequent fighting and the only officers left in the Company were Major Jones the Acting Coy Comd, and myself. Late in the afternoon Major Jones went to an 'O' Group at Bn HQ and I took over the Coy during his absence. I turned the platoon over to my Pl. Sgt. EC Sten.
5. About 1800 hours I heard the A.Tk gun fire and a lot of small arms fire. I went immediately to the railway embankment which was less than 200 yards away and joined Sgt Sten, to find out what was happening. We could see a German vehicle burning on the road about 50 to 100 yards south of the railway track and nearby was an abandoned German motorcycle with sidecar. There were no German troops anywhere in sight and firing in the immediate vicinty had ceased.
6. I returned to our 3 in. mortar position to bring down fire along the road to discourage any enemy who might be following up along the road. The incident was reported to Bn HQ by R/T.
7. Later on Sgt Sten reported to me he had taken a section out to investigate the vehicles and that the Germans from those vehicles had either escaped or had been killed in a fire fight.
8. As the area South of the railway was exposed to enemy view and fire, I gave orders that no one would go across the railway tracks again.
9. Our position was heavily mortared a short time later and Sgt Sten was seriously wounded and evacuated and I have never seen him since. Major Jones was also wounded and I took over command of the Coy.
10. During the night our Coy suffered heavy casualties from this mortaring and the following morning about 1000 hours we were withdrawn to a point southwest of Bretteville L'Orgueilleuse.
11. During the whole time that 'D' Coy was in this position I know that no German prisoners were captured and I am satisfied that any German soldiers that were killed on our front were killed in the course of combat.

Sworn at Aurich, Germany 22 Dec 1945

[klambie]

Sworn Statement of L86545 Rfn Montour, LM

1. I was a member of No. 3 Section 16 Platoon, 'D' Company Royal Regina Rifles and on D plus 1 our platoon was in position on the north side of the Caen-Bayeux railway with our front to the south. We came into this position about 1200 hours.
2. I was on the West side of the road leading to La Villeneuve along with the others in 3 section.
3. Late in the afternoon we saw two enemy vehicles approaching from the south along the road. There was a motorcycle with sidecar in front followed by a recce car of some kind.
4. We held our fire until our PIAT and the A.Tk gun had fired knocking out the recce car and setting it on fire. The occupants of these vehicles jumped out and tried to run away but were shot down as they ran.
5. Shortly afterwards Rfn Wildey and myself were ordered to go forward on the west side of this sunken road to assist the Pl Sgt Sten who was going forward on the east side of the same road to try and round up those who had excaped and hid in the ditch along the side of the road and who could not be reached by fire from our position.
6. We crawled forward through the grain field and behind some bushes at the top of the bank on our side of the road. We could see Sgt Sten approaching on the opposite side.
7. When we reached the edge of the bank we saw a German soldier lying in the ditch getting ready to fire in Sgt Sten's direction. Rfn Wildey shot him through the head before he could fire.
8. We took his Luger pistol and crawled back to our position on the north side of the track. As we did so we saw the motorcycle and sidecar along the bank of the road. The recce car was burning and we did not see if there was anyone in it. There was at least one other body lying on the road near the burning car. The others had been hit after they reached the fields alongside the road.
9. When we got back to our position there was a lot of mortar and small arms fire from the south as the south side of the railway was in view of the enemy.
10. Shortly afterwards another German vehicle came along and it was knocked out by our PIAT and A.Tk fire and it burned up. The Germans jumped out and ran to the side of the road where we engaged them in a fire fight for some minutes. We had been ordered to stay on our own side of the track so I do not know how many were killed.
11. Our Coy had a lot of casualties during the night from mortar fire and we were pulled out the next morning.
12. During all the time we were there I never saw any Germans captured and those that were killed were killed in the fighting or while trying to get away.

Sworn at Aurich, Germany 22 Dec 1945

[klambie]

Sworn Deposition of L27762 Sgt Sten, Edward Carl

I, Edward Carl Sten of the town of Shellbrook, in the Province of Saskatchewan, Grain Elevator Agent, make oath and say that:
1. I was a Sergeant on strength of Regina Rifles Regiment. My regimental number was L27762.
2. On the 7 June 1944 I was stationed with 16 Platoon of said Regiment on the north side of the railroad bridge, south of La Villeneuve, near Bretteville, in Normandy. Between 1700 and 1900 hours of that day I saw a German combination motorcycle with driver and passenger rather closely followed by a German reconnaisance vehicle approaching our position along a sunken road.
3. 16 platoon opened fire on both vehicles. The motorcycle was 'knocked out' by rifle and machine gun fire and the reconnaisance vehicle vehicle was destroyed by a PIAT fired by Rfn Matyas. I saw one of the occupants of the reconnaisance vehicle struck either by a bullet or as a result of the PIAT fire and fall back into the burning vehicle. The other occupants of the reconnaisance vehicle took cover and proceeded to return our fire.
4. Under covering fire from the remainder of the platoon, I went out with a section to attack the German personnel who had escaped from both vehicles from the flank or rear. We finally made contact with them and some of them tried to escape and were killed by our fire. I believe that one of them did succeed in escaping. These Germans returned our fire until the end.
5. When I got up to the place where the bodies were I found that the two men from the motorcycle has been killed. They had succeeded in setting up a German machine gun which I think was an MG-42. One of them had his hand on the belt which was in the gun and ready to fire. I saw two other bodies which must have been among those in the reconnaisance vehicle.
6. Sgt. Jacobs, who was with me, and I recovered a German machine carbine and two Luger pistols. One of the men also got a Luger pistol but I cannot say who it was. We had to retire to our positions. We were still under German fire from a distance of about 1200 yards.

Sworn at Shellbrook, Saskatchewan 2 Dec 1945

[John McGillivray]

Thank you for that information. This incident dose not even comes close to comparing to the murders of the Canadians by the 12thSS. While this occurred in the front lines, and is open to interpretation, depending on which version one believes; most of the murders of the Canadians occurred in German rear areas, some distance from the front. The victims were unarmed PW’s who’s surrender had being accepted by the Germans. They were moved towards the rear, such as Kurt Meyer’s HQ at the Abbaye d’Ardenne, where they were murdered.

Thanks also for the link. Your site looks good so far.

I think all of it was atrocious

Judgement at Nuremburg is on right now and a while ago I was just kicked in HARD the belly (again) by original film clips and images of many of the concentration camps and exterminations atrocities and victims ... how can one not burst out crying from the belly when seeing those things.

What horror-fying deeds happened fom the smallest to the most extreme atrocities.

I know I'm 52, almost 53 in couple of months, but I've never seen that whole movie before.

Sorry folks, don't mean to highjack this thread ... I just spotted it and the subject header fit right in with whats on my mind.





Karmen

[sapper740]

Originally posted by klambie
The gist of Meyer's accusation from that thread:

I'll try to put this not too indelicately:


Kurt Meyer can kiss my hairy Canadian ass!