About Bretteville/Norrey-en-Bessin region action.
These are Maj.-Gen. Harry W. Foster, Lt.-Col. Foster Matheson and SS-Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer's viewpoints. The quotation from Tony Foster's "Meeting of Generals":
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"As the force neared Bretteville and the shooting started, Kurt Meyer sent a few of the tanks ahead to smash through the Canadian lines. Sectors of the Regina Rifles were overrun in the first collision of combat. A few Panthers pushed to within 300 yards of the Battalion HQ in Bretteville. But the Reginas held. Unknowingly, he had led his force directly into the strongest part of the Canadian line. German casualties mounted quickly".
Quote:
Originally written by SS-Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer
Haupsturmführer von Buettner, CO of the 15th Company, was shot off the top of his tank. He fell on the road to the edge of the ditch… I was in close combat with a machine gun which lay in position behind a small tank. My driver, Behlke, was shot through the stomach. I was on fire because of leaking petrol. My comrades of the 15th Company quenched the fire. The village of Norrey-en-Bessin had been heavily occupied and in spite of 3rd Battalion of the 27th Regiment pushing on both sides of the railway up to Norrey and the adjacent Battalion reaching a point west of Bretteville. My own group was too weak to hold on for the next day. I resolved to pull back my troops to the heights at Rots in the early morning hours. The young soldiers don't hate their enemies. They are filled with respect for his fighting spirit.
Source:
Tony Foster
Meeting of Generals
Authors Choice Press, Lincoln 1986
ISBN 0-595-13750-4
Page 322
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Quote:
Originally written by Lt.-Col. Foster Matheson
22 Panthers circled about Battalion HQ and A Company's position during the night. It is hard to picture the confusion which existed. Contact with all but D Company was lost. Fires and flares lit up the area and the enemy several times appeared to be convinced that opposition had ceased. A foolhardy German dispatch rider rode through Bretteville on a captured Canadian motorcycle, only to be brought down by the CO's Sten gun. Some time later a German officer drove his Volkswagen up before Battalion HQ, dismounted and gazed about for a few seconds until an excited PIAT gunner let fly with a bomb which hit him squarely.
Source:
Tony Foster
Meeting of Generals
Authors Choice Press, Lincoln 1986
ISBN 0-595-13750-4
Page 322
|
Quote:
Originally written by Maj.-Gen. Harry W. Foster
The [German] attacks were launched without any semblance of tactical sense. The flanks of the Battalion were exposed and the position almost isolated. In such a case where a carefully conceived flank attack might have been deadly, the enemy flung himself straight against the strongest points and utterly failed to exploit the weakness of my positions. It wasn't very bright.
Source:
Tony Foster
Meeting of Generals
Authors Choice Press, Lincoln 1986
ISBN 0-595-13750-4
Page 322
|