Hello Mark,
Thank you for your answer.
I went back and checked in Niklas Zetterling’s book “Normandy 1944” and found the following (p.384-386):
“At the beginning of June the division was deployed-in the Chartres — Le Mans — Orleans area. Despite the threat of Allied invasion the Panther battalion — the I./Panzer-Regiment 6 which had been detached from the 3. Panzer-Division — was loaded on trains to be sent to the Eastern Front. On 5 June the first train had reached Magdeburg in Germany while the last one was at Paris. This meant that the strongest battalion of the division was missing when the Allies invaded France.
“On D-Day the division received orders to march to Normandy. The Panther battalion was ordered to move back to France to join the division in Normandy. The journey to Normandy by the division has been described as a costly and prolonged affair due to intervention of Allied air power. It has been stated the division lost 5 tanks, 84 SPW and prime movers and 90 wheeled vehicles. According to Ritgen, who was the commander of the repair and maintenance company of the Panzer IV battalion at the time, this initial report was exaggerated. The fact that the division lost 82 SPW and 10 prime movers during the entire month of June supports this judgement.
“Of greater importance than the losses were the delays. The Panzer IV battalion — the II/Panzer-Regiment 130 — had only reached a wooded area north of Alencon on the morning of 7 June and was short of fuel. The II./Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 902 went into action on the morning of 8 June. The following day, the II./Panzer-Regiment 130, Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 901, the I./Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 902 and Panzerjager-Lehr-Abteilung 130 were committed. On 10 June the Panther battalion arrived, and it was sent into action the following day.”
So it would have being impossible to have had Panthers in action around la Bergerie Ferme on the 8th of June. So who were the British and Canadians fighting there? The sources that Zuehlke gives for his description of the battle are as followers:
-Tony Foulds, "In Support of the Canadians: A British Anti-Tank Regiment's First Five Weeks in Normandy," Canadian Military History, Spring 1998, vol. 7,74.
-Harold Bertrand Gonder, interview by Mark C. Hill, 23 July and 7, 8, 9 August 1985, University of Victoria Special Collections.
-Richard M. Ross, The History of the 1st Battalion Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (M G), (n.p., n.d.), 44.
-Maj. G.T. MacEwan, "Battle Narrative: D-Day and the Counter-Attack on Putot-en-Bessin," 145.204013(03), Directorate of History, Department of National Defence, 5.
The incident at Cristot involved British troops and not Canadian. It was a recce patrol from the Inns of Court Regiment.
http://home.att.net/~SSPzHJ/WarCrimes.html