[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