Books photos about executed POWS June 1944

[Mark W. Tonner]

Carman;

From the Royal Winnipeg Rifles War Diary for 8 June, 1944:

"Putot-en-Bessin
June 8, 1944

During the night enemy machine guns had fired from posns South of the rly, hoping to draw our fire and pin point our posns. At 0400 hrs enemy tks were heard across rly at 894720. As it became lighter, enemy tks, supported by inf attempted to cross the railway bridge in front of A Coy. The whole Bn area was subjected to enemy arty and mortar fire during this attack. This attack was repulsed by fire from A Coy assisted by one pl of MMGs, Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, which were covering the rly br. Cpl Naylor's det of the A tk pl knocked out one PZKW Mark III tk, and one enemy armd car. During the early morning snipers came to life in the buildings throughout the town and made it increasingly difficult to move in the whole Bn area. At 1200 hrs more enemy had infiltrated into the town around our posns and there was direct enemy machine gun, mortar and arty fire on our LMG posts and individuals in slit trenches. It was impossible to get amn to the coys, even with a Bren carrier. At 1330 hrs, A, B and C Coys were completely surrounded by the enemy. The majority of their automatic weapons had been knocked out by the previous bombardment and they had no amn. An attempt was made to withdraw the survivors of these coys under cover of smoke, but only a few got back to BnHQ at 908725. During the morning our losses had been heavy but a great many of the enemy had been accounted for. The enemy attacked with at least two coys on each of our coy posns, with a vast superiority of automatic weapons. Armd sp was requested by us, and was promised, but never reached our posn. BnHQ was under fire all morning. Lt-Col Meldrum was able to visit coy posns on foot during the early morning, but later went fwd in the FOO tk, until this was subjected to direct enemy 88mm fire. Evacuation of casualties was difficult and stretcher bearers moved all day under fire. Capt R.M. Caldwell, the unit MO, attended casualties under fire, in the fwd posns. As soon as the coys had withdrawn, arty was brought down on the town, but this did not dislodge the enemy who had now surrounded BnHQ area by fire. D Coy, alone, withdrew nearly intact to a def posn around Bn HQ. Carriers patrolled the area and no enemy passed through the Bn posns to the rear. The remnants of the Bn held on until 2000 hrs when a barrage, by 4 regts arty, was laid down, starting from Bn HQ and moving up to the South side of the rly. The 1 Scot R put in an attack on the village supported by the 6 Armd Regt, which restored the situation. The Bn was withdrawn at 2300 hrs to La Bergerie Farm. Maj F.E. Hodge, OC A Coy, Capt P.E. Gower, OC B Coy were missing. Three coys had been almost completely wiped out. The flank protection gp remained intact at Bronay."

I've typed it the same that it appears in the diary. Below are two diagrams showing the positions of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the direction of the attacks by the 5th, 6th and 7th Companies, 2nd Battalion, 26th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment on 8 June, 1944.