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The Normandy Massacres were a a series of killings during-which up to 156 Canadian prisoners of war were murdered by soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitler Youth) during the Battle of Normandy. The majority of the murders occurred within the first ten days of the Allied invasion of France.[1] The killings ranged in scale from spontaneous murders of individual POWs, to premeditated mass executions.[2] Colonel Kurt Meyer, a commander in the 12th SS Panzer Division, was the only perpetrator charged for his role in the atrocities.[2] The Normandy Massacres are among the worst war crimes committed against Canadian soldiers in Canada's history.[2]
Background
editThe 3rd Canadian Division landed at Juno Beach at approximately 7:45 AM, on 6 June, 1944. They were opposed by the German 716th Division, which was at two-thirds strength.[3] Juno Beach was secured shortly after 10:00 AM, with Canada incurring hundreds of casualties in the process.[4] Canadian troops did not achieve their day-one objectives, but nonetheless advanced inland over seven miles; spearheads of the 9th brigade made the furthest advances of any Allied unit on D-Day.[4] The 12 SS Panzer Division was one of three German armoured divisions that were in reserve relatively close to the Allied beachheads.[4] The division was not ordered to counter the Allied attack until after 3:00 PM on 6 June, because Adolf Hitler forbade German commanders from using the armoured units in reserve without his explicit consent.[5] He took sleeping pills on the night of 5 June and ordered his aides not to wake him; upon stirring at around 9:00 AM on 6 June, he insisted on receiving details of the Allied invasion for a few hours before making any decisions.[5]
The 12 SS Panzer Division was ordered to halt the advance near the Orne River, and force the Allies back into the Atlantic Ocean.[5] The 25th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, led by Colonel Kurt Meyer, was among the first Hitler Youth units to reach the front.[5] Meyer was a fanatical believer in the Nazi ideology, and his regiment razed multiple villages to the ground — slaughtering their inhabitants in the process.[5] Meyer set up his headquarters in a chateau near Cean on the night of June 6.[6] By this time, the 716th division had been almost entirely decimated, and could no longer function as a cohesive unit.[6] Meyer received orders to destroy the Juno beachhead at 4:00 PM on 7 June — giving him less than 15 hours to prepare his forces.[6] The German commander was forced to deploy his forces piecemeal, because many elements had been delayed by strafing from allied fighter-bombers.[6]
As the Germans began their counterattack near the villages of Villons-les-Buissons and Anisy, elements from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusiliers were advancing southward, and initially did not encounter any resistance.[7] C Company of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders was the first unit to come under fire in this sector, with German artillery and mortar fire killing and wounding a number of Canadians.[7] The Canadian forces were unable to secure any support from artillery or naval ships, and tanks from the Sherbrooke Fusiliers which were sent to assist had been destroyed soon after arriving.[7] Meyer spotted tanks from the Sherbrooke Fusiliers from his nearby advanced command post at the Abbaye d'Ardenne, and ordered his forces to launch their attach two hours ahead of schedule to exploit the exposed Canadian flank; himself fearing being outflanked.[8]
The Canadians managed to disable or destroy multiple German tanks, but received heavy losses after falling into a German trap at the village of Authie.[9] The Fusilier's Intelligence Officer was captured by the Germans, who managed to secure his radio code book.[9] The 12th SS Panzer Division's radio operator was reportedly highly adapt at impersonating the commander of the Fusiliers, Lt. Col. M. Gordon, making it difficult for Canadian soldiers to distinguish genuine orders from false ones; the German sent tanks to pre-plotted fields, where 75mm anti-tank guns picked them off.[9]
Two companies from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders were cut off from the rest of their forces during the German assault; they salvaged three Browning machine guns from their destroyed tanks, and they lost all of their anti-armour support except for one surviving Sherman tank.[9] Kurt Meyer could see the Canadian defenders dug in an orchard from his vantage point at the Abbey, and he guided an artillery barrage before the main attack, which consisted of tanks with infantry support.[9] Captain Fraser, who took command of the remaining Canadian forces, managed to reach headquarters and was promised reinforcements if he continued to hold on, but these reinforcements never arrived.[9] Around two dozen Canadians attempted to escape the impending encirclement, while the remaining defenders tried to cover them.[9] The defenders finally surrendered at shortly after 4:00 PM on 8 June; the Canadians suffered 110 men killed, 195 men wounded or captured, and up to 30 tanks disabled or destroyed.[9] The executions commenced before the Canadians had even surrendered.[9]
Murders at Authie
editThe 3rd Battalion of the 12th SS Panzer Division, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Karl Heinz Milius, committed some of the first atrocities against the Canadian prisoners of war.[10] The SS troopers were infuriated by the number of casualties they incurred when taking the village, and that these loses were inflicted by soldiers they viewed as inferior.[10] The first victim of the Normandy Massacres was Private Lorne Brown, who refused to retreat and leave a severely wounded comrade behind.[10] The wounded man reported seeing Brown stand up in response to an order from a German soldier, only to be forced to the ground right after.[10] The German pinned Brown with his heel, and repeatedly bayoneted him while shouting curses.[10] The other wounded Canadian pretended to be dead, and was later captured by another SS soldier.[10]
A village resident stated that Canadian soldiers had cleared the main street of civilians before digging in to fight the German attackers.[10] This resident witnessed one Canadian walking towards German troops with his hand raised, only to be shot when he was just a few meters away.[10] Soon after, the resident witnessed Private William Nichol attempt to move out of the line of fire after being shot in his right leg.[10] A German officer ran up to Nichol, picked up his rifle, and bashed his skull in with the rifle butt, before shooting one bullet into his corpse.[10] Canadian Lance Corporal Mackay was being escorted toward a group of his fellow POWs, but suddenly got pushed into a nearby doorway by his escort.[10] The guard briefly spoke with two other German soldiers, before heading back in the street with Mackay; Mackay witnessed the Germans order eight POWs to go to the middle of the road and take their helmets off, then proceeding to fatally shoot them.[10] One of the Germans pulled two bodies — including that of Corporal Thomas Davidson — into the road for traffic to run over, while his comrades stopped villagers from moving the bodies out of the way.[10] By the time a villager received permission to bury the two bodies, they were in such bad condition that he had to use a shovel to collect their remains.[10] The corpse of another murdered Canadian was propped up, and given a hat and cigarette as props.[10] The mass executions and bodily mutilations were witnessed by other Canadian POWs.[10]
To the left of Authie, another company of the 3rd Battalion undertook its own atrocities. Private John Metcalfe was the first victim; while being searched with a group of 15–20 other POWs, he fell because of rough handling from a German captor.[10] After Metcalfe fell, the German fired four shots into his abdomen, and smiled while letting Metcalfe suffer in pain for a few minutes.[10] He then shot Metcalfe three times in the head, and emptied the rest of his magazine into the body.[10] Lance Corporal Joseph R. Arsenault was undergoing a similar search, and held two grenades in his hands to clearly show the German soldiers what he had.[10] An SS officer took the grenades and spoke to Arsenault in French; after Arsenault responded in French, the officer fatally shot him in his neck.[10] The Germans were soon forced to evacuate Authie due to British naval shelling, and murdered at least twelve Canadian POWs during the subsequent evacuation.[10] Six of them were killed together in the kitchen of a French home, while another two were a Canadian Army medic wearing a red cross armband (signifying his status as a noncombatant), and his patient.[10]
The executions were temporarily halted after Major Leon M. Rhodenizer, who commanded A Company of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, appealed to the SS soldiers in German.[10] However, the column of POWs passed SS soldiers going the opposite direction, toward the front.[10] The officer leading the oncoming SS column began to shoot into the line of POWs, and his men followed suit; nine POWs were killed in this massacre. Later, a German truck with red cross markings deliberately drove into the procession of POWs and ran over three men — two of whom died from their injuries.[10] Some Canadian officers in captivity were later forced to sign papers falsely claiming that those two victims died from combat injuries.[10] To reinforce this lie, the Germans held a military funeral for these two victims, which was recorded by a German cameraman.[10] The last man known to be murdered by members of the 3rd Battalion on 7 June was Army Chaplain Captain Walter Brown.[10]
References
edit- ^ Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ a b c "Normandy Massacres | World War II | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
- ^ Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ a b c Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ a b c d e Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ a b c d Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ a b c Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ Copp, Terry (2010-11-28). "Murder In Normandy: Army, Part 91". Legion Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. pp. 51–56. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Margolian, Howard (1998). Conduct unbecoming : the story of the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-4426-7321-2. OCLC 431557826.