The Canadian Army at War - Canada's Battle in Normandy - the Canadian Army's Share in the Operations 6 June: 1 September 1944

133 Pages·2013·25.6 MB·English

by  Stacey

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Text originally published in 1956 under the same title.
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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the
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The Canadian Army at War
Canada's Battle in Normandy
The Canadian Army's Share in the
Operations, 6 June — 1 September 1944
By
Colonel C.P. Stacey, O.B.E. Director, Historical
Section, General Staff
With a Foreword by
Lieutenant-General C. Foulkes, C.B., C.B.E.,
D.S.O. Chief of the General Staff, Canada
Published
by Authority of the Minister of National Defense Printed by the
King's Printer at Ottawa, Canada 1946
This booklet is based upon a preliminary examination of official
records.
The illustrations consist mainly of paintings by Official War Artists of
the Canadian Army and photographs by Canadian Army Overseas Film and
Photo Units.
In this brief account of operations involving many thousands of men it
has not been possible to make specific reference to every unit engaged, let
alone to every individual officer or man who distinguished himself by acts of
gallantry. A few such officers and men are mentioned, in order simply that
their deeds may stand as types of many; had space permitted, the number
might have been increased by many hundreds.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 2
FOREWORD 3
PREFATORY NOTE 4
A PERSONAL MESSAGE from LT-GEN H.D.G. CRERAR, C.B., D.S.O.,
GOC-in-C, FIRST CDN ARMY ON THE EVE OF THE LANDINGS 5
I — FOUNDATIONS OF VICTORY 6
The Long Road to Normandy 6
The Canadian Army Prepares 7
The Atlantic Wall 9
The Balloon Goes Up 10
CHAPTER II — A WALL IS BREACHED 14
The Scheme of the Assault 14
Ring Up the Curtain 15
The Battle of the Beaches 16
The Brigades Push Inland 18
Entry of the Gladiators 19
Defending the Bridgehead 22
CHAPTER III — THE BATTLE OF CAEN 24
Building Up the Invasion 24
Back to the Offensive 26
The First Break-out from Caen 27
The Canadian Army Takes Over 29
CHAPTER IV — VICTORY AT FALAISE 31
"One Great Consistent Pattern" 31
The Infantry Went Through 34
Over the Heights to Falaise 36
The Pocket and the Gap 37
The Graveyard of an Army 40
CHAPTER V — PURSUIT TO DIEPPE 42
The Pursuit Begins 42
The Great Advance 44
International Army 45
Return to Dieppe 46
The Battle of Normandy 48
ILLUSTRATIONS 50
MAPS 86
FOREWORD
This booklet is the third in a series published by the Department of
National Defense with the object of giving the Canadian people authentic
historical information concerning the contribution of their Army to victory in
the recent war.
The earlier booklets, The Canadians in Britain 1939-1944 and From
Pachino to Ortona dealt respectively with the years of waiting in the United
Kingdom and with the opening phase of Canadian operations in the
Mediterranean Theatre. The present volume tells the story of the Canadian
Army's part in the initial and all-important stage of the great final campaign
in North-West Europe. The operations in Normandy produced perhaps the
most remarkable and significant victory in modern history; and in that victory
Canadian forces played a very distinguished part.
It is not intended to extend this series of booklets further. Instead, the
Department of National Defence proposed to publish at the earliest possible
time a comprehensive one-volume Official Historical Sketch which will
afford a brief but accurate account of the work of the Canadian Army in all
theatres throughout the war. The Official History proper, which it is hoped
may be produced in about five years, is planned to consist of four volumes
and will give a more detailed account of the events on the basis of a complete
examination of all available sources of information.
Charles Faulkes
Lieutenant-General, Chief of the General Staff.

“ . . For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd With one appearing hair, that
will not follow These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?”
KING HENRY V.
PREFATORY NOTE
The decisive battle in North-West France in the summer of 1944 was
fought and won by gallant men from many nations. Britain, the United States,
and Canada contributed the largest components; but Poland provided a fine
division, the French Forces of the Interior and subsequently French regular
forces played essential roles, and Belgium, the Netherlands and
Czechoslovakia all did their part. The victory won by the selfless cooperation
of the men who made up these international forces is the property of no one
nation; it is the monument of brave soldiers who died in different uniforms
for one cause.
If this was a joint triumph of many nations, it was also a victory shared
by the three fighting services. Sea, land, and air, they worked together for the
defeat of the enemy so unselfishly and unceasingly that it would be difficult
to say where the credit due to one element ended and that due to another
began. All were courageous, all were skilful, all were bold; and together they
achieved one of the greatest victories in the history of warfare and left all
civilization their debtors.
In this campaign to which so many races and services contributed, the
Canadian Army played a part of some significance. It is of that particular part
that these pages tell.
A PERSONAL MESSAGE from LT-GEN H.D.G. CRERAR, C.B.,
D.S.O., GOC-in-C, FIRST CDN ARMY ON THE EVE OF THE
LANDINGS
A PERSONAL MESSAGE from LT-GEN H.D.G. CRERAR, C.B.,
D.S.O., GOC-in-C, FIRST CDN ARMY
It is not possible for me to speak to each one of you, but by means of
this personal message, I want all ranks of the Canadian Army to know what is
in my mind, as the hour approaches when we go forward into battle.
I have completed confidence in our ability to meet the tests which lie
ahead. We are excellently trained and equipped. The quality of both senior
and junior leadership is of the highest. As Canadians, we inherit military
characteristics which were feared by the enemy in the last Great War. They
will be still more feared before this war terminates.
The Canadian formations in the assault landing will have a vital part to
play. The plans, the preparations, the methods and the technique, which will
be employed, are based on knowledge and experience, bought and paid for by
2 Canadian Division at DIEPPE. The contribution of that hazardous operation
cannot be over-estimated. It will prove to have been the essential prelude to
our forthcoming and final success.
We enter into this decisive phase of the war with full faith in our cause,
with calm confidence in our abilities and with grim determination to finish
quickly and unmistakably this job we came overseas to do.
As in 1918, the Canadians, in Italy and in North West Europe, will hit
the enemy again and again, until at some not distant time, the converging
Allied Armies link together and we will be rejoined, in Victory, with our
comrades of 1 Canadian Corps.