Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry

Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry
Part of Battle for Caen
Date 11 June 1944 Location Le Mesnil-Patry, France Result German victory
Belligerents
Canada The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada 1st Hussars	Germany 12th SS Panzer Division
Casualties and losses
116 dead or missing, 35 wounded, 22 captured, 51 tanks destroyed	unknown

The Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry was the last big operation conducted by Canadian land forces in Normandy during June 1944. The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, supported by the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) attempted to take the town of Le Mesnil-Patry in Normandy as part of a southwards move on the right flank of Cheux towards high ground (Hill 107) as part of the strategy of taking the city of Caen. The battle resulted in a German victory.

Background

Canadian reserve troops disembark at 'Nan White' Beach at Bernières-sur-Mer.

On 6 June 1944, Allied forces invaded France by launching Operation Neptune, the beach landing operation of Operation Overlord. A force of several thousand ships assaulted the beaches in Normandy, supported by approximately 3,000 aircraft. The D-Day landings were generally successful but the Allied forces were unable to take Caen as planned.

In addition to seaborne landings, the Allies also employed Airborne forces. The U.S. 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, as well as the British 6th Airborne Division (with an attached Canadian airborne battalion), were inserted behind the enemy lines. The British and Canadian paratroopers behind Sword Beach were to occupy strategically important bridges such as Horsa and Pegasus, as well as to take the artillery battery at Merville in order to hinder the forward progress of the German forces. They managed to establish a bridgehead north of Caen on the east bank of the Orne, that the Allied troops could use to their advantage in the battle for Caen.

The battle

On the afternoon of Sunday 11 June, 'B' Squadron of the 1st Hussars suffered heavy losses following an abortive attack with The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada on the hamlet of Le Mesnil Patry, North-West of Caen. The attack was due to be launched in the early hours of 12 June but the information was received early on 11 June that the attack had been advanced so the Canadian forces set off at 2:30 PM. The Canadian column advanced with B Squadron of the 1st Hussars in the lead, with men of D Company of the Queen's Own Rifles riding on the 1st Hussars's tanks. Panzergrenadiers and tanks of the 12th SS Panzer Division were able to ambush the tanks of 'B' Squadron in a grain field near Le Mesnil Patry in part due to intelligence gleaned from the Hussars' radio traffic after capturing wireless codes from a destroyed Canadian tank on 9 June. After the ambush started men were flung from the tanks that they were riding as the tanks caught fire or exploded, destroying twenty. The commander of the section of the Queen's Own Rifles (Major Elliot Dalton) was wounded in the leg by mortar fire. The commander of the lead element of the Hussars, Lieutenant Colonel Colwell, ordered that the lead element retreat but the order was not heard. Using Panzerfausts, Panzerschrecks and anti-tank guns, the German forces were able to destroy 51 Shermans (all but two of their tanks) and inflict 61 killed or missing, 2 wounded and 11 captured on the vanguard of the 1st Hussars. All of the squadron's officers and all but three of their non-commissioned officers were lost in the fighting. The Queen's Own Rifles suffered 55 killed, 33 wounded and 11 taken prisoner during the attack. An English newspaper called it the modern equivalent of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

SS War Crimes

Men of HQ Company of the Queen's Own Rifles were ordered to search for Canadian dead immediately after the action and before the Canadians withdrew completely from the area. Amongst them was Bill Bettridge, who discovered 6 Queen's Own Riflemen from 'D' Company, who all had the same tell-tale wound. Bettridge later stated:

"After the tanks retreated from there, the Germans got up and started searching for anybody that was still alive and they just put a bullet through all their heads so the 6 of them were all killed, all murdered."

Further to this, following the action at Le Mesnil-Patry, the 12th SS captured 7 Canadians who were discovered wandering around no-mans land since the battle. All were reported to be tired and hungry. The men were interrogated by an officer of the 12th SS Engineering Battalion at an ad-hoc headquarters in the village of Mouen, roughly 5 miles south-east of Le Mesnil-Patry. As recorded after the incident by a Canadian 1st Army inquest report titled 'Report of the Court of Inquiry Re: The Shooting of Prisoners of War by German Armed Forces at Mouen, Clavados, Normandy, 17 June 1944', the men were:

B49476 - Trooper Perry, C.J. - Canadian Armoured Corps

B43258 - Serjeant McLaughlin, T. C. - Queen's Own Rifles of Can.

?????? - Rifleman Campbell, T.R. - Queen's Own Rifles of Can.

B138240 - Rifleman Willet, C.L. - Queen's Own Rifles of Can.

B138453 - Rifleman Cranfield, E. - Queen's Own Rifles of Can.

B144191 - Corporal Cook, E. - Queen's Own Rifles of Can.

B42653 - Rifleman Bullock, P. - Queen's Own Rifles of Can.

At approximately 10.00pm the 7 men were led to the outskirts of the village, under armed guard. Once here, 4 of the men - Cook, Cranfield, Perry and Willet - were executed by firing squad whilst the remaining men were shot at point-blank range in the head.

The Canadian 1st Army report stated:

"That all the above named soldiers were murdered by the German armed forces in violation of the well recognised laws and usages of war and the terms of the Geneva Convention of 1929.

That the above named soldiers were at the time of their deaths prisoners of war and entitled to treatment as such.

That the soldiers were, on the date of their deaths, in the custody of a detachment of the 12th SS Panzer Engineer Battalion, probably the Third Company of that battalion.

That the commanding officer of the said battalion was a certain Sturmbanfuhrer ("Major") Muller, but there is no evidence whether the Headquarters of the battalion or its commanding officer were present in Mouen on the date of the incident.

That one or more of the officers or NCO's [sic] of the said battalion were responsible for the murder of the said Canadian Soldiers.

That fourteen German soldiers who escorted the said Canadian soldiers to the place were they were murdered, and whose names, with one exception, are at present unknown to the Court, are equally implicated with their officers or NCO's [sic] in the said murder. The exception referred to is SS. Mann Alfred Friedrich, now deceased."

The SS made the local French villagers dig a mass grave and interred the men in it. The grave was discovered by elements of the British 49th (West Riding) Division when they liberated the town on 25th June. Nobody from the 12th SS was ever prosecuted for the crime.

Bibliography

• Martin, Cromwell (2002). Battle Diary: From D-Day and Normandy to the Zuider Zee and VE. Quebec: Gagne Printing.

• Scarfe, Norman (2006) [1947]. Assault Division: A History of the 3rd Division from the Invasion of Normandy to the Surrender of Germany. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Spellmount Limited. ISBN 1-86227-338-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Ford, Ken (2004). Sword Beach. Battle Zone Normandy. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-3019-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |origdate= (help)
• Keegan, John, The Times Atlas of the Second World War, Crescent Books, New York