117 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca because he was looking after the whole regiment. They continued their amphibious training there and that’s where they got the Sherman tanks as an amphibious tank. The Shermans replaced the Valentines as a training tank. The Valentines were difficult to deal with as far as maintenance was concerned. From Lee-on-Solent, they loaded the Shermans on board ship landing crafts and went around to west of Bournemouth, Pool Harbour, a sand dune, where they did landing drills off transports. They put a ramp down in the sea and battled their way onto shore. Then, these two squadrons, B and C, went into security in preparation for landing in France on D-Day. Just prior to D-Day, they were loaded onto transports in Southampton, waiting for D-Day. It was supposed to happen on June 5, but was held off until June 6 on account of rough weather. They coasted along just offshore with barrage ballons overhead to keep “Jerry” from bombing too much. Then on June 6, D-Day finally arrived. The barrage started at 7am, when their amphibious tanks were floated off the carriers into the sea and swam to the beaches near Bernières in Normandy. They were scheduled to have only 15% recovery, but it was the other way around: 15% casualties and 85% recovery. They caught the Germans unprepared for the Allied invasion landing at this point. They were in the middle (landing on Allied code-named Juno Beach). The Americans were on the extreme right, down towards Cherbourg (Utah and Omaha Beaches), and the British were on the left (Sword and Gold Beaches). They were under heavy sniper fire from snipers in trees as well as in buildings. They moved inland to Beny-surMer. There was a lot of action in between when they landed and when they got to Beny-sur-Mer. German resistance increased as they advanced. The Germans wouldn’t surrender to the Canadians, so they didn’t take many prisoners, neither did they, so they retaliated. “The Canadians successfully captured their shoreline positions at Juno Beach and penetrated the farthest inland of any of some 155,000 Allied troops who had landed on June 6, 1944. ‘Canada Remembers – D-Day and the Battle of Normandy’, www.veterans.gc.ca”. Quite a few of their tanks, as well as German tanks, were knocked out. From there, they launched an all-out attack on Carpiquet Airfield. They took it, eventually, after a lot of fussing around, then they advanced to Caen, a city about twenty miles east of the airfield, where they met heavy enemy resistance. There is now a plaque in this city commemorating its liberation by the Fort Garry Horse. They were the first tank regiment to arrive there. After that, they moved south and took up positions on the bald prairie, and there they set up for the attack on Falaise. A 500-bomber strike preceded their attack. The bombers flew right over them on the way to their target Falaise. After they took Falaise, and closed the Falaise Gap, the Germans were on their left. They had them in a pocket, the British Army on one side and the Americans on the other, and they closed the gap. That was an awful slaughter. His brother-in-law, Sam Lean, was wounded at Falaise. Another from Minnedosa was Rev. Bill Harrison. He was their padre. From Falaise, they turned and went east through France and up around Orbec. Further on at Boulogne, they had quite a battle where they lost about 70% of their tanks. There were originally 75 heavy tanks in their regiment and 24 light tanks. The “heavies” had a crew of four to five men and four in the light tanks. So, they had only about 25 or 30 tanks left. About 50% of the crews were also lost. Some managed to bail out and run for cover in the nearest hole. There were lots of holes, bomb, or shell craters. If they weren’t shot or taken prisoner, they would sneak back at night to their regiment, if they could find them, singing like crazy so the Allies wouldn’t shoot them. LAMB, Albert George (continued) (continued)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==