# The Canadians in Normandy



## Old Sweat (13 Aug 2014)

I consider Marc Milner to be an excellent military historian, so I was pleasantly surprised when Amazon.ca showed me the announcement for _Stopping the Panzers: The Untold Story of D Day_. It is scheduled to be released in November, but I have preordered a copy. The blurb on the Amazon.ca site follows:

I*n the narrative of D-Day the Canadians figure chiefly--if at all--as an ineffective force bungling their part in the early phase of Operation Overlord. The reality is quite another story. As both the Allies and the Germans knew, only Germany's Panzers could crush Overlord in its tracks. The Canadians' job was to stop the Panzers--which, as this book finally makes clear, is precisely what they did. Rescuing from obscurity one of the least understood and most important chapters in the history of D-Day, Stopping the Panzers is the first full account of how the Allies planned for and met the Panzer threat to Operation Overlord. As such, this book marks nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of the Normandy campaign. Beginning with the Allied planning for Operation Overlord in 1943, historian Marc Milner tracks changing and expanding assessments of the Panzer threat, and the preparations of the men and units tasked with handling that threat. Featured in this was the 3rd Canadian Division, which, treated so dismissively by history, was actually the most powerful Allied formation to land on D-Day, with a full armored brigade and nearly 300 artillery and antitank guns under command. Milner describes how, over four days of intense and often brutal battle, the Canadians fought to a literal standstill the 1st SS Panzer Corps--which included the Wehrmacht's 21st Panzer Division; its vaunted elite Panzer Lehr Division; and the rabidly zealous 12th SS Hitler Youth Panzer Division, whose murder of 157 Canadian POWs accounted for nearly a quarter of Canadian fatalities during the fighting. Stopping the Panzers sets this murderous battle within the wider context of the Overlord assault, offering a perspective that challenges the conventional wisdom about Allied and German combat efficiency, and leads to one of the freshest assessments of the D-Day landings and their pre-attack planning in more than a decade.*

Well, maybe I ordered a copy because I agree with his thesis. In my opinion the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division with 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade outfought elements of three Panzer Divisions in the first week of the invasion. The orders to the formations of 1 SS Panzer Corps, especially 12 SS Panzer Division, were basically to drive the invaders into the sea. They failed miserably, something that people like Kurt Meyer glossed over in their memoirs and other writings. In fact 12 SS, which was not commanded by Meyer at the time, was very poorly handled and its commander was, perhaps fortunately for his reputation, killed by Allied bombing shortly later.


----------



## Colin Parkinson (13 Aug 2014)

will have to get my library to order it.


----------



## Infantryman2b (13 Aug 2014)

http://www.amazon.ca/Fields-Fire-The-Canadians-Normandy/dp/0802037801

Great book on the Canadians in Normandy.


----------



## Rifleman62 (18 Aug 2014)

Dr Milner has an interest in this campaign.

As printed in The Devils' Blast, May 09:

http://mintoarmoury.com/association/the-devils-blast

*Gunner W.C. Milner’s D-Day Map*

During the early minutes of the Allied assault on Normandy on 6 June 1944, Gnr William C. Milner, 13th RCA, from Sackville NB, landed on “MIKE Green” beach, right behind the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.  While he waited in the shelter of the dunes for the rest of his unit to come ashore, Gnr Milner picked up a 1/50,000 scale British Army Ordnance Survey map of the Normandy beaches that was poking out of the pocket of a fallen Rifleman.  A high resolution digital scan of that map is now in the hands of the RWR museum.  However, a mystery remains and maybe the RWR community can help solve it.

Bill Milner joined the artillery in early 1943 went overseas that fall, where he joined the 14th RCA, an Ontario unit.  When 14th RCA was deemed overstrength, Milner was sent to the 13th RCA: he never Milner regretted the transfer.  The 13th RCA was a western unit, composed of batteries from Red Deer, Gleichen and Prince Albert.  He always recalled fondly that he and the few other Maritimers in the regiment were treated well by the Prairie gunners.  They were all militia men and a little older, and “We Maritimers were kind of a novelty” he used to say.  But they never let ‘outsiders’ near the guns.  So Milner, a qualified Bren gunner, was assigned to the RHQ.

13th RCA was one of four RCA field regiments assigned to the assault wave on 6 June.  Normally attached to 8 Bde, for Operation Overlord it and 12th RCA, supported 7 Bde.  The regiment’s FOOs went in with the Regina Rifles and the Canadian Scottish, while most of the guns came ashore later in the day across the RWR beach.  In the meantime, various parties of the 13th RCA landed all along MIKE beach that morning: including the Unit Landing Officer and his detachment, Gun Position Officers and their men, and the RHQ.

My father’s probably came ashore with the RHQ - with whom he served throughout the Northwest Europe campaign as a cook, driver, despatch rider and machine gunner.  We do know that his landing craft grounded some distance offshore and “the Sergeant” put a rope in his hand and told him to wade ashore and tie it off so that everyone else would have something to hang onto.  At over six feet tall Gnr Milner was a good choice for the job: his first step off the ramp was a plunge into about six feet of water.  Once he secured the rope, my father scampered across the beach – which was still under mortar and small arms fire -- into the shelter of the dunes to clean his rifle.  Somewhere between the edge of the surf and the time the Sergeant arrived the give him a kick and a sharp rebuke “to get the hell off the beach there was a war on!”, he picked-up the map.  

The account of the acquisition of the map which I heard my whole life was that he found it “sticking out of the pant pocket of a dead Warrant Officer of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles,” and that the blue ink arrow (pointing to MIKE beach) was on the map when he found it.  I never doubted the truth of his story.  In 1993 I travelled to Normandy with him (his first trip back in forty-nine years) and we stood on MIKE Green, just under the huge Cross of Lorraine which now dominates the site, and he related the story again.  “This is where I landed,” he said firmly, “The Winnipegs were still fighting in the dunes when we came ashore.”

After over a year in the army and months of training in Britain as part of 3rd Canadian Division, there seems no reason to doubt that my father could identify a Warrant Officer and a Rifleman.  So who could it have been?  Only one senior NCO fatality, Sgt W. W. Miskow, is listed on the RWR Honour Role for 6 June 1944: in his case as “Died of Wounds”.  The regimental history and available sources say nothing of him: could he have been an acting CSM?  It is also possible, given the tense state of the moment, that the ‘dead’ Warrant Officer my father saw was only seriously wounded and ultimately survived.  

So, some puzzles remain for this D-Day map, and perhaps members of the RWR family can help clear them up.


Dr J. Marc Milner

A native of Sackville, NB, Dr Marc Milner earned his doctorate from the University of New Brunswick in 1983.

He is the author of seven books on Canadian naval history and wrote D-Day to Carpiquet: The North Shore Regiment and the Liberation of Europe. His articles have appeared in Military Affairs, Acadiensis, RCN in Retrospect, Canadian Defence Quarterly, Horizon Canada, The RUSI Journal, Journal of Strategic Studies and elsewhere.

He was formerly with the Directorate of History at the Department of National Defence, Ottawa, and wrote portions of the second volume of the RCAF's official History.

Dr Milner is the Director of UNB's Brigadier Milton F. Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

Dr Milner writes: _The pencil sketch of my father was done in Brugges, Belgium in November 1944. 

His contacts with the RWR seem to have been very limited, 13th Fd Regt, RCA spent most of its time supporting 8 Bde, except during the initial stages of Overlord when they and the 12th backed up 7 Bde. My father was at the RRR HQ in Bretteville for the battles of 7-11 June 1944.  

The only other reference he ever made to the 7 Bde and the RWR was Calais, where he was nearly court martialled for being found in a boat poling his way into the town as the assault wave went by in DUKWs (the FOO caught him and another New Brunswicker from 13th RCA). He told me that the Germans were going to surrender anyway (white flags were out) and if the infantry got there first they would get all the Lugers -- which he was selling to pilots and anyone else.  So, the map would simply be further evidence of a pattern of behaviour!



_


----------



## klambie (19 Aug 2014)

Only two WOs killed on D-Day as far as I can see from CWGC.  One with 1 Can Para and one with the Reginas.  The latter, CSM Danny Yeo was with D Coy in the second wave, intended to land on the left of NAN Green.  Their Landing Craft blew up on a mine, so a body in the water seems likely.

I note that the Cross of Lorraine is not on MIKE beach but NAN.  If Gnr Milner did indeed land on that spot, that would put him closer to where Yeo was killed.  That would be much more in front of Courseulles, so would not match his description of dunes.  Also doesn't explain the arrow pointing to MIKE (it's hard to confirm from the attached scan).


----------



## Fishbone Jones (28 Nov 2014)

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> I consider Marc Milner to be an excellent military historian, so I was pleasantly surprised when Amazon.ca showed me the announcement for _Stopping the Panzers: The Untold Story of D Day_. It is scheduled to be released in November, but I have preordered a copy.



OS,

I also pre-ordered and my copy came today. Going to start reading it after supper.


----------



## Old Sweat (29 Nov 2014)

Mine came yesterday and I have started it. Brief commentary to follow.


----------



## Old Sweat (29 Nov 2014)

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> Mine came yesterday and I have started it. Brief commentary to follow.



Marc sets the theme early in the introduction when he mentions his father, a D Day veteran in the 13th Field Regiment, RCA, taking the neighbourhood boys to see _The Longest Day_. After the film ended the young lads all wanted to play war, while ex-Gunner Milner was irate, as the Canadians did not receive a mention in the film and little, if any more, in the book. (As I recall, that was widely noted at the time, and the Canadian veterans were not amused.) He thens relates how in _Saving Private Ryan_, Tiger tanks that did not face the Americans in Normandy were depicted. Dr Milner spends a considerable amount of time on the ignoring of and/or sloppy research and writing devoted to the Canadians in Normandy, including by the Army Historical Section. Although it was not a Canadian objective, the 3rd Canadian Division is raked over the coals by a British historian for not taking Caen, for example, and he cites many other example.

The division is criticized for not doing more, although it was the first Allied division to take its D Day objectives and the SHAEF planners had sited it to block the best approach for the expected German armoured counter-attack to roll up the bridgehead. Most of the book is devoted to the first few days in Normandy. At the end off this period the Canadians had suffered 3000 casualties, but had defeated three German panzer divisions, whose mission had been to "drive the Allies into the sea like fish."

I am perhaps halfway through it, but I do recommend it. From a Canadian perspective, the book is long overdue.


----------



## dangerboy (29 Nov 2014)

My copy is in the mail.  Sounds like a good book to read over leave.


----------



## exspy (29 Nov 2014)

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> ...while ex-Gunner Milner was irate, as the Canadians did not receive a mention in the film and little, if any more, in the book. (As I recall, that was widely noted at the time, and the Canadian veterans were not amused.)



As it happens I served with one of the Canadian soldiers who Ryan quoted in 'The Longest Day.'  CWO Art Boon was the RSM of 4RCR when I was there.  He was a gunner during the war.  In 2005 he received the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation for work his continuing work on the issue.  Link.

Cheers,
Dan.


----------



## Loachman (1 Dec 2014)

Dan M said:
			
		

> As it happens I served with one of the Canadian soldiers who Ryan quoted in 'The Longest Day.'  CWO Art Boon was the RSM of 4RCR when I was there.  He was a gunner during the war.  In 2005 he received the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation for work his continuing work on the issue.  Link.



He was CSM of T Company when I joined in 1973. He turned ninety on 12 November - standing ovation at Branch No 8 on Remembrance Day.

He can still straighten out moronic high school kids with a quiet personal chat.


----------



## exspy (8 Dec 2014)

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> It is scheduled to be released in November, but I have preordered a copy.



It looks like ordering it off the net will be the only way to get it.  It was released last Friday (December 5th) but Indigo-Chapters will only have it via mail order.  It won't be in the stores.  I went to my local Indigo today to have a look.  When I couldn't find it I had a look on the self-serve.  In very clear terms it said it would not be available in-store, and not just the store I was in.  It also wouldn't be available in the surrounding stores.  I didn't bother asking one of the staff why this was.

On the other hand, the history section must have had two dozen titles dealing with Navy SEALS.  (All labled 'The true and untold story of... etc etc.')

Cheers,
Dan.


----------



## Retired AF Guy (10 Jan 2015)

Another book that might be worth looking into is "_Stout Hearts: The British and Canadians in Normandy 1944_" by Ben Kite.  

Here's a write-up from King's College. London:



> 'Stout Hearts' by Colonel Ben Kite OBE
> 
> Ben Kite is a serving British Army Officer who was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1990. He has served in a variety of different roles in his twenty-five year career including deployments to Belize, Bosnia, Kurdistan, South Africa, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. His service has included operational roles with Royal Marine and Royal Air Force units. Ben Kite has instructed at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, is a graduate of the Defence Academy's Higher Command and Staff Course and a member of the Society for Army Historical Research. He was awarded the OBE in 2012.
> 
> ...



 Article Link. 

The book is listed on the Amazon.ca website, but not the Chapters-Indigo.


----------



## Colin Parkinson (12 Jan 2015)

Dan M said:
			
		

> It looks like ordering it off the net will be the only way to get it.  It was released last Friday (December 5th) but Indigo-Chapters will only have it via mail order.  It won't be in the stores.  I went to my local Indigo today to have a look.  When I couldn't find it I had a look on the self-serve.  In very clear terms it said it would not be available in-store, and not just the store I was in.  It also wouldn't be available in the surrounding stores.  I didn't bother asking one of the staff why this was.
> 
> On the other hand, the history section must have had two dozen titles dealing with Navy SEALS.  (All labled 'The true and untold story of... etc etc.')
> 
> ...


----------



## dangerboy (4 Feb 2015)

Had the privilege to listen to a presentation that Dr Milner give on Normandy today, it was only 20 min (I wish he was given more time) but I found it to be very informative.


----------

