The 320 men of the elite Canadian Black Watch were ready to storm Verrieres Ridge
to break out of Normandy following the D-Day Landings. The men had lost their
officers during a previous skirmish, leaving only 26-year-old Major Phil Griffin in command.
The Canadians were supposed to attack during pre-dawn to
avoid becoming an easy target for the entrenched Waffen SS troops. However,
it was now 9:00am, and their tank and artillery support were not there.
Despite this setback, the top officers ordered Griffin to lead his men forward and march into the
belly of the beast. Undeterred, Griffin rallied his troops and called upon them to fix bayonets.
The Black Watch advanced in perfect order,
unaware that an enemy force three times their size was expecting them
with dozens of machine guns, mortars, and well-placed artillery just past the slope.
As the Black Watch advanced, the enemy opened fire. The air was filled with
the sound of gunfire and the screams of the wounded. But Griffin and his
men did not falter. They pressed on, determined to achieve their objective…
Allied Momentum
On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces launched Operation Neptune,
the largest amphibious assault in history. American, British, and Canadian commanders
expected heavy casualties during the initial Normandy landings, but the opposite occurred.
The Fuhrer’s Atlantic Wall was breached during the first combat days at a lower
casualty rate than expected. The coastal defenses were swiftly taken care of,
but the initial Allied momentum was brought to a halt as they penetrated Northern France.
Although American and British aircraft enjoyed total air superiority,
the Germans proved to be masters at keeping a continuous defense in depth.
The lives of over 37,000 Americans were lost, as well as more than 25,000 British and Canadians.
Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower and British General Bernard Montgomery expected a
war of mobility where air power and armored regiments would change the tide of battle but
were received with combats reminiscent of World War 1. Despite being outnumbered, outgunned,
and drained of resources, the Germans were dug in deep and fought ruthlessly.
In early July, the Anglo-Canadian forces captured the districts north of Caen as part
of Operation Charnwood. However, they were still required to continue pushing the Germans back.
The problem was that neither the British nor the Canadians had the manpower to break through the
German resistance. As such, General Montgomery responded by employing three armored divisions
to lead a strike from the Orne bridgehead and eliminate the German Army south of Caen.
Operation Spring
To achieve his objectives, Montgomery began concentrating large contingents of troops
to attack a specific enemy garrison and overwhelm them with sheer force,
just as he had done against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps during the North African campaign.
Eisenhower then ordered a two-fisted offensive to attack the Germans simultaneously.
While the US prepared Operation Cobra, Montgomery’s plans became Operation Goodwood,
with its Canadian subsidiary, Operation Atlantic.
Goodwood was launched on July 18, 1944, with lackluster results. Despite employing heavy
bombers to decimate the 12th Waffen SS Division Hitlerjugend, the three British
armored divisions made little progress, and the Canadian infantry divisions fared no better.
The operation culminated after just two days,
but some progress was achieved, as the Germans were pushed back from Caen.
The Anglo-Canadian troops could now approach the German-controlled Verrières-Bourguebus Line,
where they clashed with the Waffen SS armored divisions and had to withdraw.
As such, it became the main German defensive line in Normandy and
robbed the British of their initial momentum since the D-Day Landings.
Meanwhile, during Operation Atlantic, the infantrymen of the Second Canadian Corps
attempted to breach a small rupture of the enemy line at Verrières Ridge. And although they failed,
this proved to be the conception of Operation Spring, which led to the German line breakthrough.
Entrenched Garrison
Verrieres Ridge was located some eight kilometers south of Caen.
It was heavily defended by the I SS Panzer Corps, comprising veterans
from past campaigns and led by Iron Cross recipient General Sepp Dietrich.
The ridge blocked the Canadian forces' path to their next objective:
capturing the town of Falaise. The British Second Army barely secured
the Bourguébus Ridge beside Verrieres, but failed to push back the Waffen SS troops.
The task of clearing out the ridge fell under the Canadian troops’ commander, Lieutenant General
Guy Simonds, who had two infantry divisions and one armored brigade under his command.
Simonds was aware that the Germans had amassed over 380 panzers and
scores of 88-millimeter guns in the region, but he continued planning.
The ridge provided the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions with a significant
tactical advantage over the Canadians, as the high ground allowed the Germans to position
their artillery for maximum accuracy and defense. They were dug in deep and
had plenty of mortars and panzers to attack the enemy if it dared to approach the line.
The Calgary Highlanders, the South Saskatchewan Regiment,
and the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada had previously attempted to
destroy the entrenched Germans, but failed with numerous casualties.
Nevertheless, General Simonds was committed to taking Verrieres Ridge
during a night operation designed to outflank the Leibstandarte Panzer Division and destroy it.
The Black Watch
With Operation Spring, General Simonds hoped to achieve a second Vimy Ridge victory that
could surpass the legendary Canadian victory of World War 1. The plan consisted of four phases.
The Calgary Highlanders would once again attack the Bourguebus Ridge
and May-sur-Orne to secure the flanks of the main thrust. Then,
the prestigious Black Watch would attack Verrieres Ridge to deal a decisive blow to the Waffen SS.
The Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, or the Black Watch, was one of the most notable units in
Canadian military history, composed of volunteers that came from the ranks of the citizen soldiers,
and comparable to the American 1st Marine Division, the Big Red One, or the 101st Airborne.
Phase 1 of Operation Spring was scheduled for July 23, but the weather delayed it to July 25.
This allowed the Germans to bring four battalions,
totaling over 480 panzers and 500 guns. At 3:30am on July 25, the North Nova
Scotia Highlanders attacked Tilly-la-Campagne. General Simonds used a lightning system that
employed searchlights reflected off clouds to provide better visibility for the troops.
The firefight was brief and intense,
as the German defenders spotted the Canadians but were encircled after one hour of combat.
At 5:30am, the Black Watch was dispatched to attack but faced
unexpected SS resistance at Saint Martin Road, holding the unit back until 8:00am.
By the time the men reached the objective, they had already lost their two officers.
From there on, the operation was doomed.
No Support
While the infantry gathered for the attack, about 74 Royal Air Force medium bombers dropped
their ordnance over the German defenses to weaken them before the ground attack.
The 320 Highlanders stood ready, crouching in a muddy beet field,
and soaked in sweat, mud, and blood. Some prayed, others inspected the weapons,
and some enjoyed the little peace they had left before hell broke loose.
The Black Watch could see the northern slope of Verrières Ridge from their current position,
but they didn’t know that German forces three times their size awaited them behind the ridge.
As the bombers flew above them, Major Phil Griffin met with the 5th Brigade commander to discuss the
absence of promised armored support. A squad of Canadian Sherman tanks that was supposed to storm
the enemy lines before them was nowhere to be found. The promised artillery support of a steel
curtain that would fire high explosive shells some 50 meters ahead of the Black Watch to force the
Germans to take cover was also absent. And to make matters worse, the smoke that was supposedly going
to pop off from the right flank to temporarily blind the enemy was nowhere to be seen.
The Black Watch was on its own, and no support was coming.
A High Price to Pay
When H-Hour arrived, no tanks, artillery, or smoke had materialized. The Black Watch
had no support, but Major Griffin had a direct order to push forward,
no matter the cost. He then shouted: [QUOTE] “Black Watch advance!”
The men quickly got on their feet and began advancing toward the enemy with fixed bayonets.
Some 50 meters into the field, the hellish
sounds of high explosives began to tear apart the Canadian formation.
German artillery opened, fired mercilessly, and concealed weapon pits mowed down the men.
There was no turning back for the Highlanders,
who were isolated. Around 100 meters into the lethal ridge, German mortars began firing
on the exposed Canadians. The men began to go down one by one, but they kept moving forward.
Peter Prein from the 2nd Panzer SS Division later recalled: (QUOTE) “In four years in Russia,
we never saw anything like it. The soldiers were marching upright,
holding their rifles across their breasts in readiness, as if on parade drill.”
Despite the Black Watch's efforts, of the 320 men who made the assault up Verrieres Ridge,
less than 20 were fit for duty the next day. The Black Watch
suffered 94 percent casualties in terms of those wounded, missing, and taken as prisoners of war.
The assault became the second costliest day for the Canadian military in World War 2 after
the Dieppe Raid of 1942. The surviving members of the Black Watch ultimately
took Verrieres Ridge during the second week of August with additional support,
and most of the 129 men who lost their lives during the assault on the ridge were buried
at Bretteville-sur-Laize cemetery outside the village of Cintheaux.
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