Vincent J. Curtis
4 June 2019
After the destruction of Worthington Force, an enraged Guy Simonds ordered GOC 4th Canadian Armoured Division, George Kitching, to take Hill 195. The division commander passed the order onto OC 10th Brigade, J.C. Jefferson. who in turn passed it on to Lt-Col Dave Stewart, CO of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. “I mentally wrote the Argylls off, as well as myself” recalled Stewart.
With the fate of the Black Watch on Verrières Ridge in mind, Stewart began his planning process with a map recce. He found a concealed route through the German lines to well up the slope of the feature from an unexpected direction. Bringing his scout platoon with him, Stewart reconnoitered the route, and dropped off members of the platoon as guides on the way back. Stewart’s plan was to lead the Argylls in single file back along the route in darkness, infiltrate the German position, and occupy Hill 195 silently. Routine sounds of battle would, hopefully, cover the sound of five hundred men tromping in the darkness and banging shovels into rifles.
Stepping of at midnight 10/11 August, the Argylls with “an almost incredible smoothness” occupied Hill 195. The companies were deployed around the summit, and the troops began digging in by 04:30. Over one hundred Germans occupying the feature were surprised and captured. Stewart contrived to bring along a troop of 17 pdr anti-tank guns, and sited them to enfilade the most likely route of a tank assault.
Hill 195 was not a bald knob. Located in the center of the German line, it had trees, scrub, hedges, and a wheat field for concealment. It lacked much cover, and chalk bedrock lay less than two feet below the surface. Slit trenches were shallow. When the sun came up and the Germans realized that Canadians held the dominant feature of their line, they tried to dislodge them with artillery and mortar fire. When that didn’t work, tank and infantry assaults were launched from the direction Stewart expected. The 17 pdrs left the tanks smoking wrecks, and machine guns made short work of the German infantry. Canadian field artillery and Typhoons shot up an assembly area where heavy German tanks were massing.
With their main line of resistance breached, the Germans pulled back closer to Falaise.
Operation Tractable was launched on August 14. It was another Simonds special. This time, eight hundred Lancasters would bomb targets along the road from Hill 195 to Falaise. Then, at noon, the 3rd Infantry and 4th Canadian Armoured Divisions, forming a main effort, would strike southwards cross-country two miles east of the road. They would cross the Laison River, and bear down on Points 184, 115, and 159 north-east of Falaise. (The aerial bombardment savoured of a ruse, but the Germans weren’t fooled. Captured documents told the Germans where the main effort was.) A heavy smoke screen was used to impair the effectiveness of long range German anti-tank and machine gun fire. Of course, some of the bombs landed in Canadian and Polish lines and caused about four hundred casualties.
Tractable was another heavy slog. It took until the 16th to push the six miles from east of Hill 195 into Falaise, and another two days to clear the town. But taking Falaise was not enough to close the gap. The places of real tactical significance were two small villages seven miles south east of Falaise: Trun and Chambois. These were to be taken by 4th Div and the 1st Polish Armoured. These two armoured divisions thrust south on August 16th while Falaise was still being cleared.
Suddenly, a spark of generalship appeared. The commander of the 1st Polish, General Stanislaw Maczek, swung east and outflanked German defenses. Then, he split his division into three battle groups, sending one in rear of Trun, one to Hill 262, and one to Chambois, all in the German rear. Aided by the Poles, 4th Div captured Trun on the 18th.
The final drama was to occur at St. Lambert-sur-Dives and Hill 262, where the Canadians and the Poles would choke the gap closed.
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