TOTALIZE Plus 80

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 24

August 7^th to 11^th, 2024, mark the Eightieth Anniversary of Operation TOTALIZE.  This operation was intended to be Lt-Gen Guy Simmonds’, the 2^nd Canadian Corps’, and the 21^st Army Group’s punch and pincer arm that would force the closure of the Falaise Gap, entrapping the German 7^th Army of some 150,000 troops.  Totalize was timed to co-ordinate with Gen Omar Bradley’s Operation COBRA in the far west of France, and was intended, secondarily, to hold the German heavy armour in front of the 21^st Army Group.

Of all the forces landed on D-Day, the Canadians advanced the farthest. No.2 Troop, C Squadron, 1^st Hussars, commanded by Lt. William F. McCormick, found an unopposed route from Camilly on Phase Line Elm all the way to Phase Line Oak, the Caen-Bayeux rail line.  Turing east, McCormick’s troop exploited as far as Carpiquet airfield. Seeing Caen essentially undefended, McCormick tried, but failed, to reach higher command by radio; and, inexplicably, higher command wasn’t wondering where No. 2 Troop was.  D-Day ended with the 3^rd Canadian Division digging in on Phase Line Elm, three miles north of Caen, with four hours of daylight remaining.  The Germans occupied Caen in strength that night.

There followed: Op WINDSOR to capture Carpiquet village; Op CHARNWOOD to capture Carpiquet airfield and Caen north of the Orne; Op ATLANTIC to capture Caen south of the Orne, and to create a bridgehead for an attack on Verrières Ridge (Op SPRING).

Lt-Gen Guy Simmonds was at his wits end with the incompetence at divisional and brigade levels; and quality even at the battalion level was uneven.  Hence, Totalize was structured to minimize command decisions.  Simmonds invented the APC, by the “defrocking” of “Priests,” i.e. Sherman tanks that had their turrets replaced with 25 pdr guns; “artificial moonlight,” and he used heavy, strategic bombers in a tactical role.

As I wrote for the 75^th anniversary, “Totalize was a familiar set-piece battle, but using bigger hammers, closer timing between blows, and other techniques of ancient renown.  Tactically, Totalize was a case of hi-diddle-diddle- straight up the middle, the middle being the Caen-Falaise road.  Heavy strategic bombers were to carpet bomb both sides of the highway south of the start-line.  Immediately upon completion of the air mission, artillery would open up and the first wave of tanks and APCs would drive south in a night attack, bypassing pockets of resistance along the way.  Tracers from Bofors 40 mm guns and target marking artillery shells were guides to direction.

Great innovations from Simonds, but then gremlins crept in to undermine the plan.  There was no radio comms with air.  Some bombs dropped on 3^rd Canadian Division HQ and wounded Maj-Gen Rod Keller.  Bombing the route of advance created a tank obstacle course which was run en mass at night by inexperienced APC drivers.  Simonds ordered a halt at noon on the 8^th to bring up the artillery after the first objectives were taken.  Given a respite, the Germans regrouped and a second dose of heavy bombing failed to destroy German counterattacking panzer groups.  Totalize stalled.

Trying to restore momentum, Simonds ordered Worthington Force to capture Hill 195.  The result was the most infamous event of Totalize.  An inexcusable navigation error had Worthington Force, a battlegroup consisting of the British Columbia Regiment and the Algonquins, seize Hill 140, seven kilometers from the assigned objective.  Unsupported by Canadian artillery or Typhoons, it was annihilated by a counterattack force of German Panther tanks.”

In a near postscript to the combat, Totalize culminated with the capture of Hill 195 on the 11th by a lone infantry regiment that infiltrated at night into the position.  The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, under the command of Lt-Col Dave Stewart, who, with Scout platoon ahead, and his battalion following in single file; occupied Hill 195, eliminated what opposition there was, established a defense, which included a couple 17 pdr anti-tank guns; and repulsed German attacks that day.

Their line pierced, the Germans withdrew to Falaise.

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