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Operation Totalise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Operation Totalise | |||||||
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| Part of World War II, the Battle of Normandy | |||||||
 A Cromwell tank and jeep pass an abandoned German PAK 43/41 gun during Operation Totalise, 8 August 1944. |
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| Combatants | |||||||
 First Canadian Army |
 Germany |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Lieutenant General Guy Simonds | SS General Kurt Meyer | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2 infantry divisions, 2 armoured divisions, 2 armoured brigades |
3 infantry divisions, 1 SS Panzer Division |
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| Neptune – Airborne landings – Tonga – Pegasus Bridge – Albany – Boston – Chicago – Detroit – Elmira – Sword – Juno – Gold – Omaha – Utah – Pointe du Hoc – Brécourt Manor – La Caine – Carentan – Villers-Bocage – Cherbourg – Epsom – Goodwood – Atlantic – Spring – Cobra – Bluecoat – Lüttich – Totalise – Tractable – Falaise – Brest – Paris |
Note: In North American texts, this often appears as "Operation Totalize".
During World War II, Operation Totalise (Allies, 1944) was a ground attack on 7 August 1944 by British, Canadian and Polish forces to break out from the Normandy beachhead along the Caen-Falaise road. It was the first operation in history in which First Canadian Army took a leading role. The First Canadian Army had become operational on the Continent just days before. Although the attack failed in its objective, it did serve as a spoiling attack.
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On July 23, First Canadian Army headquarters commanded by Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar assumed control of the eastern sector of the Normandy beachhead. By this time, the Allies had finally captured the ruined city of Caen, but the German defences south of the city were still largely intact.
On July 25, the American Army had launched Operation Cobra which broke through the German lines facing the western sector of the beachhead. This threat caused the Germans to move most of their armoured units westward, leaving only the reinforced 12th SS Panzer Division to support the infantry defending the Caen area. (These were mainly the newly-arrived 89th Division. The German LXXXVI Corps commanded the troops in this sector.)
The 21st Army Group commander, General Bernard Montgomery, ordered the Canadian army to break through south of Caen and advance on Falaise, to prevent the Germans making an orderly withdrawal in the face of the American advance. The II Canadian Corps, under Lieutenant General Guy Simonds, was to make this attack.
Simonds recognised that an infantry attack would take too long to prepare, while an attempt to rush the defences with armoured units would be costly in the face of anti-tank guns disposed in depth. (Operation Goodwood, launched three weeks earlier, had failed to break through the German lines while losing many tanks.)
Simonds's plan called for a surprise night attack without preliminary artillery bombardment. Strategic aircraft of Bomber Command were to attack the flanks first, over the objections of Arthur Harris, with artillery remaining silent until the attackers had crossed the start line. To allow the infantry to penetrate quickly through the German forward defences, Simonds made a radical innovation. When the self-propelled guns of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division were withdrawn to restore the regiments to their pre-invasion war establishment, the now-redundant M7 Priests had their guns removed and were refitted as APCs, known as Kangaroos. These, along with all other armoured cars and halftracks that could be acquired, would carry two infantry brigades forward, protected from machine-gun and artillery fire.
To assist navigation at night a number of methods were adopted. The leading tanks were equipped with radio direction finders and advanced on a radio bearing; target markers dropped by the bombers marked the boundaries of the attack; artificial moonlight improved visibility; and light anti-aircraft units fired tracer parallel to the route of advance.
In a planned second phase, American heavy bombers of the Eighth Air Force would attack the German defences in depth while two armoured divisions would complete the breakthrough and caputre the high ground north of Falaise.
Late on August 7th, the attackers formed up in six columns of vehicles, four abreast and packed nose to tail. An hour before midnight, the British heavy bombers began their bombardment, and half an hour later, the advance began. Under 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, the Canadian 2nd Armoured Brigade and Canadian 4th Infantry Brigade advanced west of the Caen-Falaise road. East of the road, under British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, were the British 33rd Armoured Brigade and British 154th Infantry Brigade.
In spite of the various aids to navigation, many drivers and commanders became disorientated by dust and smoke; several vehicles blew up on mines or became stuck in bomb craters. Nevertheless, before dawn the bulk of both columns captured their objectives near Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil. This success was achieved at probably a fraction of the cost involved in a more laborious operation.
While the remaining infantry brigades cleared the bypassed German positions, the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division and Polish 1st Armoured Division moved forward to carry out the second phase of the attack.
The commander of 12th SS Panzer Division (Kurt Meyer) personally rallied fleeing German infantry after the initial Allied bombardment and occupied a hasty defensive position at Cintheaux, two miles south of the leading Allied troops. He then led two armoured battlegroups of his own division in an immediate counter-attack.[1]
While the counter-attack was unsuccessful, it did coincidentally place Meyer's tanks north of the target area that the US Eighth Air Force bombarded in preparation for the second phase of the Allied attack. These tanks, spared the effects of the bombing, slowed the advance of the Polish armoured division, preventing a breakthrough east of the road. West of the road, German infantry at Cintheaux likewise held up the Canadian armoured division. Neither armoured formation (both in action for the first time) pressed their attacks as hard as Simonds demanded, and "laagered" when darkness fell.
To restore the momentum of the attack, Simonds ordered a column from the Canadian armoured division to seize Hill 195, just to the west of the main road halfway between Cintheaux and Falaise. The column lost direction and was caught at dawn east of the road by German 88mm anti-aircraft guns. They held their ground during August 9 but suffered heavy casualties, including most of their tanks. The Canadians were forced to withdraw.
Because the column was so far from its intended objective, other units sent to relieve it could not find it. Eventually, another force captured Hill 195 in a model night attack on August 10, but the Germans had been given time to withdraw and reform a defensive line on the Laison River.
Credit: Harold G. Aikman / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-162000
Though they did not reach Falaise, Allied troops advanced eight miles and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy for 560 dead and 1,600 wounded. Operation Totalise was followed by Operation Tractable.
It is notable that the German tank commander Michael Wittman, one of Germany's most successful tank commanders, was killed during the battle. The identity of the Allied soldier responsible for his demise has been the subject of much discussion but is generally accepted that Trooper Joe Ekins of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry was his killer. The question is examined in detail in No Holding Back (Brian Reid, Robin Brass Studios, 2004.) where the theory that it was tanks from A Squadron, Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment made the kill.
In the video game "Call of Duty 3", Private Cole (serving under the Canadians) and Corporal Bohater (serving under the Poles) take part in this operation.
- ^ This is based on Meyer's own memoirs and German propaganda; see also No Holding Back by Brian Reid, Robin Brass Studios, 2004, ISBN 1-896941-40-0.
- No Holding Back by Brian Reid is the best account of this battle to date. ISBN 1-896941-40-0
- Chester Wilmot: The Struggle for Europe, Wordsworth Editions Ltd; New Ed edition (25 Sep 1997)., ISBN 1-85326-677-9
- Kurt Meyer: Grenadiers, Stackpole Books, U.S., New Ed edition (15 May 2005)., ISBN 0-81173-197-9
- Richard Holmes, The D-Day Experience: From the Invasion to the Liberation of Paris with Other and Map and CD, Andrews McMeel Publishing (April 2004)., ISBN 0-74074-509-3
- Max Hastings, Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, 1944, Pan Books; New Ed edition (13 Aug 1999),. ISBN 0-33039-012-0
- L.F. Ellis, Victory in the West: The Battle of Normandy, Official Campaign History v. I (History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Military), Naval & Military Press Ltd; New Ed edition (Sep 2004)., 1-84574-058-0
- Brig. Gen. Denis Whitaker, "Normandy: The Real Story (How Ordinary Allied Soldiers Defeated Hitler)",Ballantine Books, Presido Press, 2000. ISBN 3-2769-07560088-4
- Operation Totalise at memorial-montormel.org
- No Holding Back review at www.canadiansoldiers.com
- Canadian account of the action near Hill 195
