Looking for Calgary Highlanders Company D July 6th - Aug 30th 1944 France

[Mark Schiller]

My Dad was a Corporal in charge of Platoon 18 Section 9 and was involved in action from Caen to Foret de La Londe (where he was wounded by shrapnel). The Officer in charge was Lieutenant Emile A. Michon. If anyone who may have served with Joseph Schiller during this time has any stories about Dad they would be nice to know. Dad did not speak too much about the war and since his passing (5 years ago) we have been putting together information on his service in France. From what I have read about the 2nd Divisions involvemnet in France they saw some pretty intense action. In going through some of Dad‘s history books on Canadian involvement in the war we found a nominal roll call (scratched on a piece of graph paper), from Aug 17th 1944, inbetween the pages in one of the books. Here are the names mentioned:

Lieut. E. A. Michon listed wounded
Sgt J. J. Schiller (Sgt was written over Cpl)
Cpl A. A. Salvain listed wounded
L/Cpl D. Ferguon
L/Cpl W. Zaste listed wounded
Pte L. G. Beauchemin(sp)listed wounded
Pte C. J. Cote listed wounded
Pte R. K. Colleton listed wounded
Pte G. G. Carey listed wounded
Pte F. A. Donohue
Pte W. R. English
Pte S. Grey
Pte H. N. Gillen
Pte G. W. Carr listed wounded
Pte R. J. Ferguson
Pte W. G. Greene listed wounded
Pte C. E. Polichies(sp)
Pte E. K. Manely
Pte A. Wood listed wounded
Pte F. G. MacDonanld listed wounded

two others listed as last names only

Thorne (listed KIA) and Hayes (no listing)

Also Gillen and Zaste were KIA after this roll call. I found their names among the Calgary Higlander Honour Roll of Highlanders Killed in Action.

If anyone here is or knows any of these people and they remember our Dad maybe they could drop us a note. Tool_man9@hotmail.com

 

[Mark Schiller]

In my quest to find more information I tried to contact Lieutenant Michon at his home in Calgary a few months back. I received a letter yesterday from his daughter that he had passed away on June 10th 1996. Just an update for those who may have known him.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I‘m always looking for info for my website devoted to the Calgary Highlanders in WW II at http://members.home.net/calgaryhighlanders/

If you think I can help with any of your questions, email me at madorosh@shaw.ca

 

[Mark Schiller]

Thanks Michael, I have visted your site many times before and anyone who is interested in the Canadian involvement in WWII will find this an interesting site. I found a lot of very useful information about the Calgary Higlanders and their operations over seas. Good pictures and good Bio‘s of some of the Highlanders that were there.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Hope you got my email!

 

[Mark Schiller]

Message received. I passed the request on to my brothers, reply should be unanimous. Also I went into the ‘Black Watch‘ site and found their WarDiary
which gave me more of an insight into the action from July - August. I feel that whole Cean to Falaise action is a story that should be told. It would certainly rival anything that has been at the movies these past three years.

 

[Mark Schiller]

Just me still looking...

 

[astrof]

Have you considered contactting the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary. They have a very extensive research area, and do deal with many of the veterans that were involved in the war. Their website is at http://www.nucleus.com/~regiments/ and give them an e-mail

 

[Mark Schiller]

astrof, thanks for the advice. I copied the same note to them.

I guess a lot of these fellows will be well into their 70‘s if not 80‘s. The one thing I have been able to do is create a map that takes me through all the actions that Company D (and my Dad) faced from Caen to Foret de Lalonde.

The book Battalion of Heroes by David Bercuson (out of print) was a huge help in me following the path that the 2nd Division cut through France in 44.

The Black Watch, Maisonneuves & the Highlanders saw some very intense action against 12th SS Panzer Division. The later being one of the most battle experienced Divisions in Hitlers army. The volunteer army of Canada soon got it‘s christening to war, they fought and they died with courage as they learned to make war.

It‘s too bad we, like the Americans, do not have a movie industry as the Canadians did play a large part in freeing Europe and it would be nice to tell the story on the big screen or even a mini series on TV. It‘s a proud history we have and we should be sharing it...
‘Lest we Forget‘.

 

[Mark Schiller]

Bumping this up and still looking...

 

[Mark Schiller]

Bumping again, still looking

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I‘ll help you with a bump and a question - why would you suggest 12th SS Division as one of Hitler‘s most experienced? The majority of troops in that Div were recruited in 1943 while still in their teens, and saw no combat until June 1944.

Their leadership was a cadre of very experienced NCOs and officers from LSSAH.

It is interesting that it was their inexperience that made the Hitlerjugend so dangerous. While older, less well indoctrinated troops with more experience would have been prone to surrender when outnumbered or outfought, the HJ actually fought many actions literally to the last man. At Buron, for example, Snowie tells us in his book BLOODY BURON that Sherman tanks of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers often had to close to point blank range with young HJ troops and blast them out of holes with their 75mm guns. Tough little nuts, yes, but I wouldn‘t classify them as experienced, or necessarily all that skilled in the conventional sense.

 

[Mark Schiller]

…and then our luck changed. We came across a group of SS soldiers from the Hitler Youth and they fought like maniacs…they just wouldn’t surrender...we had to kill them all…it was terrible. (Ex-British Infantryman D-day commemorations 1994).

I originally said...

"The later (the 12th SS panzers) being one of the most battle experienced Divisions in Hitlers army".

Okay Michael I stand corrected and should have said " was to become one of the most battle experienced Divisions in Hitlers army."

Although the officers and NCO as you said were very experienced...

The officer cardre of the 12th SS was made up of veteran N.C.O.s and officers of the Leibstandarte, most of whom had served on the Eastern Front. There were also officers drafted in from the Wehrmacht (mostly heavy weapon specialists) and the Luftwaffe. The divisional commander, Gruppenführer Fritz Witt, laid great emphasis in training his men on field exercises during which live ammunition was used. Little time was given to barrack square drill or parades, some say that the young volunteers were trained to be fighters-not soldiers.

Experienced or not our troops had their hands full

This was again true when the when the entire German Army in the west became encircled in the Falaise Pocket. The 12th SS Kampfgruppe Krause fought with such ferocity that the upper jaws of the pocket were held open allowing several divisions to escape annihilation. This was quite a remarkable achievement as the kampfgruppe only contained 200 men, yet they managed to hold off a vastly superior Canadian force which was supported by an aurmoured squadron. This heroic action resulted in 240,000 German troops escaping from the pocket, although all their tanks were destroyed and they left behind some 50,000 dead and 200,000 prisoners. There were only a few survivors from this engagement who then retreated to the Seine River with the rest of the survivors from the other German divisions. There were atrocities committed by both sides during the confrontations and shootings of Prisoners was not uncommon. The Canadians especially had a deep hatered for the young men of the 12th SS and there sometimes developed a situation quite similar to the Eastern Front where no quarter was given or expected by POWs from both sides.

Experience commanders can get exceptional results...

The short history of this division somewhat mirrors the entire history of the Waffen SS. Thier unshakable-some would say fanatical-courage in battle, thier unswerving loyalty and eagerness for combat, and their total disregard for human life was the trademark of the so-called classic divisions of the early Waffen SS. The young teenagers of the 12th SS who fought against the Canadians, Poles and British in the Summer of ‘44 left a marked impression on the Allied troops who had suggested at first when they discovered how young the soldiers of this dvision were, that they adopt a baby‘s feeding bottle as their emblem. Even the Wehrmact ridiculed this division calling them "Crack Babys". However when their fighting worht was discovered these jokes and comments were greatly curtailed.

And one last quote from another site...

The Hitlerjugend, or Hitler Youth, was Nazi Germany‘s youth organization dedicated to instilling the martial spirit and the tenets of National Socialism into preteen and teenage boys. The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was one of the "classic" Waffen-SS panzer divisions and one of the most renowned combat units of WWII.

Hitler authorized the formation of the division in the early spring of 1943, with Hitlerjugend recruits from the "class of 1926" (i.e. 17-year-olds) and personnel from the 1st SS-Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Because of their youth and long hair, the 12th SS soldiers were nicknamed the "candy soldiers" - but there was nothing sweet about their combat prowess. The Hitlerjugend division spent much of its existence fighting on the western front, particularly famous for the 1944 Normandy campaign and the fanaticism and indifference to losses (up to 60%) of it members.

Also the 1st Panzer division had been around since 1935 and those from their would have seen a lot of action before 1944.

ps. what happened to the CH site????

 

[Mark Schiller]

One more time any WWII vet Highlanders out there???