Putot en Bessin

Hi Sean,
Yes!
I have searched NCAP and found a sortie from 400 Squadron (RCAF): 400/0283 from 24June1944. Lots of frames around the AoI Putot-en-Bessin.

I made a pano starting Frame 3001 down to Frame 3013. I stiched to starboard frame to it as well.

I will send to Pat for ADrive storage. To big to upload or to show here.

 

Thanks Sean!

The 24th Lancers had their first battle honour for Putot-en-Bessin but when I had a quick look for a nice online summary of the events that occurred there I didn't find that a really "comprehensive" one that seemed to "just" fall into view.

There certainly seems to be some confusion about what actually occurred there! Reports either seem too perfunctory or else seem to deal in great detail about the early stages of the battle (and the allied "defeat" without really showing how the tide was eventually turned.

I've also seen a lot of conflicting reports of what happened there, including one that says that one squadron of 24th Lancers (and another that 2 squadrons) were involved. It's such a small area though and at this early stage the Germans were all around - so there might be some confusion about what constituted what, and what was where. Also the tank commanders (and crews) were constantly being sniped, so there might have been casualties in the 24th Lancers in tank squadrons that were effectively located "elsewhere".

Are there any reports at that time of where wrecked tanks were "brewed" up? I've seen one saying that the 24th Lancer tanks of "B" squadron were involved at Putot and of these I know of...

BANDIT "B" trp 5
BLACK PRINCE "B" trp 4 - Lt. Richard Leather's tank
BLIMY BILL "B" trp 5
BLOODY MARY "B" trp 4 - hit by a bazooka near Brazenville D+1. Lance Corporal Mintoft's tank
BRIGAND "B" trp 5
BUCCANEER brewed up at Tessel Wood Normandy 25th June 1944.
BUQ-BUQ
BUTCHER OF CUMBERLAND "B" trp 4 - Sgt Norton's tank?
PIN UP GIRL "B" Sqd. Trp 4. Went to SRY?


There is the confusion though in that when a tank was lost often a new "replacement tank" was christened with the same tank name (where this occurred I've seen it was sometimes common to add a suffix of II, III, IV to the name though - thus helping to "avoid" some confusion - at least!)
Albeit in some subsequent reports - the suffix can sometimes be dropped. The SRY's lead tank Robin Hood seemed to be called "Robin Hood" - without a suffix - even though I'm guessing they got through a few of them!

Rm.
[hr]
These are the early post D-day casualties I've so far seen for the 24th Lancers, admittedly it's a lot harder to find reports of wounding than KIA's - for the reports I've so far seen: The 24th Lancers won their first official battle honours at Putot En Bessin with 9 killed and 6 wounded and that seems to fit the data which I so far have (by date) - at least for KIA's in the info below.

7/6/1944 - The 24th Lancers landed on Gold Beach on D-Day +1 and begin to move inland toward Brazenville.

The tanks of Lt. Richard Leathers “B” squadron, 4th Tp 24th Lancers were called Bloody Mary (T/c Lance Corporal Mintoft), Black Prince and Butcher Cumberland. With 1st Dorsets they made a recce one mile down the road to find a suitable HQ harbour. When Bloody Mary (Lance Corporal Mintoft's tank) was hit by a bazooka, he apparently made a racing start to mitigate the damage. Sgt Norton and Lt Leather kept on down the centre of the field well away from hedgerows whilst putting down MG fire. This appeared to dispirit the Germans, who surrendered to the Lancers who's crews disarmed them whilst their radio operators sat in the turrets of their tanks with their machine guns, keeping guard.

Once past Brazenville the 24L moved further south to the area of Martragny.

Poole, Alick Hugh Captain A squadron A - 7/6/1944 Believed killed by a French female civilian sniper near the gates of the Chateau Martragny - she was thought to be acting in revenge for the loss of her German lover the day before...[/size][/size]

Advancing down the main road CAEN-NAYEUX towards the cross roads north of Bronay at 903731 leading elements were heavily fired upon by anti-tank guns and halted, when a stuart tank being driven by Trooper Drake was hit - it is perhaps here that Trooper Vetter was KIA ?

Vetter, Norman Trooper, HQ Squadron HQ 08/06/1944

The 24L were snipped continuously around Putot-en-Bessin - Lance Sergean Taylor and Corporal Gillman may also have been KIA at this time

Taylor, George A Lance sergeant, A squadron A 08/06/1944
Gillman, Wilfred John Corporal, B Squadron B 08/06/1944

The "C" squadron tank driven by Trooper Bill Mant was hit by an 88 on a road on the way to Tilly (several 24L tanks were hit there). Trooper's Mant, Simpson, Wager and Wagstaff were KIA - perhaps in the same tank here?

Mant, William (Bill) Charles Henry Trooper, C Squadron - Driver C 08/06/1944
Simpson, John Trooper, no squad given 08/06/1944
Wager, Arthur Charles Manfred Trooper, no squad given 08/06/1944
Wagstaff, Frank Gordon Trooper, no squad given 08/06/1944

On 9/6/1944 the 24L began move to Loucelles, Pt. 103 and St. Pierre for the Battle of St.Pierre...

Attwood, Leonard G Trooper, C squadron C 09/06/1944
Brindley, Cyril A Trooper, C squadron C 09/06/1944

Moore, Jack Trooper, HQ Sqn. 24th Lancers HQ 10/06/1944
Compton, Henry Patrick Trooper, C squadron C 10/06/1944
Newnham, Eric R Trooper, C squadron C 10/06/1944

Fielder, Frederick (Freddie) James W Sergeant, B Squadron B 11/06/1944
Webb, Edward Arthur Alexander Lieutenant (B squadron) B 11/06/1944

Brown, Joseph William Trooper, B Squadron B 12/06/1944
Cowell, Herbert Serjeant 12/06/1944
Field, Gordon Serjeant, A squadron A 12/06/1944
Giles, Geoffrey A. Trooper, A Squadron A 12/06/1944
Kirby, Frederick Joseph Edward Corporal 12/06/1944
Lee, Percy Trooper, A Squadron A 12/06/1944
Mintoff, Thomas Wilson Lance corporal, "B" squadron - Trp 4 - Bloody Mary Tank B 12/06/1944
Robinson, Norman Trooper - Firefly (Had a Firefly on D Day+1 (broke prop on ramps from raft to beach?) so must have "acquired" a new tank at some stage) 12/06/1944
Stephens, Richard James Trooper, B Squadron B 12/06/1944

WIA's

Tomalin, Roy Ernest William Trooper in A squadron tank Appy Ampstead A WIA - 10/6/1944

Barton Trooper, A Squad, 3rd troop, Tank 3? T150995 A WIA - 12/6/1944
Dews, Harry Sergeant, Tank commander - A Squad - Tank 2? T151040 A WIA - 12/6/1944
Leathers, Richard Lieutenant. B squadron. Leader of trp 4. Black Prince tank B WIA - 12/6/1944

 

I've found a link to a young man from Putot en Bessin giving a speech in English about how the Royal Winnipeg Rifles fought to liberate their village in France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNBdhEJKjbY

& the following site: http://triggertimeforum.yuku.com/topic/10647#.VRGlX_ysWSo

Has some details including a brief map and some explanatory text:

On the 6th June 1944. 7.55AM, soldiers of the 7th Canadian Brigade landed at Juno Beach from Courseules to Graye-sur-Mer.
The next day, at 10.30AM, members of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles Regiment took over Putot en Bessin without encountering resistance. They took positions along the railway (Caen-Cherbourg).

On the morning of June 8th, A Co. positioned near the bridge of Brouay, faced the first elements of the 26th Regiment of the 12th SS-Pz. Div.H.J. The German 5th, 6th and 7th Companies of II Pz.Gren.Abt. launched their attack and entered as far as the centre of the village. They encircled 3 of the 4 companies of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. When the Canadian soldiers finally ran out of ammunition, they tried to withdraw by means of an artificial smoke screen. Some men reached Bois Gervais, on the East side of the village, where they joined the D Co. that had already taken cover.

On the West side the British tanks of the 24th Lancers succeeded in blocking the German offensive.

The Waffen SS had taken back the village but for a few hours only. In fact the Canadians of the 1st Battalion, the Scottish Regiment struck back at about 8.30PM supported by the 1st Hussars tanks, the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa machine-gunners (CHO) and the 12th and 13th Regiment RCA artillerymen.

Reduced by the earlier fights, the Germans were soon unable to contain the Canadians and were pushed out of Putot en Bessin by the Canadian Scottish Regt.

The villagers were finally free.

The liberation of the village cost 98 German losses, on the Canadian side, losses number 256 including 105 killed on the battlefield and 45 prisoners who had been murdered at chateau Audrieu

 

A 3D map for this battleground seems to exist, having been made for the "Darkest hour" computer game:

There's a fly-through over this map on youtube @

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AHHECmShsY

I assume it's an add on scenario map (a base one, i.e. without units) made for the "1944 Allied Landing in Normandy" patch

(No idea on its authenticity but it seems to have involved quite a bit of work, so you'd hope they made it accurate!)

Looks like a tough place to have to fight a war....

Rm.

 

I've been glancing through the "12th SS - volume 1" book - by Herbert Meyer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/12th-SS-Division-Stackpole-Military-ebook/dp/B00BZBJ8WY

Which seems to have some detail (from the other side to add to the tale of Putot-en-Bessin).

Much of what seems most "interesting" to me at the moment seems in many ways contradictory. But such i guess is the situation in war. I have my own questions remaining and I guess other people will have theirs too. One of mine at the moment is whether or not one of the 24th L "C" squad tanks was actually knocked out nr. to Tilly on the 8th June: http://www.fallenheroesphotos.org/Servicemen/Detail/25260 (middle section of the webpage) not least because firstly accounts suggest on "B" squad of 24th L were engaged - and they were a Putot, the rest of the 24th's were in the vicinity of Martragny as far as I can work out. All a fair distance from Tilly (which at this point anyhow was I believe far beyond enemy lines. Another question might be what sparked off the SS killing of the Canadians, Herbert Meyer might seem to suggest that it was something in retaliation for the killing of an SS major, other officers and NCOs (who might have been shot after allied capture for refusing to obey an order to be transported back through German artillery fire to "safer" allied lines on the front of a tank (I'm guessing that the allied soldiers didn't want to just "leave" them there). Pretty mixed up threads of thought to be honest. The 24th L seem to have lost 1 recce stuart tank and something like 3 Shermans nr. Putot all told, and something like 2 tanks crews (in total) as well as a handful of Tank commanders to sniper fire. Herbert Meyer seems to suggest that some of these weren't shot by 'professional' German snipers, but rather by more regular SS troops hiding is trees out of the way of raking low tank fire - and who took potshots at the tank commanders as chance had it when they saw that there was an opportunity there.

Rm.

 

I'm trying to work out the parameters for what constituted "the battle of Putot-en-Bessin" in the heads of the British / Canadian's "battle namers et al." at the time and after, since there were quite a few fights going on in the immediate vicinity of Putot-en-Bessin at that time:

My main example would be the 24th Lancers seemed to be "involved" more at Loucelles, Brouay - than at Putot and if you count Putot as something of a "false-start" for the 24th L - even Audrieu and Point 103 almost seem like part of the same fight to push past or through that bit of land. I suspect to the British these all constituted somewhat in part in the greater "Battle of Putot-en-Bessin" leading on into the "battle for St.Pierre" whereas to the Canadian's Loucelles, Brouay were more of a "different" affair with the 24th L not even appearing in this account (on map about 15% down the web page) http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/history/battlehonours/northwesteurope/putotenbessin.htm though they are shown on the map (i.e. http://triggertimeforum.yuku.com/topic/10647#.VSZ6PdzF-Sq ) about a 1/3 of the way down the webpage - as being "active" to the north-west.

 

Hi Ramiles, Sean,

I made a pano of the scenerie around Putot-en-Bessin from 24Jun1944 from RCAF 400 Sortie 0283, reduced to fit the width of the forum. The orginal has ~3.0kx1.5k pixels.
Image Credit: NACP RACF 400 Sortie 0883

​

 

Thanks for that amazing mosaic "Hans",

I'm slightly playing "catch-up" on this one, in which it seems I think that the 24th Lancers lost about 1/10th of their "effective" fighting strength.

Something to add to this thread that I have managed to pick out from the IWM audios though piqued my interest:

Reginald Osgerby (Sgt Recce troop 24th L - an account of the loss of a Stuart tank nr, Loucelles as well as being "fired on" accidentally by Canadians: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80017411

REEL 2 Continues: training as part of 11th Armoured Div; arrival of Sherman tanks while training near Bridlington, 1943; transfer from fighting troop to reconnaissance troop; performance of Stuart tanks; role of Recce Troop; composition of crew of Stuart tank; move to Milford-on-Sea, Hants as part of 8th Armoured Bde; waterproofing tanks. Recollections of operations with 24th Lancers and 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, France, 6/1944-8/1944: arrival Arromanches, D- Day, 6/6/1944; landing from LST and move to concentration area, near Le Hamel; role commanding Recce Troop Stuart tank; incident of Canadian observation tank firing on tank with machine gun, St Leger, 8/6/1944; long period near Point 103, near St Pierre and Villers Bocage, 6/1944; role of picking up casualties from knocked out Shermans; role of Sherman Firefly tanks; danger of Hitler Youth with bazookas and snipers.

Incidentally there is also a brief section in there on life at Point 103 near St. Pierre.

As I may have mentioned I'm working on the only 2 maps to the Putot engagements that I've so far seen. One a Canadian one i.e. at http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/history/battlehonours/northwesteurope/putotenbessin.htm

...and the other the one on the site that focuses on the memorial (with the map about a third of the way down).
http://triggertimeforum.yuku.com/topic/10647#.VTIwXtJVikq

And neither have much emphasis on the 24th L being there - understandably because the focus of most of the action was further away. My primary interest in this was mainly because this was the 24th L's first battle honour and there actually seemed to be some "confusion" in some of the post written accounts about them actually having been there! Battle honours have been a bit of a "mystery" to me, and the history of the 24th L is sometimes hard to follow as they were only "in action" effectively for about 2 months, but seemed to have done "quite" well before being disbanded and going off in all their "separate" ways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24th_Lancers

All the best,

Rm.