The Canadian Army Journal

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98 WITH BLINDERS ON: THE BLACK WATCH AND THE BATTLE FOR SPYCKER, SEPTEMBER 12-14 1944 Mr. David R. O’Keefe The first two weeks of September 1944 was a fortnight to remember for the 22-year-old Lt. Joe Nixon and the men of the Black Watch. Following the collapse of the German Army in Normandy, the Black Watch and their fellow units in 2nd Canadian Division engaged in the “swarming tour” following on the heels of retreating German armies along the channel coast of France. With optimism that this was indeed the “final hundred days” of the Second Great War of the 20th century, Allied high command faced a conundrum regarding the strategic direction of the war in Europe. Realizing that the capture of deepwater ports was essential to maintaining their drive on Germany, Allied high command sought alternatives to capturing them in costly and laborious head-on assaults. The shortcut it seemed was Field Marshal Montgomery’s Operation Market-Garden that promised to “bounce” the Rhine and seize a bridgehead leading into the Ruhr industrial area of Germany—the result of which would bring the Third Reich to its knees. For an Allied high command struggling with flagging reinforcements, growing war weariness, and a Presidential election year, Market-Garden seemed to be the perfect elixir. With all eyes focussed on the prize at Arnhem, the Canadian sweep up the channel coast became second effort—at least as far as manpower, materiel, and press coverage were concerned. With First Canadian Army tasked to capture the port cities of Le Havre, Dieppe, Boulonge, Calais, and Dunkirk, the Black Watch portion of the liberation campaign commenced with the return to Dieppe just days after the second anniversary of the deadly raid in August 1942. For Joe Nixon, Dieppe marked an auspicious introduction to life with the 1st Battalion. Amid roaring crowds, bouquets of flowers and freeflowing Calvados, the Black Watch mingled with the “black mass of humanity” near the spot where men from C Company and the mortar platoon suffered so cruelly on that fateful August day. 1 Forty-eight hours later, Nixon took part in an emotionally charged parade through the city streets, but this diversion was short-lived; upon the last note of “Hielan’ Laddie,” the Black Watch moved out again. 2 With 3rd Canadian Division driving on Boulonge and Calais, and the 4th Major Alan Carmichael Canadian Armoured Division pushing Major Alan Carmichael Mr. David R. O’Keefe, ‘With Blinders On: The Black Watch and the Battle for Spycker, September 12-14 1944’ Canadian Army Journal Vol. 11.1 (Spring 2008), 98-109
into Belgium, General Charles Foulkes’ 2nd Canadian Division headed for Dunkirk. Due to the diversion of supplies and reinforcements for Market-Garden, Canadian units found themselves stretched to the limit, and 2nd Canadian Division could not tackle the 20,000 strong Dunkirk garrison alone. Suffering from acute shortages of artillery ammunition and petrol, Foulkes ordered a cordon sanitiaire be established around the port tasking his battalions to “contain” and “patrol” the perimeter. 3 With Dunkirk last on the list for liberation, “plenty of containing” was on tap and the prospect of sitting and watching the Germans did not appeal to some who “were beginning to get restless.” 4 For the Black Watch, the seemingly mundane role in this process commenced with the occupation of the tiny hamlet of Grande Mille Brugge on the Colme canal. “Why this place rates the title ‘GRANDE’ Mille Brugge is hard to imagine” the wry witted Black Watch war diarist noted on September 9th , “as it is nothing more…than a row of small houses on either side of the canal.” 5 Indeed, the terrain surrounding the hamlet was anything but inviting. With the dykes running along the canal blown in numerous areas by retreating Germans, it was fortunate that the Black Watch did not have to dig in “on the fly” as the majority of the adjacent fields were under water; leaving only a brick works and a few fieldstone buildings strung along the canal for cover. 6 Shortly after establishing Battalion headquarters in the ovens of the local brick works on the morning of the 9th , German shells began to land. 7 Consisting at first of the traditional sprinkling of mortar and 88 mm fire the cover afforded by the structures along the canal kept casualties “amazingly low.” 8 This changed over the next few days when 105 and 150 mm guns joined the fray taking a heavy toll on battalion transport. 9 The situation moved from bad to worse when the defenders of Dunkirk turned their giant coastal rail guns landward onto Black Watch positions. “The shells sounded like freight trains as they descended” recalled Nixon; and life in Grand Mille Brugge became less than comfortable as casualties mounted. 10 The proportion of casualties to the amount of shelling was still “unduly low,” but as the war diarist from the 18th Canadian Field Ambulance recorded, the “luckless individuals who got in the way of fragments from these shells were either killed of suffered particularly severe wounds with a very poor prognosis.” In a period of two days, over 50 men were lost—including Nixon’s veteran scout platoon sergeant Barney Benson who survived the massacre at Verrieres Ridge six weeks earlier. Benson, who had shown the young platoon commander the ropes, broke from cover to respond to the cries of a wounded comrade, and was nearly cut in half by the splinters of a coastal gun shell. 11 Although loaded on an ambulance Jeep and rushed to the Regimental Aid Post, the “completely fearless” and inspirational scout bled out en route leaving a lasting void within the battalion. 12 In addition to the shelling, intense patrol activity and sniping characterized the five-day stay at Grande Mille Brugge with fatigue taking its toll on morale as men remained on alert for German probes that failed to materialize. Unlike other garrisons encountered, such as that at Coppenaxfort where 250 Germans surrendered after a brief fight to Major E. Pinkham’s C Company on the 9th , the mixed bag of Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, and SS troops in Dunkirk proved more aggressive than previously encountered. 13 As a result, continual “punching and jabbing” in the towns around Grande Mille Brugge began with German patrols infiltrating by night to lay minefields that severed communications between battalion and brigade headquarters. 14 In addition, they jammed radio communications, cut or booby trapped phone lines, and ambushed repair parties. For the most part, however, morale in the Black Watch was beginning to waiver as the men became increasingly “fed up of the monotony” and the “somewhat depressing business.” 15 Inundations of the fields surrounding Dunkirk restricted movement to roads and raised areas, and limited the options for an approaching army. As such, the Germans adopted a policy of holding towns and villages outside of the coastal fortress to slow and Canadian Army Journal Vol. 11.1 Spring 2008 99
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The The Canadian Canadian Army Army
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial—Soldi
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EDITORIAL—SOLDIERS AS WRITERS Maj
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ARMY UPDATE—THE JADEX PAPERS Back
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AMBUSHES, IEDS AND COIN: THE FRENCH
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Since 1945, only one major expediti
Page 13 and 14:
Casualties It is difficult to deter
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March 1846, in which the insurgency
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French fortified line around the De
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an unsustainable level while using
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The FLN clearly adjusted its milita
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The overall resort to a system of d
Page 25 and 26:
proposed by researchers like La Cou
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MANOEUVRE WARFARE THEORY AND COUNTE
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is tempo—the ability of one force
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In Principles, Imperatives and Para
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Canadian draft placed a significant
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to safe havens with the Morice Line
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THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN AIRBORNE FOR
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Political manoeuvring and military
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sustainment air corridors, and to s
Page 43 and 44:
offensive capability would be requi
Page 45 and 46:
Canadian Army Journal Vol. 11.1 Spr
Page 47 and 48:
Immediately after the war, there wa
Page 49 and 50: transportable brigade group, includ
Page 51 and 52: spectrum, and included global opera
Page 53 and 54: strung soldiers of the unit adequat
Page 55 and 56: 45. Sean M. Maloney, “The Mobile
Page 57 and 58: the super-power of the age. Few gov
Page 59 and 60: By 7 December 2001, the Taliban had
Page 61 and 62: ideology.” 51 With the overthrow
Page 63 and 64: obvious abilities is to make a grav
Page 65 and 66: We fight them with schools, educati
Page 67 and 68: TOMORROW’S FIREPOWER Captain Ian
Page 69 and 70: dominate the much larger and more c
Page 71 and 72: Even new terminology fails to re-es
Page 73 and 74: Effects Oriented. A complete close
Page 75 and 76: armoured squadron, administration c
Page 77 and 78: system. However, the development of
Page 79 and 80: 31. Today, the role of the infantry
Page 81 and 82: somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000
Page 83 and 84: Definitions Before moving on to try
Page 85 and 86: It is already clear that consensus
Page 87 and 88: increase in the levels of global co
Page 89 and 90: contracting of MPFs to provide arme
Page 91 and 92: What has been demonstrated in this
Page 93 and 94: Domestic regulation in the US has t
Page 95 and 96: Concluding Remarks This article has
Page 97 and 98: the engagement of the Canadian Mano
Page 99: 42. Isenberg, A Fistful of Contract
Page 103 and 104: anks (mostly from the artillery),
Page 105 and 106: Shot from vantage point of Nixon in
Page 107 and 108: town. Following this, the much-cele
Page 109 and 110: Germans as to what was happening. F
Page 111 and 112: Canadian Military History (Spring 2
Page 113 and 114: On 1 August 1944, Major Dextraze co
Page 115 and 116: NOTE TO FILE—REACHING INTO THE OR
Page 117 and 118: In the years after 1945 OR became h
Page 119 and 120: narrow application. “If aircraft
Page 121 and 122: assistant” for the military. 34 T
Page 123 and 124: — BOOK REVIEWS — TERRIBLE VICTO
Page 125 and 126: CALEPIN D’ESPOIR DUFRESNE, Daniel
Page 127 and 128: as a “Villa Rogati dwelling” (p
Page 129 and 130: writes that the charge of the 21st
Page 131 and 132: Reserves the reader could put this
Page 133 and 134: superiority of numbers to overcome
Page 135 and 136: A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH WAR—ENDIN
Page 137 and 138: THE UNEXPECTED WAR: CANADA IN KANDA
Page 139 and 140: The Existential Challenge The autho
Page 141 and 142: D-DAY: JUNO BEACH, CANADA’S 24 HO
Page 143 and 144: His dispassionate analysis of the b
Page 145 and 146: PEACEKEEPING INTELLIGENCE: NEW PLAY
Page 147 and 148: Thankfully, although hard-hitting i
Page 149 and 150: Chapter Four ends with the death of
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noting he did not fill the requirem
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