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Camerons and the Calgary Highlanders a rough time as they came through. 20 As a result, the<br />
Black Watch, strung out and in danger of dispersion, needed to fight every inch of the way<br />
towards their assembly area. Advancing 100 yards every 15 minutes, they were still 400 yards<br />
short of their form-up point at the church in St. Martin and 1.5 kilometres from their start line<br />
when H-hour (and their artillery support) came and went. 21<br />
After reaching the churchyard sometime between 0545 and 0600 hrs, the lead company of the<br />
Black Watch stumbled upon a mixed group of Calgary and Cameron Highlanders “milling<br />
around” and exchanging intermittent fire with the enemy. 22 The Black Watch CO,<br />
Lt-Col Stuart Cantlie, attempted to get a firm grip on the situation and called his company<br />
commanders in for an O Group. While waiting for them to arrive, he learned that heavy<br />
machine gun and 88‐mm fire from the ridge, coupled with tank gun fire from heights on the<br />
western bank of the Orne River and machine-gun fire from the Factory area, had caused heavy<br />
casualties and reduced command and control within the Calgary Highlanders to almost nil. 23<br />
In addition, spotty communications, conflicting messages and poor navigation on the part of<br />
one Calgary Highlander company made the situation in May-sur-Orne obscure at best. 24<br />
Accompanied by three of the four company commanders who were able to reach him at the<br />
churchyard, Cantlie moved the group to a gap in a hedge and began to point out the situation<br />
on his map. Within seconds, a machine gun about 50 yards away opened fire on the silhouetted<br />
figures. 25 In an instant, Cantlie was dead and his senior company commander,<br />
Major Eric Motzfeldt, lay seriously wounded, leaving command of the Black Watch briefly in<br />
the hands of the nearest officer. 26 With the surviving senior company commander still trying<br />
to make his way through St. Martin, command of the battalion briefly rested in the hands of<br />
two former company 2ICs who had been promoted in the field to acting majors just days<br />
before. 27 For the next half-hour, confusion reigned as orders and counter-orders were issued,<br />
16 Source: Library and Archives Canada<br />
THE CANADIAN ARMY JOURNAL VOLUME 16.2 2016
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