It’s Therapeutic Thursday! Did you know…
* 1944 – D-DAY + 2 – About 156 Canadian POWs murdered by 12th SS Hitler Youth Panzers. (Canadians move inland from Juno Beach, capture 12 towns in Normandy; Erwin Rommel orders Kurt Meyer’s 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Grenadiers to attack the Canadian 7th Brigade at Putot-en-Basin (8 km west of Caen). They cross the railway and outflank the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, destroying the three forward companies; the rest are beaten back, leaving their wounded behind; the Canadian Scottish, Canscots and 1st Hussars then use an artillery barrage from the 12th and 13th field regiments to retake Putot, but Meyer counter-attacks with 22 Panther tanks; the Regina Rifles fight a night-long battle and hold. During these fights, the SS murder several Canadian POWs, including six Winnipeg Rifles, and a Red Cross stretcher-bearer, who are ordered into a wood and shot in the temple; 13 more Canadians are executed within 100 yards of the Command post; the bodies of 7 more are found nearby, all shot in the head with small arms; finally, 40 Winnipegs and Cameron Highlanders are marched into a field, ordered to sit together with the wounded at their centre, and machine-gunned; 5 escape.) Continue reading “John’s Believe It Or Not… June 8th”
Fiora Books by John Fioravanti 