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JULY - 4: "I never expected
3rd Division to get Caen on the first day, and I always said that
if we didn't get it the first day it would take a month to get it
afterwards."
- Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, Commander, Second British Army.
Another dangerous Simonds
decision concerned one of the key members of his command team,
General Rod Keller.
Before the invasion of Normandy, the judgment on Keller from the
Canadian defence headquarters was that he was incompetent to
command a 20,000 man division. Keller was popular with his
superiors because he was seen as tough and hard-drinking.
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He also had the right connections and so he was now commanding
those 20,000 men. After 30 days of intense battle though, Keller
was slowly going to pieces. - "Valour and Horror" script
On July 4, Keller's troops, the 8th Brigade with the Royal Winnipeg
Rifles under its command, though it had already suffered heavy
casualties on D-Day, opened an attack on the town of Carpiquet. This offensive was the
first stage of Operation Charnwood, the major British effort to
take Caen.
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General Rod Keller
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They were supported by the 10th Canadian Armoured Regiment
(Fort Gary Horse) and the AVRE (Assault vehicles, Royal Engineers)
of the 79th British Armoured Division and artillery fire from the
guns of the Battleship HMS Rodney and RAF Typhoons.
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German mortar men
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The Canadians attacked the well entrenched SS defenders from the west. The massive
artillery barrages had left most of the defenders unscathed, and
the core of the defences undamaged.
When the Canadians attacked the airport, they found that the SS had
made the airfield a killing zone. From the low concrete bunkers
surrounding the airport buildings the SS had interlocking fields of
machine-gun fire supported by mortars and artillery.
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" I am sure that at some time during the attack every man felt that
he couldn't go on. Men were being killed or wounded on all sides
and the advance seemed pointless as well as hopeless." Major J.E. Henderson, North Shore Regiment. Maple Leaf
Route 1983.
"The intense artillery support program had obviously not destroyed
the essential fabric of a well camouflaged and dug in defence
orchestrated by barely 50 men from 25 Panzergrenadier Regiment."
John A.
English, Failure in High Command, p. 216.
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The Queens Own Rifles were committed to battle for Phase two; but
Carpiquet had not been totally cleared of enemy, and it took the
battalion time to reach the far end of the village. The Canadians
took and secured the town of Carpiquet, but they were unable to
secure the airport, even with a second attempt.
Over the next two days the 8th Brigade fought off 3 German counter
attacks to hold what they had gained at a high cost. There
sustained 377 casualties, 117 of whom were dead.
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German troops advancing:
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On July 5, 1944, the GOC 1 British Army Corps Lieutenant-
General John Crocker, advised Dempsey that "Keller is not fit
temperamentally and perhaps physically for such a responsible
command. He is a man who has the appearance of having lived pretty
well. The general state of despondency of his division is a
reflection of its commander, who is showing signs of fatigue and
nervousness...one might almost say, fright."
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