Black Yesterdays: The Argylls’ War—a brilliant book by Robert L. Fraser, PhD—is a narrative of the Canadian soldiers in Europe who served with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The entries are all first-hand recollections of the men in the battles woven together with the official War Diary.
The Argylls came in to relieve the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, and would endure the same terrible punishment for several days of being commanded to send small groups of soldiers against a massed German army with tanks and heavy artillery in place. This was a strategy of the High Command to keep the large German force in place so they wouldn’t move south and battle against the American troops who weren’t as advanced as the Canadians. Our troops were sacrificed to protect the Americans.
The following excerpts, from pages 211-222 of Black Yesterdays, document that experience in Tilly, in the words of the men who fought there.
August 1, 1944—Bourguebus
“The Linc’s attack failed miserably. They lost heavily in both prisoners and killed . . . the Germans are too strong there at present.”
─── Lance Corporal Harry Ruch
“We were in like slit trenches, and we were under heavy mortar fire all the time . . . the fellow with me was . . . really panic-stricken, yet he was a tough miner type from . . . Sudbury way. So they sent him back to headquarters. But battle fatigue you think would happen some time after you’d been there for a length of time . . . we were just there for a short time.”
─── Private John L. Kelly
Note that this early phase of the war for Canadian soldiers resulted in the highest percentage of soldiers being removed from the front lines due to psychological issues—almost 50%.
“I thought we suffered casualties we didn’t need to, and it was bothering me . . . sending people out at night to . . . test the defence . . . they knew you were coming . . .”
─── Captain Jack Harper
August 2, 1944—Bourguebus after replacing the Lincs
“Take over Bourguebus from L&W. Shelling terrific – [Major Gordon] Winfield shows true colours (yellowish). Enemy snipers – 24 hours per day.”
─── Company Sergeant Major George Mitchell
“Charlie Richards . . . had the top of his head blown off . . . And his brain was out of his head, and I put it back in place, put his scalp back in place, and then wrapped a bandage around . . .”
─── Private John Black
Remarkably, Richards survived.
“The first casualty that hit you was Capt. Hugh MacLean at Bourguebus. I heard about it immediately . . . those early ones hit you, but after that . . .”
─── Captain Bob Paterson
August 3, 1944—settling into Bourguebus
“Last night was the worst night I have ever put in. Between Jerry’s shells and our shells landing close, we did not have a very good time of it. Heat, dust and flies bothered us along with the fact we had no sleep . . .”
─── Lance Corporal Harry Ruch
5 August 1944
“. . . that’s [Tilly] one example of . . . misinformation that came down from the higher echelons. Apparently Division and Brigade were convinced the Germans were withdrawing from the Tilly front, and were continually asking us to probe the enemy lines with patrols . . .”
─── Captain Don Seldon
“. . . I thought the orders were really stupid. At [the] least there [should have been] a brigade attack . . .”
─── Lieutenant Colonel Swatty Wotherspoon
“You’re just sending a bunch of people across an open field, say six or seven hundred yards wide, like a pool table, and they’re standing over on the edge popping them off. [Stewart] said, ‘This is a sheer slaughter. What’s the matter with those people back there, telling me to send these guys in.’”
─── Private Whit Smelser
“We attack Tilly La Campagne. Attack fails – Killed Lt Sloane, Foster Carlton, Moffitt, McIver, Hodgson, Utter confusion – Wounded Rathbun, Coon, Travis. Shell shock – Travis, Lynch, Holmes, Galloway, Winfield yellow.
─── Company Sergeant Major George Mitchell
“I went in with the first platoon, went in to attack the German situation there, and yeah, it was rough. Eleven of us came back in the platoon. Well, when the platoon was full strength it’d be what, about thirty-four people.”
─── Private Murdo Miller
This is eerily similar to what happened to Lt Ernie Phair’s platoon except none of Ernie’s men got back to their own lines.
“At our first attack at Tilly, 14 Platoon was slaughtered. Tilly was a farce. No one knew what they were doing or where they were.”
─── Private Bill Wolosyn
August 6, 1944—still in Bourguebus
“The attack last night failed rather miserably the same as the Lincs attack did. We got near Tilly when Jerry opened up with everything he had. All six tanks [in fact, four] that were giving us close support were knocked out . . . B-Coy lost men killed, wounded and prisoners as did D-Coy . . .”
─── Lance Corporal Harry Ruch
The Lincs didn’t have any tanks when they attacked four days earlier. The next day, August 7th, the Argylls retreated to Caen.