Found this and thought it fascinating and wanted to share it. Major currie won his VC closing the Falaise Gap in august 1944. **click here**
(Owen D @ Dec 23 2005, 07:07 PM) [post=43572]Found this and thought it fascinating and wanted to share it. Major currie won his VC closing the Falaise Gap in august 1944. **click here** [/b] Very interesting Owen, thank you.
(spidge @ Dec 23 2005, 10:19 AM) [post=43576](Owen D @ Dec 23 2005, 07:07 PM) [post=43572]Found this and thought it fascinating and wanted to share it. Major currie won his VC closing the Falaise Gap in august 1944. **click here** [/b] Very interesting Owen, thank you. [/b]Agreed Spidge. Good find Owen
18 - 21 August, 1944 Seventy-three years ago, on August 18, 1944, Major David Vivian Currie led 200 men and a dozen M4 Sherman tanks into the town of St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France in order to block the escape route of the German 7th Army out of the Falaise Pocket. Though hugely outnumbered by a detachment of the German 2nd Panzer Division, the actions that Currie and his men took effectively sealed off the only escape route for the Germans. For his efforts, Currie earned the Victoria Cross, the highest military gallantry decoration in the British Commonwealth. Currie was leading “C” Squadron, a small force of tanks and anti-tank guns, together with two infantry companies of the Argyll and Southerland Highlanders, with no artillery support and little reconnaissance. When his first attack was repulsed, Currie snuck into the village on foot, surveyed the German defences, and rescued the crews of two disabled Canadian tanks. The following day, he had seized and consolidated a position half-way inside the village. Over the next 36 hours, Currie so skillfully organised his defences in the face of near-constant counterattack that he not only held the unit’s position but inflicted disproportionately heavy casualties on the German forces. The Germans attempted their final breakthrough of the Canadian positions on the evening of August 20th but were routed by a surprise Canadian assault. Over 2,100 German soldiers were taken prisoner by Currie’s force of less than 200. Currie then completed the capture of the village, thus denying the remnants of the German armies their last escape route from the Falaise Pocket. The battle of St. Lambert was to be the final battle of the Normandy Campaign. In the months following St. Lambert, Currie participated in the Battle of the Scheldt and the liberation of the Netherlands. He later achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and served as sergeant-at-arms in the Canadian House of Commons from 1960 to 1978. He died in 1986. The armoury in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan is named the Lt. Colonel D. V. Currie Armoury in his honour, as is Currie Avenue in Saskatoon.
Col. Currie's VC and other medals will be sold at auction soon. Let's hope they end up in the Canadian War Museum. Here's a link to a news article about this: For Valour, for sale: Historic Canadian Victoria Cross up for auction For Valour, for sale: Historic Canadian Victoria Cross up for auction
Kieran, Nice to see you back. In a previous thread you introduced the intriguing story of Hauptmann Siegfried Rauch. Has anything new been discovered about his fate?
Believe this is Owen's missing link above? Major David Currie battles in Normandy, wins Victoria Cross - CBC Archives
The Cork In The Bottle: Canadians And Poles At The Falaise Gap | Legion Magazine Pocket Of Destruction: Closing The Falaise Gap | Legion Magazine The Havoc Continues: Closing In On Falaise | Legion Magazine Breakthrough To Falaise: Mistakes On The Road To Success: Army, Part 105 | Legion Magazine
Like the following article, I have very mixed feelings: Face To Face: Is It Wrong To Sell Military Medals? | Legion Magazine
"Clanky" .A rarely-seen colour LAC photo of a tank crew at near .Here, a rare colorchrome of a Sherman V of the Canadian 29th Reconnaissance regiment (The South Alberta Regiment). The Tank was commanded by Major David Currie (VC), and the tank was named ‘Clanky’. This photo was taken in Normandy in the village of Vaucelles, France, in July of 1944. (source:LAC MIKAN No: 4233170) Notes Note how the tracks of the tank and the boots of the soldiers are covered with Normandy dust. The tank crew may include Tp G Holstrom, Cpl J Lardner and Tp D Mitchell. This tank first saw action on August the 8th during Operation Totalize. It was taken on July the 28th, shortly after the division finished coming ashore at Arromanches. Clanky survived the Normandy campaign but on the 28th October 1944 was hit on the rear deck by a Canadian 5.5 inch artillery shell that dropped short, in the Bergen Op Zoom area. The crew escaped injury but several men outside the tank were killed.
If I didn't see that picture I wouldn't have believed it! That Sherman is painted in a disruptive camo scheme! Looks like SCC15 and maybe Dark Tarmac or Blue-Black.