Listen To Major Currie VC

Discussion in 'Canadian' started by Owen, Dec 23, 2005.

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    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**
     
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  2. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    (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.
     
  3. Gnomey

    Gnomey World Travelling Doctor

    (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
     
  4. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Nice one Owen - many thanks for the link.
     
  5. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    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.

    currie.jpg
    cur.jpg curr.jpg
     
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  6. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  7. Kieran Bridge

    Kieran Bridge Junior Member

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  8. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    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?
     
  9. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  10. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

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  12. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

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  13. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    "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.
    clanky.jpg
     
  14. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    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.
     
  15. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  16. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    75 years ago.
     
  17. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    upload_2023-2-18_7-47-17.png
    Daily News (London) 1st December 1944
     
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