What units were Canadians facing...

[mikerock]

from D-Day to Falaise?

12th SS, I know about. But who was stationed at Caen (among other places)? Was it the same units/corps they were always facing or was the German front rather fluid in its deployment of troops?

Thanks
--Mike

[Sigurd Helge]

mikerock,
A brief answer to your question: yes, the faced the "same" opponents from Caen to Falaise.
The Canadians initially faced 716.Inf.Div. (they also faced resistance from some other coy-bn sized units).
From the completion of the landings until Falaise the German opposition against the Canadians for the larger part consisted of the I. SS-Pz.Kps. (i.e. 12. SS-Pz.Div. and elements of 1. SS-Pz.Div).
Part of the remnants of the heavy tank battalions of the I. SS-Pz.Kps. along with the remnants of the SS-Pz.Rgt.12 subsequently formed into armoured combatgroups (like "KG-Wünsche") which also faced the Canadians.

They also faced 21.Pz.Div and elements of Pz.Lehr.Div. (both of which were temporarily subordinated to I. SS-Pz.Kps.).
Other opposition around and south of Caen were 2. Pz.Div, 89.Inf.Div and 271. Inf.Div.

By August 17th things get quite chaotic and it is hard to discern exactly which units that formed the German opposition, though they most certainly consisted mostly of elements of the I. SS-Pz.Kps.

Regards,
~Sigurd

[mikerock]

Thanks for the reply Sigurd.

This leads me to another couple of questions:

1) Were there a lot of the SS on the Western Front? Or maybe I should ask, what proportion of the SS was on the Western compared to the Eastern Front?

2) I have heard through some documentaries (name escapes me, but it was on the Battle of the Scheldte) that the Germans referred to Canadians as "the British SS." How accurate is that statement? Or was it applied more generally to the commonwealth forces (Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians specifically) than just to the Canadians.

Thanks,
--Mike

[charlie don't surf]

My guess is that they called the Canadians "the british ss" because of their 'die hard'- mentally, the Canadians were indeed putting up stubborn fightings against the Germans.


Canadian soldier with Hitlerjugend prisoner, the HJ soldier is bruised after receiving severely beating by his captors.

regards

[Sigurd Helge]

Mikerock,
1) I haven't got the W-SS ratio figures in comparison to Heer units on the western front but an educated guess should say that the W-SS "ratio" was about the same. Perhaps a slight touch more W-SS in relation to heer than on the eastern front (considering the enormity of the Eastern front and the sheer mass of troops allocated there).

2) Never heard the term "British SS". My personal opinion is that when reading about the events one gets the impression that, in comparison, the Canadians faced very hard opposition and hence had to pay a very high price.

Overall the regimental and divisional leadership on the British/Canadian side was quite bad, perhaps more so (generally speaking) on the Canadian side.
OTOH the fighting capabilities on battalion level and below was truly excellent. Perhaps more so on the Canadian side. For a brief glimpse on the capabilities of the Canadian soldier, read about the truly heroic defence of Norrey-en-Bessin and Putot-en-Bessin and the very hard battles in and around Carpiquet airfield.

I think that the battles must have became quite embittered. Some atrocities were performed and put together with the fact that the Canadiens faced almost the same opponents throughout the Normandy campaign, this must have created some degree of "die hard" mentality among the "Kanucks" as Charlie says.

Regards,
~Sigurd