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Operation Totalize
By early August 1944 the Germans fighting in Normandy had been worn down by the battles around Caen, while to the west, the American breakout was finally gaining momentum. Now was the time to launch II Canadian Corps south towards Falaise. With much of the German armor having been stripped away for the Mortain Counter-Attack, hopes ran high that the Corps, reinforced with British tanks, the 51st Highland and the Polish Armoured Divisions, would repeat the success of their predecessors in the Battle of Amiens.
An innovative change of tactics to a night armored assault and the conversion of seventy-two self-propelled guns to armored personnel carriers for the accompanying infantry was very successful, but up against their implacable foes, 12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division, the pause for bombing allowed Kurt ‘Panzer’ Meyer to deploy his division. Consequently, when the 4th Canadian and Polish Armoured Divisions were launched into their first battle they made frustratingly little progress. As the Canadians advanced over the following days, the battle degenerated into a costly fight for ground as the Hitlerjugend struggled to contain the inexperienced Poles and Canadians.
Operation Totalize is renowned for the death of SS panzer Ace Michael Wittmann at the hands of Trooper Joe Ekins and the destruction of Worthington Force, the result of a navigational error.
An innovative change of tactics to a night armored assault and the conversion of seventy-two self-propelled guns to armored personnel carriers for the accompanying infantry was very successful, but up against their implacable foes, 12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division, the pause for bombing allowed Kurt ‘Panzer’ Meyer to deploy his division. Consequently, when the 4th Canadian and Polish Armoured Divisions were launched into their first battle they made frustratingly little progress. As the Canadians advanced over the following days, the battle degenerated into a costly fight for ground as the Hitlerjugend struggled to contain the inexperienced Poles and Canadians.
Operation Totalize is renowned for the death of SS panzer Ace Michael Wittmann at the hands of Trooper Joe Ekins and the destruction of Worthington Force, the result of a navigational error.
224 pages, Paperback
Published June 12, 2019
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About the author
Tim Saunders
179 books11 followersTim Saunders MBE MA (1956 - ????) served in the British Army as an officer in the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and The Rifles for over 30 years before leaving to become a full time military historian. In his second career he brings together the overlapping spheres of writing, battlefield guiding and military history film making. His intuitive knowledge of warfare and soldiers that is abundantly clear from his insightful and entertaining writing is a result, of his military training, service across the world and his operational experience.
Tim's portfolio of work is wide, with videos from Vikings to WW2 being made with Battlefield History TV and Pen & Sword Digital, variously as presenter, director and editor, His books, now totalling more than twenty title, however, are mainly focused on the Napoleonic Wars and the battles of the Second World War
Tim lives on the edge of the Army's Salisbury Plain Training area and often finds himself writing to the accompaniment of the sound of real tanks and gunfire.
Tim's portfolio of work is wide, with videos from Vikings to WW2 being made with Battlefield History TV and Pen & Sword Digital, variously as presenter, director and editor, His books, now totalling more than twenty title, however, are mainly focused on the Napoleonic Wars and the battles of the Second World War
Tim lives on the edge of the Army's Salisbury Plain Training area and often finds himself writing to the accompaniment of the sound of real tanks and gunfire.
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August 7, 2022
This follows on nicely from Charles More's ‘Arromanches to the Elbe’, which I read and reviewed just before starting this. That book follows 144 RAC from Normandy to Germany, and includes coverage of their part in Operation Totalize. It's great to be able to zoom in on a more detailed view of one component of that larger picture.
It's also of interest to me as my grandfather served in WWII, in the Canadian armed forces, and Totalize was a joint Anglo-Canadian affair. I had hoped Bert might've been involved in these events. But a chat with my dad at the weekend suggests that he probably spent the duration based in the southern U.K. (due to an injury sustained in a military traffic accident). Still, my Canadian connection remains!
I initially found the level of detail pretty hard going; there's an awful lot of unit names/numbers, and movements, and many, many maps, of very varied quality. But at the time I started this review I'd just finished chapter seven, which deals with Kurt Meyer's German counter-attack. The combination of maps and firsthand testimony, as well as regimental histories, etc, is superb. This is the battle during which Tiger ace Michael Wittman was put out of action by radio-op turned gunner Joe Ekins. It's very vividly portrayed, making for an exciting and compelling read.
It's now some time later, and I've finished the book. Rather like Totalize itself, it kind of fizzles out, with the Allied forces partially achieving their objectives, and their German adversaries partially succeeding in containing them. But I found Saunder's account, overall, to be very interesting. It's amazing just how much material there is on WWII, and within that there's so much again, from broad perspectives (I have a book called The Second World War Explained on my 'to read' pile) to super-detailed blow-by-blow accounts of specific operations, such as this.
We're spoiled, really, aren't we!?
It's also of interest to me as my grandfather served in WWII, in the Canadian armed forces, and Totalize was a joint Anglo-Canadian affair. I had hoped Bert might've been involved in these events. But a chat with my dad at the weekend suggests that he probably spent the duration based in the southern U.K. (due to an injury sustained in a military traffic accident). Still, my Canadian connection remains!
I initially found the level of detail pretty hard going; there's an awful lot of unit names/numbers, and movements, and many, many maps, of very varied quality. But at the time I started this review I'd just finished chapter seven, which deals with Kurt Meyer's German counter-attack. The combination of maps and firsthand testimony, as well as regimental histories, etc, is superb. This is the battle during which Tiger ace Michael Wittman was put out of action by radio-op turned gunner Joe Ekins. It's very vividly portrayed, making for an exciting and compelling read.
It's now some time later, and I've finished the book. Rather like Totalize itself, it kind of fizzles out, with the Allied forces partially achieving their objectives, and their German adversaries partially succeeding in containing them. But I found Saunder's account, overall, to be very interesting. It's amazing just how much material there is on WWII, and within that there's so much again, from broad perspectives (I have a book called The Second World War Explained on my 'to read' pile) to super-detailed blow-by-blow accounts of specific operations, such as this.
We're spoiled, really, aren't we!?
Displaying 1 of 1 review