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Battle for Hill 140

Battle for Hill 140
Part of Operation Totalize
Canadian positions during the German attack on Hill 140
Date 9 August 1944 Location Estrées-la-Campagne Result German victory
Belligerents
Nazi Germany	Canada
Commanders and leaders
Max Wünsche	Don Worthington
Units involved
Kampfgruppe Wünsche	Battlegroup Worthington
Casualties and losses
Unknon	232 men 47 tanks

The Battle for Hill 140 (alternatively for Point 140) was an engagement between German and Canadian forces that occurred on 9 August 1944 as part of Operation Totalize. Its combatants were Battlegroup Worthington of the 4th Canadian Division under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Don Worthington and parts of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend under the command of Max Wünsche. The battle took place near the French village of Estrées-la-Campagne, when a Canadian force lost its attack route and was surrounded by counterattacking German forces.

Background

The attack of the 2nd Canadian Corps south of Caen, codenamed "Totalize", began on the night of 7 to 8 August. The plan prepared by its commander Guy Simonds was for the Allied forces to take over the hills north of Falaise. Instead, the Canadian forces made slow advances while the 4th Canadian Division and the Polish 1st Armoured Division made little progress on 8 August, losing many men and equipment along the way. The Canadians advanced only 2km to Cintheaux, while the Polish forces were stopped at Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil.

On the afternoon of 8 August Simonds ordered his divisions to repeat the attack the next day. The 1st Armoured Division was going to take the town of Cauvicourt and the nearby Hill 140, atop which the forces could control the Laison River. Meanwhile, the nearby 4th Armoured Division under George Kitching would attack from the Route Nationale 158 and take the strategically-important Hill 195. In accordance with the order, the divisions were to depart during the night and begin the attack in the morning.

In order to make the attack on Hill 195 easier, the 4th Division was split into two: the Halpenny Force and Worthington Force. The former had to take Bretteville-le-Rabet, while the latter had to go further south and take over and hold Hill 195 while waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Battle

The force was going to depart at midnight, though the march to Cintheaux began at 2 a.m. The vehicles were in a column-like formation, which meant that the drivers usually had to keep close proximity to others for the division to stay in formation. As planned, the group passed the Route Nationale 158 and the preparing Bretteville force. The first contact with the enemy happened when Squadron C, between Cintheaux and Cavicourt, exchanged fire with German forces. Still, the column continued.

Between 4 and 5 a.m., Worthington's men found Halpenny Force in Bretteville fighting the Germans, and to keep the element of suprise on their side, they bypassed Cavicourt and continued their route.

Loss of direction and German reaction

Map of Worthington Group's intended (red) and actual (pink) route.

Worthington's decision to bypass Cavincourt unknowingly led them onto the wrong route. While they did lead themselves east and went around Bretteville, for an unknown reason, instead of returning to the RN158, they kept going east on another road known as the Chemin Haussé. With the sun already rising, some of the drivers in the force were more confident and increased their speed, dispersing and upsetting the column.

Squadron C remained at the head of the unit alongside Worthington's tanks. When passing by an unidentified village (probably Estrées-la-Campagne), Squadron B's leader Maj. Carson realized that the group had lost their direction. He immediately ordered his troops to stop and sent a platoon southwest, which the unit later realized was the right direction. Worthington ignored this complaint from Carson and ordered Carson to follow him. Squadron A and Company D were still in the back of the column.

Around 06:40, Worthington, still uninformed of his mistake, arrived at the feet of a hill which he assumed was Hill 195. He positioned his forces around the hill, on a rectangular field surrounded by a hedge 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) tall, as well as shrubs and clumps of trees. In actuality, Worthington's encampment covered an area between Hills 111 and 140, 2 km (1.2 mi) southeast of Estrées-la-Campagne and over 6 km (3.7 mi) northeast of Hill 195.

Squadron B arrived shortly after (without Platoon 2, which was headed to the "true" Hill 195), accompanied by Companies C and B. Company B arrived without its 10th platoon, which was moving at the back of the column and lost contact with the rest of the column. The leader of the company himself found and escorted the platoon; as it turned out, the platoon left the group after detecting and destroying two pieces of the German anti-aircraft gun 8.8 cm Flak 18, killing all the 30 operators.

At 6:50 a.m., Worthington reported:

No evidence of enemy occupation—but recent signs. Few lorries destroyed, slit trenches and tools about. We are holding until our friends come forward to consolidate.

The relative ease at which the Canadian unit had advanced so deep behind enemy lines did not only result from the surprise that the night attack caused to the Germans. An important influence on the course of the battle was the fact that the terrain around Hill 140 had not been taken by the German Kampfgruppe Waldmüller despite the orders of Wünsche's felow officer Kurt Meyer, which did not manage to group together to move around the hill. Additionally, the sudden appearance of Worthington's forces endangered Kampfgruppe Waldmüller's command and cut off its escape route. None of Worthington's command knew of this, however, still thinking they were on Hill 195.

In contrast to the Canadian command, the Germans quickly realized the seriousness of the situation and quicky went into action. Shortly after their arrival at Hill 140, Worthington's tanks were detected by SS-Obersturmführer Meitzel, a staff officer assigned to Kampfgruppe Wünsche. He shortly notified SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche, who in turn notified Kurt Meyer, who ordered the immediate destruction of the Canadian force. As such, Wünsche directed 15 Panzerkampfwagen V Panther and 5 Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger tanks from the Quesnay forest from the 1st Battalion of the 12th SS Armoured Regiment and the 102nd SS Heavy Tank Battalion respectively, supported by at least two companies of Panzergrenadiers. A few remaining tanks from the 101th SS Heavy Tank Battalion joined the attack after fighting alongside Kampfgruppe Waldmüller the previous day.

Direct hostilities

Worthington went into battle commanding a full armoured regiment and three infantry companies. Due to the column's previous dispersal, he now only had 31 M4 Shermans, 1 M3 Stuart and approximately 220 men at his disposal. Despite these very few resources, he decided to proceed with organizing a comprehrensive defence of the position and waited for reinforcements to arrive. Tanks were placed around the hedge, along each of the sides of the rectangular field, and right in front of them was found entrenched infantry. Inside the area, two levels of medium weight mortars were placed in lieu of bombs.

Worthington stil hoped that the modest defence would be joined by the rest of the units of the battlegroup. One of them, the second platoon of Squadron B, continued the march to Hill 195 alone. However, when it arrived some 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the hill, it was bombarded near Hill 151 by anti-tank guns and, without any reinforcements to back it, retreated. Near Estrées-la-Campagne, it found and joined Squadron A and Company B as they moved towards Hill 140. Very soon, almost a kilometre away from the hill, the column fell into a trap set up by Tiger tanks and anti-tank guns. Only 2 Shermans managed to make their way to Worthington while 17 others were destroyed. The annihilation of Squadron A and the second platoon was observed by Company D, which was right behind them. The company's soldiers attempted to help the tanks, but came under fire from machine guns, mortars and guns. Ultimately, having lost at least 2 armed transport, they retreated to Bretteville.

Around 8 a.m., fighting over Hill 140 itself began, where some of Wünsche's tanks had already arrived. They generally attacked Canadian positions from two angles. From the southwest, a company of Panther tanks, supported by a group of armoured grenadiers, advanced. From the southeast, meanwhile, two platoons of Tiger tanks with another group of armoured grenadiers. Their actions were supported by intense fire from mortars and heavy artillery.