ROBERT WILLIAM2 BRADLEY (ROBERT WILLIAM1) was born
on 28 August 1924 in Edmonton, Alberta and died in battle outside the small
French commune of Cussy during OPERATION CHARNWOOD, the recapture of Caen, Normandy
on 08 July 1944, just one month after the landings. Originally buried within
the limits of the town, his remains were reburied and laid to rest at the
Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Calvados, France.
The
Landings in Normandy – 6 Jun 1944 (Source C.P. Stacey, The Victory
Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, Volume III, Official History of
the Canadian Army in the Second World War)
Military
Service:
Service
Number: M/62082
Age: 19
Force: Army
Regiment: Canadian Scottish Regiment, R.C.I.C.
Unit: 1st Battalion
Additional
Information:
Son
of Robert William and Winifred Gladys Bradley, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Private
R.W. Bradley is commemorated on
Page
256 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
Commonwealth
War Graves Commission
In
recognition of his courage and dedication to his duty, Private Robert William
Bradley was awarded the following War Medals:
Canadian
Volunteer Service Medal (with Clasp)
A
timekeeper for the construction company Bechtel, Price & Callahan in
Edmonton, Robert Bradley enlisted as an orderly in the early months of 1943 as
a member of the 33rd Company, Canadian Dental Corps, following in his
father’s footsteps. By October of that year, Private Bradley had transferred to
the 1st Battalion of the Canadian Scottish Regiment and continued
his training as an Infantry Signaler. Proficient in German and French, he
qualified on 24 March 1944 and embarked for the United Kingdom days later, only
three months prior to the landings at Normandy. Private Robert William Bradley
was killed while fighting alongside the 3rd Canadian Infantry
Division in the fields of France on the 8th of July 1944.
At 0730 hours on the 8th
of July, the second phase of OPERATION CHARNWOOD,
the drive to Caen, commenced. Fresh brigades resumed the advance south, but
soon faced toughening resistance from the interlocking German village
strongpoints. On the eastern flank, the 3rd (British) Division
battled forward to secure the key terrain of Hill 64. In the Allied centre, the
59th Division pressed forward two kilometres (one and a quarter
miles) to capture Saint-Contest, but fierce enemy resistance halted their
advance short of Epron. Further west, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division
battled all day to overcome the fanatical resistance offered by SS ‘Hitler
Youth’ soldiers at Buron. That the spearhead Canadian Infantry Division lost a
staggering 262 casualties that day attests to the ferocity of this encounter.
Nearby, a single Canadian 17-pounder anti-tank gun accounted for no less than
13 enemy tanks. Despite the battle still raging in Buron, the Canadians nevertheless
fought their way forward to capture Authie that afternoon and Cussy by dusk. By
nightfall, therefore, these three concentric divisional thrusts had reached a
line less than one kilometre (950 yards) north of the city.
Click here to view Canadian
Army Newsreel footage on the Battle for Caen.
(Note:
Download time approximately 2-minutes using high-speed Internet)
Burial
Information:
Cemetery: BENY-SUR-MER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
Calvados,
France
Grave
Reference: VI. E. 6.
Location:
Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery is about 1 kilometre east of the village of
Reviers, on the Creully-Tailleville-Ouistreham road (D.35). Reviers is a
village and commune in the Department of the Calvados. It is located 15
kilometres northwest of Caen and 18 kilometres east of Bayeux and 3.5
kilometres south of Courseulles, a village on the sea coast. The village of
Beny-sur-Mer is some 2 kilometres southeast of the cemetery. The bus service
between Caen and Arromanches (via Reviers and Ver-sur-Mer) passes the cemetery.
It
was on the coast just to the north that the 3rd Canadian Division landed on 6th
June 1944; on that day, 335 officers and men of that division were killed in
action or died of wounds. In this cemetery are the graves of Canadians who gave
their lives in the landings in Normandy and in the earlier stages of the
subsequent campaign. Canadians who died during the final stages of the fighting
in Normandy are buried in Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery. There
are a total of 2048 burials in Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery. There is
also one special memorial erected to a soldier of the Canadian Infantry Corps
who is known to have been buried in this cemetery, but the exact site of whose
grave could not be located.
Juno Beach
Mike Red and Green sectors / H-Hour / 7:45 a.m.
The Royal Winnipeg Rifles
German soldiers watched the sea. Hundred
of yards in the distance, landing craft slammed up and down on the
white-crested waves. The Germans swallowed hard and wished the men around them
good luck. There was time to remember what Nazi officers had said. Democracy
made people weak. The Allies were sure to run away when bullets flew. As
fingers tightened on triggers, the German soldiers could only pray that this
was true.
On the water, landing craft came
under artillery fire from shore. The Allied bombardment had sounded so
impressive when the soldiers were miles away at sea. But for all the noise, the
Germans were fresh as daisies in Courseulles. It was once a peaceful harbor
village. Now it was a smoking ruin where only the enemy was alive.
At the back of a landing craft, a
Winnipeg soldier joked to ease the tension. He said, in a funny British accent,
“I say, old chaps, anyone for tennis?” Other men joined in: “Pilot, are you
sure this is the ferry to Paris?” “Home was never like this.” “Not much like
the old ferry back home.” “It’s Paris for me, first chance I get.”
“Can the chatter back there! We’re
going in!”
Enemy bullets beat against the metal
ramps. Then ramps went down and Canadians began to die.
Men fell all around him as Corporal
W.J. Klos thrashed through the deep water. Klos was a big, powerful man whose
nickname was “Bull”. A bullet tore into Corporal Klos’ stomach. A second bullet
tore into his leg. The corporal’s rage was greater than his pain. He staggered
to the beach and shot an enemy gunner. Klos dropped his rifle and fought
another German with his bare hands. Bleeding into the sand, Corporal Klos died
with his hands around the throat of the enemy. Behind him, the Winnipegs
charged through the fire.
Captain Phil Gower was everywhere at
once among the men. He organized assaults on the pillboxes and kept the
Winnipegs moving across a fortified bridge. Captain Gower urged men on. He took
off his helmet and waved it in the air to show there was nothing to fear.
Meanwhile, tanks had
landed. Lieutenant “Red” Goff led a troop of Hussar tanks across the bridge and
fired at a camouflaged fort. The Germans shot back and a Hussar tank was hit.
The crew bailed out and all five men were machine gunned and killed. The
Hussars fired on the fort with a vengeance.
Machine gun and mortar
nests surrendered when surrounded by the Winnipegs. A British observer said
that the Canadians went at it like hockey players. But this was definitely not
a game. When the shooting stopped, Captain Gower and twenty-six men of his
company were still standing. More than a hundred Winnipeg soldiers had been
killed or wounded.
The Canadian Scottish
On the right of the Pegs, Charlie
Company of the Canadian Scottish battalion assaulted a fortified chateau at Vaux.
A large German gun had already been knocked out, courtesy of the Royal Navy. A
platoon led by Lieutenant Roger Schjelderup attacked three machine gun nests
and took fifteen prisoners. One of the prisoners led the Can Scots through land
mines, then to an open field beyond.
The soldiers moved
through a field of tall grain in extended formation. The sudden loneliness of
each man was no greater than the pain of homesickness. The fields looked just
like the farms at home. Their German prisoners, held in compounds back on Juno,
would be seeing Canada soon. They would spend the rest of the war on work
farms. One German prisoner of war later described his labor in Canada as
“heaven on earth”.
In Normandy, the Canadian soldiers
pressed on.
Nan Green sector / 7:58 a.m.
The 1st Hussars
Tanks landed ahead of the
Regina Rifle infantry and, firing at close range, took on the German guns.
Peering out his periscope, a soldier
of the 1st Hussars saw another tank “waddle right up to this fort thing. The
tank fired twenty-eight rounds before it was holed. We came alongside him. The
fire was very heavy. Guns were popping off everywhere and machine gun bullets
pelted our hull. We broke through the wire into the dunes and among the
fortified houses. We wheeled around and spotted an anti-tank gun behind the
casement. The Jerries were manning it, but we crashed through a brick wall and
surprised them.” Two direct hits passed through a gun shield and the German gun
blew up.
A tank is a moving metal box with
guns sticking out. On the inside, it’s like a two-storey fort for the five-man
crew. The commander, gunner, and gun loader are on the upper level. Below them,
separated by a metal floor, sat the driver and machine gunner. When the hatches
were closed, the men peered out through periscopes and talked to each other
over a wireless. An enemy shell could “hole” the metal wall of a tank, and the
shell would explode inside. If the crew survived the blast, there was little
time to escape before the fuel and ammunition blew up. A tank could become an
incinerator at any moment in battle.
The Regina Rifles
The Reginas were stopped at the seawall by
enemy fire. Able Company commander Major Duncan Grosch was wounded.
Lieutenant Bill Grayson had a daredevil spirit.
And he didn’t want to let his commanding officer down. Lieutenant Grayson ran
through a gap in the barbed wire and made it to the side of a house. A concrete
gun emplacement, blasting the beach, was down an alley. Between Grayson and the
emplacement was more barbed wire and a machine gun nest. The machine gun fired
on a fixed arc at regular intervals. Grayson calculated there was just enough
time between bursts of fire to reach the emplacement.
The lieutenant made a mad dash but got
entangled in the barbed wire. Perhaps the German gunner was surprised because
the machine gun stopped shooting. It was just for a few moments but that was
long enough for Grayson to tear himself free. He tossed a grenade through an
aperture in the emplacement. The grenade exploded and the lieutenant dived in.
He got to his feet in time to see the gun crew race out the back door. The last
man threw a grenade. It landed between Grayson’s feet. The lieutenant picked it
up and threw it back at the German. The enemy soldier escaped before it went
off.
Lieutenant Grayson raced after the enemy
through the back door and into a trench. It zig-zagged to an underground
shelter. Down the hole, Grayson could see the enemy, and heard shouts of
"Kamerad!". Grayson motioned with his pistol for the Germans to come
out. Trapped by one incredibly brave soldier, thirty-five Germans surrendered
and their artillery gun was destroyed.
About 8:10 a.m. / Nan White sector
The Queen’s Own Rifles
Rifleman Doug Hester and Rifleman Doug Reed
were singing "For Me and My Gal" as they watched the shore. Then
ramps went down in crossfire and Doug Reed was dead. Three other men were
killed in the first seconds of their war. One was Fred Harris, the son of a
Toronto doctor, who had turned down every chance to be somewhere else on D-Day.
Hester jumped from the craft. The riflemen,
drenched and freezing, splashed their way to the obstacles for protection. A
burst of gunfire went through Corporal John Gibson’s back pack. Corporal Gibson
turned to Hester, grinned, and said, “That was close, Dougie." Then
another burst of gunfire killed him.
The beach ahead was 200 yards of open ground
that ended at a ten-foot high seawall. The whole area was swept by enemy fire.
Major Elliot Dalton led men to the wall. Two thirds of a platoon fell to the
sand. Sergeant Charlie Smith was wounded but fought his way with ten survivors
to the Bernières railway station. Glass shattered and wood splintered as they
were hit with gunfire from houses along the street. Sergeant Smith collapsed
and a corporal took over. Five men of the platoon were still able to fight.
Using a Piat, the Canadians blew a hole through the wall of a house, and the
explosion killed the German snipers inside.
Riflemen “Boots” Bettridge, Bert Shepherd, and
Sergeant Major Charlie Martin ran to the wire beyond the railway tracks. Martin
ordered Rifleman Shepherd to use the wire cutters. Shepherd said, “Cut it
yourself, you’re paid more.” Martin cut the wire.
8:30 a.m.
Le Régiment de la
Chaudière
Behind the Queen’s Own Rifles, tanks of the Fort
Garry Horse were landing. And behind the tanks was the infantry battalion from
Quebec: Le Régiment de
la Chaudière.
The tide was quickly rising, and mined
obstacles were underwater. Five of the Chaud’s landing craft hit mines and sank.
Soldiers struggled to reach shore, losing equipment and weapons in the surf. A
navy captain reported that one group of infantry “still had their knives and
were quite willing to fight with this weapon alone.” The French Canadians (most
did have rifles) advanced into Bernières where the residents were thrilled with
their liberators. The regiment’s diarist wrote, “Les francais sont assez
accueillants et beaucoup nous acclament au milieu des ruines de leurs maisons.”
(“The French, surrounded by the ruins of their houses, welcomed them with open
arms.”)
Bernières was ringed with German artillery. The
Chauds and a machine gun platoon of Cameron Highlanders were pinned down at the
main exit from the village.
Lieutenant Walter Moisan led an attack. A smoke
grenade he carried stopped a bullet. This might have been lucky, but the
grenade ignited and set fire to Moisan’s uniform. Still, he stayed at the head
of the attack until the enemy position was overrun.
Nearby, a German gun hit the Queen’s Own Rifles
as they gathered beside a church. Captain Ben Dunkelman set mortar weapons in a
ditch about two hundred yards from the German artillery. Corporal Tom McKenzie
saw the mortars fire. There was a blast and Dunkelman jumped in the air with
his hands over his head in victory.
By 11:40 a.m., another brigade was landing. So
many soldiers in one place were a perfect target for the big German guns, but
men such as Captain Dunkelman and Lieutenant Moisan had cleared the way
forward. The one man was a Jewish Canadian; the other was French Canadian. The
soldiers behind them were Scottish Canadians. United as a country, diversity
was strength.
The Maple Leaf flies over Juno beach today.
Click here for a Map of the Juno Landings Click here for a Picture of the Juno
Monument
