大象传媒

By 2nd Lieutenant James Wareing 141st RAC ( The Buffs), 79th Armoured Division, 1st Canadian Army.

In recent years Sangatte, a village situated a few miles west of Calais has become associated with asylum seekers and illegal immigrants but in 1944 it was notorious as the site from which the Germans had shelled Dover for 3 years.

Two companies of Canadian infantry from the North Shore Regiment commenced the action 鈥淥peration Undergo鈥� to capture the 16 inch guns at Noires Mottes, Sangatte on September 26th 1944. This was the day after the decision had been taken to withdraw what was left of 1st British Airborne from Arnhem.

I commanded a small detachment of flails, crocodiles and petard tanks assigned to the operation from 79th Armoured Div. We arrived at the crest of a hill above the guns the previous evening and evacuated the tanks for the night. The Germans knew we were there but there was only some light firing in our direction from the beach and occasional shellfire from the batteries at Calais. However they chose to fire 16 rounds from the left-hand gun to Dover in a last act of defiance and we could feel the heat waves from each shot.

The action started an hour after daylight with the RAF sending in a huge assault with crater forming bombs over the whole area. As a result a whole hillside came down on Germans hidden in the tunnels and forts around the guns. The accuracy was such that not a single bomb went astray over the bomb line designed to protect us.

I sent the flails in first but most of the hidden land mines had been exploded or thrown up by the RAF. The beach defences responded with 88mm and mortar fire so I went forward to the crest with my flamethrowing crocodile. On reaching the crest a lucky shot from Calais destroyed one of my tracks and another hit the crocodile behind. I was on the other side of the tank and was blown into a crater. These were lucky shots because the Germans in Calais could not see us. The medics checked me out and I was okay apart from temporary deafness which may have contributed to the permanent deafness I have suffered for many years now.

I was too far away to use the flamethrower but I got the 75mm gun into action. My gunner was brilliant, knocking out an 88mm and a mortar position near the sea with his first two rounds. This was significant, as they had been firing a torrent at the Canadian infantry storming down the slope to the forts. However we were giving more than we were receiving and by mid morning some Germans came out of the forts to surrender. Their own side immediately mowed them down and the battle continued. An hour or so later we brought the petard tanks into view on the crest and this ended the German resistance. I went down the hill with the Canadian Colonel to accept the surrender of their commander, a young Captain. White flags were flying from each of the forts but it was still not quite over. Sappers were sent in to find and destroy any demolition charges before we allowed the Germans to leave. We found that they had planned to blow up all three forts with booby traps and take out as many of us as possible.
Inspection of the complex afterwards revealed that the central fort had taken a direct hit from Dover a few months earlier. The round had gone through two floors. The Germans rendered the gun beyond repair by blowing the barrel.

The Canadians were quite crazy when it came to celebrating. We found a well stocked wine cellar in the complex of forts so we were able to assist them on this occasion.

The attack was written up in the weekly magazine 鈥淚llustrated鈥� dated 14th October 1944. Included were several photographs of the guns and surrounding area plus a couple of my tank crew. I still have the photos provided by the magazine as mementoes of the successful operation.

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