Lot 462

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Description:

Historic Normandy campaign battle map prepared by for the Panzer Pionier battalion of the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" in advance of the Canadian attack to take le Mesnil-Patry, Normandy on June 11, 1944. The 24" x 16" map is based on a red blueprint showing le Mesnil-Patry at center top, with Cristot to the west and Norry-en-Bessin to the east. There are many hand-drawn additions to the printed map as well. The three towns all have heavy artillery emplacements to the south and east. Le Mesnil-Patry also has grenade launchers embedded within the artillery, and various buildings in the town, including the church, have been razed for defensive purposes. There are various defensive positions and barbed wire emplacements in the streets as well. South of town there is a long defensive line comprised of anti-tank gun emplacements and machine gun nests, most hidden behind lines of trees or within small woods. The map, well-used and with marginal tears and losses, bears a period pencil note on the verso claiming it was taken from the body of Knights Cross recipient Siegfried Muller, though this attribution is incorrect and probably a matter of an overanxious Canadian soldier confusing one "Muller" with another. A great document from an important early Normandy battle. The Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry was the last attack by an armored battle group conducted by Canadian troops in Normandy in June 1944. The attack was intended to support a larger operation by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and the 7th Armored Division to capture the city of Caen and to advance in the center of the bridgehead next to the First US Army. Instead, the Canadians lost 173 killed and wounded and 51 tanks versus a German loss of 139 and 3-14 tanks. Atrocities by troops of the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend against Canadian prisoners occurred and orders given by a junior Canadian commander to refrain from taking German prisoners as a reprisal, were countermanded by higher authority as soon as they were discovered. ALSO INCLUDED: Cloth-covered bound notebook with ownership signature of Heinz Zufelde, a Waffen-SS soldier also with Pion. 1./SS-Pi. Btl. 12 12th SS, KIA 26.6.44 at Cheux which was just a few miles closer to Caen. This 100pp. 8vo. book, undoubtedly taken in the same action as the map, concerns maps and map symbols, trenches, mine emplacement, etc., with four or five pages of poetry at the rear of the book. In all practicality, as both pieces originated from the same source, Zufelde may have possessed the map offered here when he was killed. Two pieces.

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April 30, 2019 10:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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