Hoffmeister

Related:

The Soldiers’ General: Bert Hoffmeister at War

How Hitler Was Defeated

The Canadian Encyclopedia: 

Major General Bertram (Bert) Meryl Hoffmeister, OC, CB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, ED, Canadian Army officer, businessman (born 15 May 1907 in Vancouver, BC; died 4 December 1999 in Vancouver, BC). During the Second World War, Hoffmeister commanded the Seaforth Highlanders in Sicily, the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Ortona (1943) and the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, which distinguished itself under his courageous leadership in Italy and later in North-West Europe. Military historian Jack Granatstein has referred to Major General Hoffmeister as one of “the best Canadian fighting generals of the [Second world] war.”When the war ended, Hoffmeister resumed his career in the BC forest industry and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1982.

. . .By February 1945, Hoffmeister’s division of 20,000 troops, 450 tanks, 5,600 wheeled vehicles and 320 carriers had sailed from the port of Leghorn, Italy to Marseilles, France and made their way north to join the First Canadian Army in the liberation of the western Netherlands, including the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterham and The Hague, as well as the liberation of Arnhem and Apeldoorn.

By early September 1944, Canadian and Allied forces had already defeated the Germans allowing for the liberation of southern parts of the Netherlands and providing Allied ships access to the vital port of Antwerp, Belgium. By the close of the war in May 1945, the First Canadian Army had liberated all of the Netherlands and provided food and medical aid to the starving population.

An excerpt from, “Forgotten Fights: The Canadian Black Watch at Verrières Ridge, July 1944″ by David O’Keefe, National WWII Museum, June 8, 2020:

July 25 marks the 76th anniversary of the breakout by General Omar Bradley’s First US Army in Operation “Cobra,” which is the fulcrum of the Normandy narrative following the spectacular success of the landings on June 6. Lost in the commemoration of service and sacrifice on July 25 is the bloody Canadian-led clash on the eastern flank of the bridgehead—known as Operation Spring—that unfolded in concert with the American push and proved vital to that monumental victory.

Since the D-Day landings, American, British, and Canadian forces had been locked in a deathmatch with the Germans in the bocage country, battling tooth and nail to gain much needed elbow room in the crowded bridgehead. Having recovered quicker than expected from their initial shock, the German defenders had managed to rope off the bridgehead by early July, and as a result, a near stalemate developed. With success measured by feet and yards in an attritional struggle reminiscent of the charnel house battles of the First World War, the Western Allied effort paled compared to that of the Soviet Red Army juggernaut rampaging across Eastern Europe, churning up hundreds of miles at a clip, crushing German divisions and stealing world headlines.

Politically, the lack of decisive action and a corresponding dramatic victory weighed heavily on Allied command plagued by the backbeat of a Presidential election year in the US and increasing war weariness in Great Britain. As one Canadian Brigadier quipped, “the whip was out” to force a decision in Normandy, and General Eisenhower, under immense pressure, pushed 21st Army Group commander General Bernard Law Montgomery (Monty) to act more decisively. Dissatisfied with Montgomery’s current plan to hold with General Miles Dempsey’s Second British Army at Caen to permit Bradley’s Army to bash in the door at St. Lo, Ike ordered a two-fisted offensive to begin immediately. The results were Operations “Cobra” for the Americans and “Goodwood,” with its Canadian subsidiary “Atlantic,” for the Anglo-Canadian forces.

Goodwood, launched on July 18, ended abruptly just two days later despite promising success in its initial stages. Ultimately, the much-ballyhooed Goodwood failed when Dempsey’s armoured forces slammed headlong into the German-controlled Verrières-Bourguebus feature that sat roughly five miles south of Caen. This embryonic line, which by the second week in July formed the main German defensive hinge in Normandy, held firm, inflicted grievous losses and robbed the most elusive of all elements for success—momentum—from the British breakout bid.

However, amongst the misery came one bright spot; during the Canadian subsidiary operation, a small rupture of the German line appeared at the westernmost end of the feature known at that point simply as Verrières Ridge. An initial attempt by the fledgling 2nd Canadian Corps to exploit the breach failed, but out of this costly interlude, Operation Spring was born.

An excerpt from, “Hoffmeister in his Proving Ground, Sicily, July-August 1943″ by Douglas E. Delaney, Canadian Military History 12, 3 (2003):

Hoffmeister realized, or came quickly to realize, the effect of a leader’s personal courage in war. Syd Thomson (who later commanded an infantry battalion under Hoffmeister during the Battle of Ortona) said it best:

During a sticky battle, morale is as important, if not more important than good tactics. On the scale of 1 to 10, morale will go from 4 to 9 just by the appearance of a senior commander in the line when and where the bullets are flying. Bert understood this.

Hoffmeister expected this sort of example from all his officers and showed no mercy for those in whom it was lacking. One officer who cowered during the engagement at Valguarnera -  taking his subordinates with him in hasty retreat – Hoffmeister relieved immediately after the event. That officer may very well have been capable of making good tactical decisions; he had probably done so in training. But this was war – an infantryman’s war; it took more than sound management skills, regimental pride or charisma to make organizations work. It took courage. 

Sections, platoons, companies and battalions were comprised of individual soldiers who were subject to the same fears and apprehensions as any other human beings. Yet soldiers in combat had to face those fears more intensely, and more often. Good commanders, like Hoffmeister, carried soldiers beyond their apprehensions and convinced them that they were all on the “same airplane.”