Battle at Xanten, March 1945

Battle at Xanten in the Rhine. March 1945.

The battle at Xanten was the RHLI's last significant fight during their European campaign. Although their last, it was full of casualties and the Germans were fighting harder than ever. With Major Pigott out of the war, the commander of the RHLI fell of Lt. Colonel Whitaker. The battle began with the rolling artillery tactic that started at Vimy Ridge. Casulities were great on both sides, and below are personal excerpts from the Canadians that lived it.

Lieutenant-Colonel Whitaker

It was a long advance across open ground, and D company under Frogett and A under Jimmy Bostiwck started out in the lead. Bostwick ran into the worst of it right off because on his side there was a rise of land that we thought we held. But the enemy had it and could see everything

Lieutenant Ken Wharton

We were moving ahead on a compass bearing through a smokescreen, and the Jerries were dropping all the artillery they could into the smoke. That’s when Jimmy Bostwick got it. I was running towards him, then suddenly saw him go up about eight feet and come back down… It was a great shock, because he was the kind of guy who gave you so much confidence to be near him. It was hard to believe that suddenly he was dead. The last five words of Bostwick’s life were, “Ken, take the company through!”

Lieutenant Froggett

It seemed that we leaned against that barrage for an hour and a half. It must have one of the longest advances the unit ever made behind a barrage… Anyways, after wadding over that low, wet ground- It had rained the night before- we reached our objective and pushed on an additional hundred yards or so. We picked up about 40 prisoners, and we were pretty happy. It looked like another Whitaker sweep.
“But he was deceived. The Germans had devised a new and effective tactic, whereby they allowed the leading wave of attackers to pass through their forward defences and then opened fire upon them from the rear, and a hail of fire fell about the Riley’s from every side

Lieutenant Froggett: account of being captured

We walked straight into the enemy. When we got over a little crest of ground, several machine-guns opened fire all around me. It was obvious that they didn’t wait to hit me. It turned out that they were some prisoners that I had freed a couple hours before with a few men. They had been freed by the fire of the strong German forces behind us. “We’ve decided to take you back” one of the officers told me. I felt this would be interesting “Back” was through my own positions. But that night I went back with about 70 of their men, a Luger pressed against my neck. To make matters worse, we went right through my own men. When we got to the Wesel Bridge, it was under air and artillery fire. They sent me across unescorted, with shells clanging off the girders and me under their sight all the time. However, I was a prisoner for only three weeks

Lieutenant Ken Wharton

Our objective was a group of farm buildings in the west end of Xanten. When I got there I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was going to consolidate with. Jery was throwing everything at us, and we were all mixed up fighting among the houses. It soon began to look like we had reached a stalemate. We didn’t have enough men to be as aggressive as would liked to have been, and they somehow or other didn’t think they could dislodge us, which at that moment suited us just fine.
Then we lost contact with the battalion when our own artillery, bracketing one of the buildings that was giving B company trouble, knocked down the wall of a cottage, burying our 18 set. Fortunately, the Germans had left their set behind in the building, and eventually we got that going.
A section in a house to my right was being at by an 88MM. We called on our Artillery, and it was taken care of twenty seconds later with a terrific barrage. Whenever thins got really bad wed call on the artillery, and they would tell us to direct the fire. So all we had to do was call the number, like “Mike target Mike target five-one, five rounds gunfire, fire!
Once when I was out checking on the sections, there was a great whoosh of artillery and I wondered what in hell was going on. When I got back to my headquarters there was Johnny Sumkins, my wounded platoon commander, and the wireless set. When I asked him what was going on, he said, “I just got a little itchy, Ken, and called down a Mike 51”
Do you know you’re probably costing the taxpayer 25 dollars apiece for every one of those shells? ‘I said. “Yeah” Johnny said, “Isn’t it wonderful?”

Xanten was won. The RHLI had 134 causalities, the most in 2nd Canadian Division. Two company commanders had been killed and a third taken prisoner.