Photo of Augie Herchenratter as it appeared in his obituary in the Globe & Mail
Article By Owen Lackenbauer, September 2008
At 5:00 a.m. on July 8, 1944 an intense artillery barrage startled Sergeant August (Augie) Herchenratter from a fitful sleep. Dawn had not yet broken on what was forecast to be a warm, sunny day.
Already fully dressed in combat clothing and clutching his rifle, Augie peered south from his shallow dugout near the village of Vieux Cairon to watch thousands of shells explode on German held French territory less than a mile away. The intensive artillery barrage signaled the launch of Operation Charnwood, a full-scale attack by three divisions totaling 115,000 men.
The Canadian 3rd Division together with the British 3rd Division and the 59th Staffordshire (British) Division faced a well prepared and determined enemy force strung across an eight-mile front. The allied objective was to seize the ancient Norman capital of Caen and its nearby airport.
Augie was the 24-year-old leader of number 18 platoon, the only non-commissioned officer designated that day to command one of the three platoons of ‘D’ Company, The Highland Light Infantry of Canada (HLI of C). He glanced around to see that all 28 of his men were in place. The ground attack was scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. ‘B’ company would start out to the left (east) of ‘D’ company. ‘C’ and ‘A’ companies would follow them in reaching and securing their objective, the village of Buron.
In total the HLI of C was at battalion strength of slightly more than 800 men. About 600 of them would join in the attack, the remainder left out of battle and held in reserve.
As he waited anxiously, Augie reflected on the intensive training the battalion underwent in preparation for this day. What brought him to this pivotal point in his life, he wondered? He thought about his home town, his family and friends. He also thought about the girl in England he hoped one day to marry.
He recalled happy days growing up the youngest of three brothers and two sisters at his parents’ Kitchener home on Park Street; attending King Edward School and, later, Kitchener Collegiate Institute.
While at King Edward School Augie played hockey on the school’s outdoor rink. A natural athlete, he excelled at the sport. Woody Dumart, a future Boston Bruins hockey star, was one of his team mates.
Money was short in the 1930s. Augie left school early to help at home. He caddied at Westmount Golf and Country Club and, although never having golfed before, within a year achieved a zero handicap and was hired by the club as an assistant professional.
He also worked nights at Doon Twines and played on local factory hockey teams. It wasn’t long before he was recruited by the New Jersey Rivervale Skeeters.
Augie next played one season for the American League’s Springfield Illinois Indians before being hired by the Philadelphia Flyers as a right winger. He was with the Cleveland Barons when they won the league championship in 1941. That same year, Augie placed fifth in American League scoring.
On February 4, 1942 Augie was called up for active military duty. In each of the previous two years, Canadian athletes playing professionally in the U.S. were required to return to Canada for one month of military training. Augie became a member of the Kitchener- based Scots Fusiliers of Canada and trained in London, Ont. Among his fellow military trainees were Kitchener-Waterloo’s ‘Kraut Line’ hockey legends Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart. Following their training the famous trio flew together to Montreal and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Augie stayed with the Army, qualified as a commando, was promoted Corporal and helped train recruits at Camp Ipperwash, Ont.
He shipped overseas as a Sergeant in August, 1943 and, after arriving in England, was transferred to the 1st Battalion, The Highland Light Infantry of Canada – Galt’s infantry regiment that included two companies of soldiers from Kitchener’s Scots Fusiliers. There he met a number of his old friends from Waterloo County: “It was like coming home’, Augie recalls. It was also where he met and fell in love with Joanne Vaughan, a young Canadian from Ottawa who was living with her parents in England.
During the next 10 months Augie underwent intensive battle training with the Battalion in preparation for the anticipated Allied invasion of mainland Europe.
The HLI of C landed in the second wave of amphibious landings on Juno Beach, Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944 as part of the 9th Canadian Highland Brigade. Members of the rifle companies were equipped with bicycles to carry them quickly inland once the beachhead was secured. Although expecting heavy resistance by German defenders, the landing was surprisingly smooth. “We saw a bunch of German prisoners and some bodies but the guys ahead of us had pretty well cleaned out German defences near the beach,” Augie recalls.
“We got ourselves organized, put on dry socks, climbed on our bicycles and moved inland. The guys nicknamed me ‘Pete’ and when anyone had a flat tire, which was often, they would yell ‘hey Pete I have a flat’. I’d tell them to forget it and ride on the rim.”
The Battalion moved forward to an area near Villons-les-Bussons where they dug in for the better part of a month, waiting orders. Little did they know their unit would soon be embroiled in one of the bloodiest battles of the Normandy Campaign.
About a mile to their front was Buron, a rambling village of about 80 small buildings four miles northwest of Caen. A month earlier, on June 7, The North Nova Scotia Regiment, supported by tanks of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers, had overrun Buron but a strong German counter attack forced their withdrawal. In the fight, the North Novas suffered 242 casualties of whom 84 were killed. The Sherbrookes lost 21 tanks and 63 crew members.
Between June 7 and 15, 1944, members of the infamous 12th SS Panzer Division, comprised of fanatical 17 and 18- year-old HitlerJugend (Hitler Youth) and led by battle hardened veterans, murdered 156 Canadian prisoners they had captured. These despicable crimes enraged Canadian troops. In a December, 1945 war crimes tribunal the SS Division’s commander, 33-year-old Brigadier-General Kurt Meyer was sentenced to death (later commuted to life in prison) for failure of his command responsibility that led to many of the killings.
In the ensuing weeks, the Germans reinforced their defences around Buron by expanding two anti-tank ditches and adding strategically placed machine gun nests, mortars, a network of slit trenches, self propelled guns, tanks and land mines. Defending the village were about 800 HitlerJugend of the 3rd Battalion, 25th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment.
The ground invasion of Europe was under the command of British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. At his disposal were five divisions: two British, two American and one Canadian whose combined strength grew from 130,000 men to 850,000 between June 6 and 30. ‘Monty’s plan was to overrun Caen, draw German strength to the British and Canadian sectors and allow the American divisions to break out in the west.
It was in this overall tactical environment that Augie found himself the morning of July 8.
The Canadian artillery barrage stopped and, at 7:30 a.m. the Battalion’s pipers played a rallying tune heard over the shouts of company commanders ordering the troops forward. Augie led his three sections of riflemen along the Battalion’s right flank toward the anti- tank ditch.
“We were taking a hail of fire from machine guns, mortars and 88 mm self-propelled guns. A number of my guys were hit within the first few minutes. When we got to the anti-tank ditch it was wider and deeper than we thought. The Germans were well dug in and had to be cleared out using rifles and grenades or knives and bayonets in hand-to- hand fighting.
“It was really tough going because we had to cross almost a mile of flat farm land to reach our objective. And when we got past the anti-tank ditch there were a number of well dug in machine gun nests that had to be eliminated.”
By the time Augie reached the village only five of his 28 men were left standing.
“The Hitler Youth kids dedicated their lives to Hitler. They obeyed orders blindly and fought ferociously to their death”. Nonetheless, 47 of them were taken prisoner during the battle.
One of Augie’s section leaders, Corporal Frank Weitzel of Tavistock, Ont., exhibited incredible heroism during the battle.
“Weitzel was a likeable big farm boy,” Augie remembers. “He was wounded in the leg early in the advance but kept going. When his 10-man section was down to three plus himself, he sent one man back for reinforcements and led the two remaining in an attack on two machine gun positions. When his two men were hit, Weitzel continued on alone taking out both positions with his bren gun before being killed himself. It was an awesome display of courage”.
By 11:30 a.m. all four companies had reached and taken their objectives. ‘D’ company of almost 90 men had been whittled down to one officer and 38 other ranks. ‘B’ company lost two-thirds of its men and all but one officer. ‘C’ company had lost half its members while ‘A’ company lost a third. The two leading assault companies lost more than half their men in the first two hours of the battle.
The HLI of C war diary records that ‘D’ Company, first into the village, had to smash its way through alone and clean out all the trenches that comprised the German defensive system.
Leading his ‘D’ Company platoon, Sergeant Herchenratter organized the attack each time a machine gun nest was encountered, one of which he wiped out alone.
After the Canadians occupied Buron, the Germans began shelling the village, causing additional Canadian casualties. Some, lying wounded in the field, were killed by German mortar fire.
The Battalion’s padre, Captain J.McM. (‘Jock’) Anderson was to be awarded the Military Cross for his heroism that day. Under constant fire, he spent the entire day going back and forth, picking up wounded men and delivering them to the regimental aid post. Unit pipers were employed as stretcher bearers. All of the pipers became casualties themselves.
After moving through Buron, Augie reorganized two of the decimated platoons and led an attack to clear out a defended orchard on the southwest edge of the village.
German Tiger tanks attempted a counter attack but were beaten back by the Canadians.
Buron was the HLI of C’s first and biggest fight as a Battalion in the Second World War. The unit had been badly blooded, but won the day ready to move forward when ordered.
In that single day the Galt unit sustained 263 casualties: 70 killed and 193 wounded. Sixteen of the Battalion’s members who fought in the battle were decorated for bravery, two of them posthumously.
Augie was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. The DCM is the Commonwealth’s second highest award for gallantry in action. Only the Victoria Cross ranks higher. King George V1 presented the medal to Augie at Buckingham Palace on March 5th, 1945.
The official citation reads: ‘Sergeant August Paul Herchenratter is awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his outstanding display of initiative and courage during the battle. Sgt. Herchenratter was acting as a platoon commander in ‘D’ Company, the right forward company, and throughout the advance into the town and beyond he encouraged his platoon, by personal example leading them in the clearing of enemy dug- in positions, in knocking out a number of enemy machine guns and finally, in gaining the platoon objective. Upon reaching this, he reorganized his platoon and set out to clear the orchard in the company objective in which there were a number of enemy machine gun positions. Although his platoon amounted to little more than a section by this time, he was successful in his effort. He then assisted the Company Commander in the reorganization and consolidation of the remainder of the company.’
Corporal Weitzel was mentioned in dispatches for his heroism and nominated posthumously to receive the Victoria Cross but the order was never promulgated. “He gave his all and really deserved the medal”, confirms Augie. “I’ll never forget seeing him, riddled with bullet holes and lying dead on the edge of a German machine gun nest he had just taken out.”
After Buron, the Battalion was reinforced with replacement soldiers. Augie fought with it in the battle for the Falaise Gap and in pursuing the German Army across France.
The HLI of C was in on the capture of Boulogne and helped seize the huge cross Channel guns at Cap Gris Nez that had threatened the south coast of England.
“We sent the German Garrison commander’s flag, sword and dagger to the Lord Mayor of Dover with the message ‘Greeting and enjoy your pint of beer in peace – we have all of Gerry’s Big Berthas’.
In October, the Battalion took part in the battle for the Scheldt Estuary to aid in the opening of the Port of Antwerp.
Unwounded throughout the fighting, Augie became a casualty in October, 1944 when his hand was crushed accidentally while riding in a Bren Gun carrier. He was sent to England for rehabilitation. There he reunited with Joanne. They were married on March 10, 1945 and honeymooned in Brighton.
With the War nearing its end, Augie was enrolled in an officer training course. “I soon dropped out, deciding I’d much rather be a sergeant”, he recalls.
He returned to Canada and civilian life in February, 1946. Joanne followed in May with their five-month-old son, Donald.
One week after arriving in Kitchener, the former sergeant who miraculously survived the War practically unscathed, broke his arm in a pick-up hockey game. After the arm healed he managed to break a leg playing for the Waterloo Tigers baseball team.
Augie’s first post-war job was with Mount Hope cemetery. He next fixed benches and tables in Waterloo Park before being hired full time by Seagram’s Waterloo Distillery, first as a Cooper, then carpenter and finally in the firm’s stockroom where he worked 30 years until his retirement in 1985. In his sparetime he continued his involvement with sports. He was coach of the Waterloo Siskins in 1954 when they won the Ontario Junior ‘B’ championship and, for a number of years, played right field for the Waterloo Tigers. During one season Augie captured the inter city batting championship.
Augie and Joanne celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary in March 2008. The couple has three grown children: son Donald (Waterloo); daughters Judy (Brampton) and Nancy (Markham), five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Augie and Joanne returned to Buron in 1969 to attend the dedication of a monument commemorating the sacrifices made by soldiers of the Highland Light Infantry of Canada in liberating the village. “It was quite an emotional day”, Augie recalls.
Now 89 and suffering from emphysema that requires him to take oxygen 24 hours a day, Augie continues to lead an alert and active life, helping Joanne in the garden of their Waterloo home, maintaining contact with his surviving Army buddies and participating in Waterloo Legion Branch 530 events.
He also keeps in touch with the last surviving member of the famous Kraut Line, his 90- year-old uncle, Milt Schmidt who resides near Boston, Mass.
Author’s note:
Sadly, Augie passed away on Dec. 7, 2017. He was laid to rest with full military honours in Parkview Cemetery, Waterloo. The RHFC provided his pall bearers and honour guard. The regimental padre conducted the memorial service. Regimental fusiliers fired a farewell volley over his resting place while a bugler played Last Post and a Piper aired the Lament.
Augie’s wife, Joanne, died Nov. 1st, 2022 at age 96.
Globe & Mail Obituary: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/war-hero-augie-herchenratter-hoped-to-make-it-to-the-nhl/article37536495/
