A Kitchener School teacher liberates a village Canadian Who Liberated A Village He accepted the surrender of 2,000 Germans all by himself and marched them back to the Allied lines armed with only a tommy gun. This Remembrance Day, when the world is torn between remembering the sacrifices of two world wars and visualizing the honors of a possible third, a priest in the quiet French hamlet of Toumai-sur-Dive remembers a happier wartime incident. Father Launay, in fact, remembers the occasion very well. It was Aug. 21, 1944. The green and usually peaceful countryside of Normandy was in flames. As German armies reeled back from the disaster and carnage of the Falaise Gap with Allied armies in full pursuit, town after town in this picturesque and historic part of France was caught up. in the honors of modern warfare. Tournai-sur-Dive was one of these. Strong elements of the German 7th Army were entrenched in and around the village. The Allies turned 400 pieces of artillery against this stubborn foe. The shells started to hammer down and they did not choose between Frenchman and German. The 500 villagers of Tournai-sur-Dive burrowed into the ruins. Father Launay knew he had to stop the fighting or most of his parishioners would die. So at 3 P.M. on Aug. 21, he succeeded in convincing the German major in charge of the village that it was suicide to continue the fight. A German junior officer volunteered to accompany the priest to the Allied lines to attempt to arrange a cease-fire. They got through the brutal barrage and then encountered advancing Canadian troops. The Canadians named a single soldier to accompany Father Launay back to Tournai-sur-Dive to accept the sur-render of the Germans. And this is just what happened. The lone Canadian, when he reached the village, accepted the surrender of 2,000 Germans. Father Launay, his village saved, watched the Germans disappear, the Canadian shepherding them with the help of a sub-machine-gun. Then, suddenly, he realized that he had forgotten to ask the name of the soldier who had delivered his village. For 17 years he tried to locate the Canadian soldier. The surrender which saved the community was commemorated by a panorama in the nearby museum at Laigle, including two wax models — one of the priest and one of the unknown Canadian soldier. Then, almost 17 years after the incident, the story became known in Canada. And in Kitchener, Ont., reporter pave Green, of the Kitchener-Waterloo News Record, came up with the answer Father Launay was looking for. Maj. Gordon Sim, a Kitchener school teacher who went to war with the famed Highland Light Infantry, seemed to be the man in question. Sgt. Harvey Knipfel, C. D. Campbell (H.LL adjutant at that time), and other Kitchener veterans recalled that it was Maj. Sim (Susie Sim to his men) who had taken part in the single-handed capture. But Father Launay and the village of Tournai-sur-Dive will never be able to express their thanks to this Canadian soldier. Two weeks later, as the fighting rolled over the city of Rouen and burst out on to the fields and wooded hills beyond, Maj. Sim, 30, was killed in action. Weekend Magazine. Vol. 11 No. 34, 1961 s
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 21:50:31 +0000
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