Murdie at Pavie

Murder at Pavie

Eighteen Canadian soldiers and a Canadian officer had been captured by the Germans, then "wilfully" murdered. The shocking announcement was based on a factual investigation by an unhurried and "completely dispassionate" joint U.S.British-Canadian Court of Inquiry. Details were meager and evidence undisclosed. But it was known that the murders had occurred at Pavie, on the Caen-Bayeux highway, two days after Dday. Thirteen of the victims had been machine-gunned in a group. The Germans responsible were "members of the 12th SS Reconnaissance Battalion of the 12th SS Panzer Division." (The SS murderers, reported Canadian Pressman Ross Munro, had been Hitler Jugend--most of them less than 20 years old.)

"These Canadian soldiers," said Prime Minister Mackenzie King in the House, "had the status of prisoners of war and. . . met their deaths in a manner . . . clearly in violation of the well-recognized laws and usages of war."*

Canadians groaned for revenge. But revenge could come only with victory.

In Normandy, where the announcement of the murders was posted for all Canadian troops to see, Lieut. General H. D. G. Crerar cautioned his men against retaliation in kind. "Instead," said he, "Canadian anger must be converted into a steel-hard determination to ... hit harder, to advance faster. . . ."

* The Geneva Convention of 1929. to which Germany was a signatory, clearly states that "[prisoners of war] shall at all times be humanely treated and protected. . . ." Canadians had forgotten that, as far back as October 1942, Berlin had announced the intention to repudiate the Geneva Convention, promised the Allies a "war of atrocities."

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