Aerial photos of The Lost Column

Michael Dorosh

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The Lost Column by LFT depicts the actions of Worthington Force - the first combat action of the British Columbia Regiment, new to action as part of the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division in the last month of the Normandy campaign. The BCR got lost in the darkness, went up the wrong hill, and got shot to pieces the day after.

Interesting blog by the Project 44 team here:


High quality aerial photos and a discussion of how the regiment ended up behind German lines when the sun came up on August 9, 1944. Last stand of the battle group took place here:

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Old Noob

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Obviously, someone needed remedial training in night-march map reading. But reading a map in darkness aboard a bouncing tank
with people yelling over the radio net {both lower AND higher echelons} is very difficult.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Obviously, someone needed remedial training in night-march map reading. But reading a map in darkness aboard a bouncing tank
with people yelling over the radio net {both lower AND higher echelons} is very difficult.
I doubt anyone needed additional training. The article mentions that an old Roman road was mistaken for one of the paved roads.

I've driven (and led) in convoys in blackout conditions on military exercises - looking for a "black track" as we call them now in the middle of the night, while tired, is not an easy task. Completely understandable and frankly I'm surprised we don't read about these kinds of mixups happening more often. They probably did happen a lot, this one just happened to have unusually catastrophic consequences.
 

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How many casualties suffered by the Canadians?
 
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