battlefields                        Nov 2003
 St Lambert Sur Dives

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada


On August 17th 1944,Canadian forces took Falaise.  The Canadian 4th Armoured Division and the  1st Polish Armoured division started to drive southwards.  To the west the British Army was on the move eastwards.  To the south, the 90th U.S. Division was moving north.  These Allied armies were closing in on the German 7th Army and the 5th Panzer Division.  The German's only means of retreat was eastwards through the towns of Trun, St. Lambert-sur-Dives and Chambois.  These towns  were situated at the junctions of roads leading eastwards through the forest of Maczuga. 

The Canadians had taken the highway that leads from Falaise to Chambois.  To the east of the Canadians ,the Poles had dug in the woods of Maczuga.   Major D.V. Currie led his squadron of South Alberta Regiment and a company of Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders towards St. Lambert sur Dives.  Here was the last unbroken road eastwards to Vimoutiers   The out numbered Canadians and Poles were caught in the middle with the German 7th Army to the west and the 2nd SS panzer Division to the east.  The germans launch assault after assault in desperate attempts to break through without success.


For this diorama, I wanted to create a section(10) of men of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.  I managed to make 7 and ran out of wool OD serge material.
It was a stroke of luck that I came upon a pair of brown wool flannel trousers at the thrift store.  With the addition of green and yellow fabric dye I was able to arrive at a colour almost equivalent to the original colour of the 1:1 scale battledress blouse that I have in my very limited collection.  I used every bit of this pair of trousers to get 7 uniforms completed.                                                                                                  The webbing is my own manufacture except the gaiters and boots which are mainly by DML.  The mark III helmet is my own sculpture.
From the photos above one can discern the "bren gun team".  This team consist of three men, one leader who carries 4 magazine pouches,one who carries the bren gun pouche(DML) with the spare barrel and tools and the bren gunner. The bren gunner in this diorama wears a tam-O-shanter.  The bren gun is the DML version.
Kneeling on the sidewalk with the P.I.A.T. (bbi version) are two figures from bbi with my uniforms on them.  The bbi bodies are difficult to have them in standing poses but  sitting and kneeling poses they can be manipulated very naturally.

These last photographs are just shots at different angles and  show the difference in effect from the same "set-up".

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