Canadian soldiers with a captured Hitler Youth flag at Friesoythe, 16 April 1945. Wikimedia Commons.
4. Canadian soldiers razed the German city of Friesoythe after the death of their commander in battle
In the closing days of the Second World War, on April 14, 1945, the Canadian Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders engaged German paratroopers in battle at the town of Friesoythe in northwestern Germany. Although ultimately victorious, during the fighting a small group of German soldiers flanked the Canadian positions and attacked the tactical headquarters of Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Wigle, a popular battalion commander of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders; after Wigle was killed in action by this maneuver, an incorrect rumor begun circulating among the surviving Allied soldiers that he was murdered by a German sniper in civilian clothing in violation of the rules of lawful engagement.
Incensed by the death of a popular officer and friend in such a presumed fashion, Major General Christopher Vokes reported to his superiors that Wigle was “sniped in the back” and that “I’m going to raze that goddam town”. Although the Allied soldiers had already begun burning Friesoythe in a spontaneous act of revenge, Vokes issued a formal order to “level the f*****g place” but “get the people the hell out of their houses first”. Using a combination of flamethrowers, Molotov cocktails, and grenades, over the next eight hours the city previously home to 4,000 German civilians was systemically destroyed; celebrated by the Allied soldiers, the war diary of the 4th Canadian Armoured Brigade proudly recorded that “when darkness fell Friesoythe was a reasonable facsimile of Dante’s Inferno”. It is estimated between 85-90 percent of the city was destroyed during the misguided reprisal, with a Canadian nurse writing a few days later that the only building left standing was a convent on the edge of the town.