During the evening of 7June , elements of the division under Meyer 's command committed the Ardenne Abbey massacre : eleven Canadian prisoners of war , soldiers from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the 27th Armoured Regiment ( The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment ) were shot in the back of the head . The Canadian Official History described his personal involvement in the battle : Although Meyer claimed later that only shortage of petrol and ammunition prevented him from carrying the attack on towards the coast , this need not be taken seriously . Indeed , he himself testified that seeing from his lofty perch " enemy movements deeper in that area " — doubtless the advance of the main body of the 9th Brigade — he came down and rode his motorcycle to the 3rd Battalion to order its C.O. " not to continue the attack north of Buron " . Meyer 's 2nd Battalion had been drawn into the fight , north of St. Contest " in the direction of Galmanche " . Fierce fighting was going on when Meyer visited the battalion in the early evening ; just as he arrived the battalion commander 's head was taken off by a tank shot ... Meyer ordered both this battalion and the 1st ( around Cambes ) to go " over from attack to defense . " On 14June , SS - '' Brigadeführer '' Fritz Witt , commander of the division , was killed when a naval barrage hit his command post . Meyer , as the next highest-ranking officer , was promoted to divisional commander ; at 33 years of age , he was one of the youngest German divisional commanders of the war . By 4July , the division had been reduced to a weak battlegroup . On 10July , the division retreated behind the Orne River . In just over one month of fighting , it had sustained more than 60 percent casualties
Ardenne Abbey massacre
Ardenne Abbey massacre
Kurt Meyer