The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division attacked the German-held town of Friesoythe, and one of its battalions, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, captured it.

Under this mistaken belief, the division's commander, Major-General Christopher Vokes, ordered that the town be razed in retaliation and it was substantially destroyed.

The rubble of the town was used to fill craters in local roads to make them passable for the division's tanks and heavy vehicles.

[5] The commander of 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division, Major-General Christopher Vokes, believed that destroying property was the most appropriate way of responding to resistance by German civilians.

[17] The historian Max Hastings wrote "The final Anglo-American drive across Germany offered ... many foolish little battles which wasted men's lives".

The Canadian official history describes the circumstances as buoyant as it was recognized that the end of World War II in Europe was close.

[21] The Canadians were supported by B and C squadrons SAS with Operation Howard led by Paddy Mayne, who were acting as reconnaissance.

The division advanced a further 25 km (16 mi) to Sögel, which the 1st Battalion of The Lake Superior Regiment (Motor)[Note 2] captured on 9 April.

[24]The Canadian advance continued across the Westphalian Lowland, reaching the outskirts of Friesoythe, a strategic crossroads, on 13 April.

[Note 3] Several hundred paratroopers from Battalion Raabe of the German 7th Parachute Division and anti-tank guns defended the town.

[1][29] The paratroopers repelled an attack by the Lake Superior Regiment, which suffered several killed and wounded; German casualties are unknown.

[30] Vokes ordered the resumption of the attack by the 1st Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Wigle.

He wrote in his autobiography that "a first-rate officer of mine, for whom I had a special regard and affection, and in whom I had a particular professional interest because of his talent for command, was killed.

'"[26][34] Vokes's GSO1 (head of the operations staff), Lieutenant-Colonel Mackenzie Robinson, obeyed but convinced him to not put this order in writing or issue a proclamation to the local civilians.

[37] The war diary of the 4th Canadian Armoured Brigade records, "when darkness fell Friesoythe was a reasonable facsimile of Dante's Inferno".

The Argylls' war diary made no mention of their afternoon's activity, noting in passing that "many fires were raging".

After a German act of perfidy – the mayor surrendered the town but the first tank to enter was destroyed by a Panzerfaust – the battalion commander, Wigle's brother-in-law, ordered that "every building which did not show a white flag be fired".

[48] A Canadian force was also authorized to burn down the village of Mittelsten Thüle following what the historian Perry Briddiscombe calls "an unnamed transgression".

[49] In early 1946 Vokes heard an appeal against the death sentence of Kurt Meyer, a convicted German war criminal.

Referring to his discussions about this Vokes said to the Canadian High Commissioner in London, "I told them of Sögel and Friesoythe and of the prisoners and civilians that my troops had killed in Italy and Northwest Europe".

[38][51] Responding to this, the historian Mark Zuehlke wrote that there were records of the events in the war diaries of several units, but that he did not believe Stacey's vagueness was an attempt at a cover-up.

[38] In his 1982 memoirs Stacey expanded upon the official history to comment that the only time he saw what could be considered a war crime committed by Canadian soldiers[Note 4] was when ... at Friesoythe, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada ... lost their popular commanding officer ... as a result a great part of the town of Friesoythe was set on fire in a mistaken reprisal.

[53]Vokes commented in his autobiography, written forty years after the event, that he had "[a] feeling of no great remorse over the elimination of Friesoythe.