The Canadian Scottish Regiment in World War II: A regiment like any other?
What are the differences and similarities between the wartime experiences from men who served in
the Canadian Scottish and those of others who served in a modern conventional war in general and in
the 1st Canadian Army during WWII in particular?
W.J. Veldhoen
P. Reichholtstraat 34
7429AS Deventer
wouterveldhoen@gmail.com
Supervised by: Prof. Dr. J. Hoffenaar
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The front page shows the regiment’s badge, with its motto ‘Deas Gu Cath’, with portraits of men
whose experiences or memories appear in this study above and below it. They are, top row, from left
to right: Private Munro MacKenzie, Sergeant Dave Janicki, Private John Kuharchuk and Private
Gordon Rowat. The bottom row shows, from left to right: Private James Whyte, Sergeant James
Clarke, Private Gordon Holland and Private Frank Schmidt.
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This thesis is dedicated to all the men who
served with the Canadian Scottish Regiment
during the Second World War.
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Sluggin Jerry left and right
having lots of fun
till one night we caught him right
now he is on the run
We licked you on the beaches
chased you through the towns
you’re not safe if we reach you
so lay that Luger down
We will push you across the rivers
and through the fields of grain
you will wish you never heard of
the Normandy campaign
We will blast you in the day time
and mess you up at night
when we get through with you
you'll be an awful sight
Lay that Luger down kid
lay that Luger down
Luger lugging Ludwig
lay that Luger down
lay that Luger down kid
You haven't got a chance
Luger lugging Ludwig
you're all washed up in France
These lyrics, adapted from the original, were written by Sergeant Dave Janicki when he was overseas. It is an
adaptation of the popular 1943 song ‘Pistol Packin’ Mama’ by American country musician Al Dexter. It was a hit
in 1944 and one of the most popular songs during WWII.
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Contents
Introduction
6
1. Military history, oral history and the Second World War
9
2. History of the unit
14
The early beginnings and the 16th battalion (Canadian Expeditionary Force)
14
The Interwar Period
19
The Second World War
20
3. Early life and enlistment
24
Background
24
Enlistment Motivations
26
4. On to training
30
Advanced and assault training
32
5. Into battle
36
D-Day
36
‘Just a little jerkwater place.’
38
The Rhineland and Heseler Feld
43
Wagenborgen
44
6. Physical and mental hardship
48
Physcial hardship
48
Mental hardship
49
7. Coming home
55
Looking back
58
Conclusion
61
Appendix: Maps
65
List of sources
67
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Introduction
My first brush with the Canadian Scottish regiment came quite a few years ago, when I was rummaging around
on the attic looking for old photographs. Or, more specifically, photographs made by my grandfather on April
10, 1945, the day the Canadian army came to my hometown and liberated it. I already had a few of these
pictures and knew there had to be more. I managed to find a cardboard box with war memorabilia and the
photographs I had been looking for were in there. In another box, I had earlier found a Canadian army badge. It
was not until I found the pictures that I put two and two together. The badge was a Canadian Scottish
Regiment cap badge, procured by my grandfather that day. The men in the photographs belonged to the
Canadian Scottish. Having always had a fascination with the Second World War, I wanted to find out who
exactly was in the photographs and to this end I started scouring the internet. I managed to find the e-mail
address of an officer who serves with the regiment nowadays, who forwarded my e-mail to the secretary of the
regimental association, who, in turn, forwarded it to all the members. The response was overwhelming and it
grew from there. That was nearly eight years ago. In the meantime, I have corresponded by e-mail and by letter
with many veterans and have been to Canada three times, with the fourth coming up in July. Over the course
of my visits I have interviewed many veterans and made a lot of friends. I have been given copies of
photographs, service files, memoirs and also old books that held a lot of information about the regiment and its
members. The main source of information, however, were the veterans and their memories. Some
remembered the war very well. The memory of others was less cooperative. All were very gracious to let me
into a part of their past which was often hard to talk about.
The Canadian Scottish Regiment is a proud Canadian infantry regiment with a distinguished record in both
world wars. During the First World War, its members earned no less than four Victoria Crosses and twenty-six
battle honours.1 After the Second World War, another eighteen battle honours were added. 2 For the First
World War, Hugh Urquhart, a former officer with the 16th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, in which the
Canadian Scottish Regiment has its roots, has written an excellent unit history, which is still considered one of
the finest unit histories in Canadian military history. The regiment’s exploits in the Second World War have
been put to paper by Dr. Reg Roy and is titled Ready for the Fray, which is an English translation of the unit’s
Gaelic motto Deas Gu Cath.
The main question of this thesis is the following: what are the differences and similarities between the
wartime experiences from men who served in the Canadian Scottish and those of others who served in a
modern conventional war in general and in the 1st Canadian Army during WWII in particular? To be able to
answer that question it has been divided into a number of other, more specific questions, which will be
answered in their respective chapters.
Firstly, a short evaluation of oral history will have to take place. What is its value? Can it be used for a study
at all? After that, a short but thorough history of the regiment will be given, from its earliest beginnings in
1
H.M. Urquhart, D.S.O., M.C., A.D.C, The History of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) Canadian
Expeditionary Force, in the Great War, 1914-1919 (Toronto 1932) 420.
2
R.H. Roy, Ready for the Fray: The History of the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) 1920 to 2002
(Calgary 2002) 640.
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1912, through the First and the Second World War, until 1946, when its occupational role in Germany ended
and the unit returned to Canada. Next, the social and economic backgrounds of the men will be studied, as well
as their reasons to enlist in the active force and thus volunteer to go overseas. Is there a ‘typical’ Canadian
Scottish soldier as there was in the First World War or had the image changed? Why did the men volunteer?
Did they sign up out of patriotism or did they have other motives? After that, the training that the men
received in both Canada and the United Kingdom, basic and advanced, will be discussed. Even though many
men took training at different dates and in different places, there could, and maybe should, be similarities.
Those who joined early were sent to Camp Debert, Nova Scotia, which in 1940 and 1941 was far from finished.
Later on, not everybody was sent there and they instead took advanced training at various places in Canada
and were later, as everyone, sent to the United Kingdom. The men who took part in Operation Overlord spent
a long time in England, being moved around the country several times, all the while training and even going as
far north as Scotland, to take part in specialized assault training at the Combined Training Centre in Inveraray.3
What was the training like? Did they think it was useful? Was training for other units the same? The next
chapter will look into the men’s performance in battle, starting off with D-Day and the battle for Putot-enBessin, two events that are looked upon with great pride by the regiment and with good reason. However, isn’t
this the case with all units who participated in the initial landings? The unit performed very well on June 6 th.
Why were they able to go as far as they did? And what about Putot? Was the victory won there as crucial as it
is made out to be? Why were the Winnipeg Rifles overrun whereas the Scottish, who retook the village after a
counterattack, stood firm? Furthermore, this chapter will look at the fighting in the Rhineland and the battle of
Wagenborgen, two events that were very costly but successful in the end. Next, the physical and mental
hardships suffered by the men will be looked into. These are two aspects that have been largely overlooked by
historians but are of great importance in a conflict situation. A man who is standing on guard but is battling the
cold or has an empty stomach is unlikely to see and hear the same as someone who is warm and well-fed. Time
spent at the front was often tough on the nerves, too. How did the men in the Canadian Scottish deal with this?
What kind of hardships did they suffer? What did they do to try and make the best of things, both physically
and mentally? Can this be compared to other men in the same conflict? After this, the men’s homecoming and
demobilization will be looked into, as well as the effects that their experiences in the war may have had on
their lives later on. What did they find back home? Did they find the place the same as it was when they left?
Did they blend in seamlessly or did they have a hard time shedding their military bearings? This too will be
contrasted with the experiences of others.
The single most important aspect of this thesis are the experiences and memories of the men themselves, to
try and find out if their experiences are any different from those of other men in conflict situations. Therefore,
many different sources were needed, both in personal memoirs and histories as in studies to the behavior of
men in battle not specific to any conflict, nation or unit. For some chapters, finding adequate material to
compare the Canadian Scottish with, was easy. For others, it was harder to find. How does one set about
comparing a unit’s performance in battle with that of another? It is a well-known fact of military history and
especially of unit histories that the achievements of the military force under consideration are often
3
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 191.
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overestimated or embellished. Therefore it is of the utmost importance for an author to use unit war diaries
where possible as well as comparing these to other studies, to try and get a balanced and truthful picture of
any given situation.
In short, the question that should be answered is whether the men who served with the Canadian Scottish
Regiment are different from those that served in other units. By looking at their background, training,
performance in battle, hardships they suffered and their homecoming, all the while looking at similar
experiences in other men, units and conflicts, I hope to be able to answer that question. Throughout this study,
the experiences and memories of the men who were there will be the most important tool to tell the story of
the unit. Their story.
Acknowledgements
Obviously I owe a debt of gratitude to all the veterans who let me into their homes and their private lives to
talk to somebody whom they often hardly knew. They are Charles H. Adams, William A. Bacon, George V.
Burton, James H. Clarke, Ronald E. Cox, Armand J. Denicola, John E. Gregson, Thomas J. Halbert, Bill Hannah,
Morris M. Heath, V. Gordon Holland, Nick Janicki, Arthur E. Johnson, John Kuharchuk, Douglas C. Leask, D.
Munro MacKenzie, Edward R.U. Peck, Harry A. Roberts, Gordon L. Rowat, Frank J. Schmidt, William G. Stevens,
Robert Stirling and James Whyte.
I am also very gracious to Robert J. Russell, former president of the regimental association, to whom I have
sent many an enquiring e-mail. His knowledge, insight and answers to my incessant questions were of great
value. I owe another big ‘thank you’ to James C. Whyte, for his help in finding primary source material and
often providing me with said sources. Another person I wish to thank is G. David Boyd. He gave me access to a
very sensitive part of his father’s life - the difficulties he had in coping with his wartime memories. Kenneth
Byron Jr. was instrumental in regard to acquiring information about the Byron brothers, his father Terence and
his uncle Kenneth Sr. I wish to thank Jack Amo and the regimental association for their help in finding
addresses, e-mail addresses and for giving me a copy of the regiment’s history. The regimental museum’s
director, Robert Darnell, was very helpful in lending me a hard to find copy of the history of the 16 th battalion.
Another person whom I owe much is Nick Janicki. Not only due to his personal recollections, but also because
he has provided me with copies of wartime photographs, and, more significantly, with copies of letters and
diary entries from his brother Dave, who was killed in 1945, thus providing me with a valuable insight into the
thoughts and feelings of a frontline soldier, unchanged and untarnished by the passing of time.
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1. Military history, oral history and the Second World War
What has been written about the 1st Canadian Army during WWII? How was oral history handled by historians
in the past? How is it handled nowadays? What are the benefits and/or dangers of oral history? Does it give a
different approach to a certain time period? Is it the same for memoirs written ex post facto? Do they add
anything?
The contribution of the 1st Canadian Army to the liberation of Europe, albeit relatively small, was an important
one. During the war, Canada fielded five divisions, three infantry and two armoured, as well as two armoured
brigades. Canadian troops played a part in many of the war’s most well-known and pivotal battles. It seems
that almost every aspect of the Normandy campaign has been written about. Whereas John English, along with
others such as Colonel C.P. Stacey, have earlier deemed the performance of 1 st Canadian Army in Normandy
disappointing, Terry Copp refutes this claim and instead states that it was flexible, innovative and made a major
contribution to the allied victory.4 Another reversal, this one from official histories using only reports and the
thoughts of military leaders, to a history that encompasses all components of history, including the experiences
of the regular fighting man, the private soldier, should take place.
In the case of the Canadian contribution to the liberation of the Netherlands, which is well documented,
Canadian author Lance Goddard has used veterans’ accounts extensively, giving readers only a general
introduction to a certain time period at the start of each chapter and letting the veterans tell the rest. 5 He has
done similar work for the Canadian contribution on D-Day and in the Italian campaign.6 However, Lance
Goddard is still one of the few who uses oral history this way. Much has been written about the Second World
War, about its great battles, generals and statesmen. Considerably less has been written about the experiences
of the everyday soldier, although the subject of oral history is becoming more and more popular. Memoirs too,
seem to be increasing in popularity. However, first-hand accounts have a lot of catching up to do. This is true in
the case of the Canadian Scottish also. Granted, Reg Roy, in writing Ready for the Fray, used interviews.
However, much to the grief and sorrow of a lot of former privates and non-commissioned officers, Dr. Roy
almost exclusively interviewed former officers, which, according to some of them, does not convey the entire
truth: ‘Don’t forget when that guy wrote that book, he was interviewing the officers! None of them were going
to say that oh no we were hiding back there!’7 At the time Dr. Roy was conducting his interviews, mostly in the
1980’s, a lot of old officers were still alive and they were often prime sources of information. Most of the other
ranks were left out. Instead of leaving them out again, it was time to get their take, their memories and their
thoughts about their time in the war. Time was, and is, of the essence. Veterans of World War II are getting
older and older and their age is catching up with them. However, this is only a slight critique of Dr. Roy’s work
and should not be interpreted otherwise. Dr. Roy has written an excellent unit history and, at the University of
4
J.A. English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign: A study of failure in high command (New York
1991). T. Copp, Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy (Toronto 2003).
5
L. Goddard, Canada and the liberation of the Netherlands, May 1945 (Toronto 2005).
6
L. Goddard, D-Day, Juno Beach: Canada’s 24 hours of Destiny (Toronto 2004). L. Goddard, Hell and High
Water: Canada and the Italian Campaign (Toronto 2007).
7
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
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Victoria, pioneered veterans’ oral history.8 Over three hundred and seventy recordings made by Roy or one of
his students are still kept in a collection named after him at the University of Victoria. At the time of writing,
the Regimental Association counted forty-seven World War II veterans among its members. Of those still living,
fourteen have been interviewed for this thesis. Two more have been in touch through one of their relatives.
Eight others have since passed away. Seven of these were personally interviewed, one man was in touch
through the use of email. Three men have written memoirs, which were used also. In all, the memories and
recollections of twenty-eight men were used, as well as the diary of one man who was killed in 1945.
Though the use of oral history by historians seems to be on the rise, it is by no means new or modern. It is in
fact the earliest form of history, in which the past of a family, a tribe or a people was ‘documented’. Tales of old
were passed down from generation to generation. For a long time, being able to handle oral evidence was
considered to be of great importance to a historian. However, with the introduction of the printing press and
its subsequent development, a great number of historical works became available, thus enabling historians to
write history from the comfort of their own homes, thereby removing the necessity of gathering and
interpreting oral history.9
Furthermore, the writing of military history has long been limited to great battles, and those, in turn, were
often described very much in the same way. Famous British military historian Sir John Keegan dubbed this the
Decisive Battle idea and stated that authors used this model because it was more dramatic, more clear-cut and
simpler for both reader and writer.10 This tradition was set up as it were by Sir Edward Creasy, who, in 1851,
wrote Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, which argues that it is the battles that are important. They are
decisive. Generations of historians after him have taken his words to heart and written solely on the battles
itself, their strategic value and the number of casualties taken and incurred. 11 The common, fighting man was
left out. His experiences, feelings and the effects the war had on him did not seem important. In the eyes of
many authors, they were mere pawns being moved around by generals, marching, fighting and dying as they
pleased. However, when only reading works in which the Decisive Battle reigns supreme, a reader can never
have a complete understanding of the conflict it treats. When an author combines the Decisive Battle idea with
personal accounts of soldiers who fought, a better and more complete picture emerges. Therefore, oral history
is of the utmost importance. Not only to inform, but also to liven up a story that might otherwise be dull, thus
encouraging the reader to read on.
Oral history, as its name suggests, comes from interviews. A well prepared and informed interviewer sits
down for a chat with a person who, at some point in his life, was a part of history, so to speak. The interview
can take place many years after the period in question and memories, over time, may have faded, been
augmented, or even repressed. Repression of memories is especially prevalent in veterans of violent conflicts,
which is exactly the group of men this thesis is concerned with. Due to these factors, it is not always easy to get
8
K. Dedyna, Times Colonist, ‘Military historian’s work allowed veterans’ memories to outlive them’ (version
January 24, 2013), http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/military-historian-s-work-allowed-veteransmemories-to-outlive-them-1.55177 (April 29, 2014).
9
P. Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral history (3rd edition, New York 2000) 23, 24, 31-33.
10
J.D.P. Keegan, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme (2nd (Pimlico) edition,
London 2004) 62.
11
Ibid, 57-62.
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the correct and, more importantly, complete story. Even if you do get the complete story, it may not be the
objective truth.12 Veterans being interviewed over sixty years after the war may mix up or confuse dates,
names of people, names of towns and cities or even important events. The best, and perhaps the only thing the
interviewer can do to try and combat this, is to be as well informed on the subject as he can. In the case of the
Canadian Scottish, be informed about the regiment and its history. Know about the training, both in Canada
and the United Kingdom. Know about the battles and campaigns the regiment was in. Know names and
nicknames of both officers and men. Know the enemies they faced. That way, not only will the interviewer be
able to detect and afterward correct errors and mistakes, he will also be able to ask better questions and, most
important, it will be clear to the man that is being interviewed that the interviewer has thoroughly prepared
himself and is not doing this on a whim, which usually leads to a more open and thus more worthwhile
conversation. To prepare, an author can usually draw from a long list of sources. In the case of the Canadian
Scottish, the special collections in the archive of the University of Victoria hold a veritable treasure trove of
information, with the war diary, the casualty reports and numerous other reports available there. 13 All of which
were used in writing this thesis, as well as the unit histories for both the First and the Second World War. Three
memoirs, written by men who served with the unit were used also, as well as two articles about men who
served with the Can Scots which appeared in local newspapers in British Columbia. 14 One should not look at a
particular unit all the time. It is important to understand the big picture as well. To that extent, a number of
more general works about the fighting in continental Europe were used, as well as the war diaries of the Royal
Winnipeg Rifles and the Regina Rifle Regiment. 15 Studies taking a look at the German side were also used, as
should be, when trying to paint a complete picture. Still, the main source were the experiences of those who
were there during the war, gathered by conducting interviews and corresponding with several veterans, as well
as their relatives. Personal letters and diary excerpts from sergeant Dave Janicki, who was killed in 1945, were
used also.
We have seen the dangers and pitfalls of oral history and how to try and avoid these. Now, let us take a look
at the benefits oral history has to offer. While ‘official histories’ of events might be very informative and
accurate, they lack a personal touch and do not convey the whole story. An interviewer does not usually
pretend that oral history does convey the whole story, but, when presented in conjunction with an informative
approach, a better and more complete picture emerges. Oral history adds a personal element to an otherwise
abstract story and can make it more compelling and genuine. It is largely the same for personal memoirs,
diaries and letters. They are likely to be biased and incomplete, yet can be of great value visualizing an era long
gone. How can one tell the story of war without input from the regular man who was doing the fighting? Too
long have historians relied solely on paper reports and documents written by statesmen and military leaders,
because they, supposedly, tell the ‘objective’ truth. That might be the case, but using only those documents,
12
E. Tonkin, Narrating our Past: The social construction of oral history (Cambridge 1992) 114.
War Diary 1 C Scot R. Casualty reports 1 C Scot R. Report by CSM Nimmo entitled B Coy’s Story of HESELER
FELD. Author unknown, handwritten report titled A Coy, Heseler Feld. Report by CSM Morgan entitled C Coy’s
Tragedy.
14
Arnold, Wayne H., “Memoir”. Gilbert, George W., “Army Stories 1942-1946”.
15
War Diary The Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
13
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the story can never be complete. An author should take a chance and try to create a multi-dimensional history,
composed as it were of different strands of rope, braided together and thus becoming stronger than would be
possible on its own.
Consequently, one should feel very strongly that although oral history and personal memoirs and the like
have its shortcomings, they are of too great a value to be ignored. One cannot paint a picture of the war using
only reports and official documents. It is however of great importance that transcripts obtained from
interviews are crosschecked with more official histories and other secondary sources, as to make sure they are
as close to the truth as can be. It is important to note that in cases such as these, there is not always ‘one
truth’. The truth that a commanding officer wrote down after the battle, may not be the same truth as that of a
private or a corporal. This does not mean that either is wrong – it means that both may be right. All sources
should be taken into account, and in this way, produce a story that is ‘truth’ to all who were involved. It should
be informative, factual and personal. The personal aspect is of great importance to future generations also. It
could and should give them something to relate to, something personal, so that the sacrifices made during the
war shall not be forgotten.
There are a number of well-known memoirs whose authors have done a splendid job. Take for example
Eugene Sledge’s World War II classic With the Old Breed, on which he began working in 1944, though it wasn’t
published until 1981. It is widely recognized as one of the finest first-hand accounts of the brutal fighting in the
Pacific. The grisly details of life in a combat zone, so often overlooked by historians, are an ever present
characteristic of Sledge’s work. The fear, the filth, the exhaustion, the hunger, the cold.16 Sledge writes about
what he sees, feels, hears and does. It’s a personal, up-front account of his own time in the Pacific Campaign.
He has cross-referenced his work thoroughly, as is evidenced by the extensive bibliography that he supplies. 17
The way in which Sledge has written his book is highly commendable. It is both informative and personal.
Written when the memory was fresh and thoroughly checked and cross-referenced with the help of a
multitude of sources, Eugene Sledge has done a great job and it is no wonder that With the Old Breed is
regarded as one of the finest first-hand accounts of World War II, or even any conventional war, ever written.
Another man who has done a great job writing his memoir is Harry Faulkner-Brown, an Englishman who fought
at Arnhem, serving as a Captain with the 1st Airborne Division. He has written an inviting and personal account,
though it too is backed by quite the list of sources. 18 A man who wrote about his experiences in a very different
fashion is Farley Mowat, one of Canada’s most celebrated authors, who during the war served as a Lieutenant
and later a Captain with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment. In his book My Father’s Son, he uses letters
written by himself to his father and vice versa to paint a picture of his experiences in Italy and the Netherlands,
at times connecting the letters through narrative. It is an honest and at times vulnerable memoir of his own
service. It describes the mental strain suffered by the men doing the fighting and is often critical of decisions
made higher up in the chain of command.19 Mowat, however, does not give a bibliography. In his defense one
might argue that the bulk of his memoir is composed of letters written between him and his parents, which in
16
E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed (London 2010).
Sledge, With the Old Breed, 321-323.
18
H. Faulkner-Brown, A Sapper at Arnhem: The Memoirs of Harry Faulkner-Brown (Renkum 2006) 126.
19
F.M. Mowat, My Father’s Son: Memories of War and Peace (Toronto 1992).
17
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itself is a primary source, even though they are hardly evidence for objectivity. He does not supply sources for
the predecessor of My Father’s Son, And No Birds Sang, either, though that too is regarded as a very fine
memoir and possibly the best to come out of Canada.20 It should be apparent that memoirs, when written
correctly and all the facts presented in it have been cross-checked, can be a valuable source for historians.
Both oral history and personal memoirs should be handled with care. However, this does not mean that they
should be disregarded entirely. Indeed, they can be a very valuable source. An author using them should make
sure he has an intricate understanding of the subject matter as well as an extensive library of books, articles
and documents to cross-check interviews and memoirs and make sure they are as close to the truth as
possible. When used properly, they can be a very valuable addition to an author’s arsenal of sources.
20
F.M. Mowat, And No Birds Sang (2nd edition, Vancouver 2012).
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2. History of the unit
Where does the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) ‘come from’? How did the unit fare in the Great
War and the Interwar period? How did its men operate during the Second World War and how did the regiment
evolve from 1912 to 1945?
The early beginnings and the 16th battalion (Canadian Expeditionary Force)
The modern day Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) traces its lineage to 1912, when the 88 th
Regiment Victoria Fusiliers was formed. A year later, in 1913, the 50th Regiment Gordon Highlanders was
formed. Like the 88th, it was formed and based in Victoria, British Columbia. Both of these were militia
regiments, citizen-soldiers so to speak, which have existed in Canada since early colonial times. 21 On the advent
of the First World War in 1914, the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was formed. It was quite certain that
Canadian troops would be sent over to mainland Europe to fight alongside the British. Or, as The Globe
reported right after Germany had declared war on Russia on the 2 nd of August: ‘If it means war for Great
Britain, it means war also for Canada.’ The Manitoba Free Press stated that: ‘If Great Britain is involved in war,
(…) it is quite certain that Canada will come to her assistance.’ 22 The CEF was a separate organization, strictly
formed to fight overseas. When the war broke out, a call went out to the militia regiments to provide a
contingent of the strength of either a double company, being two hundred and fifty men, or a single company,
being a hundred and ten, to be sent overseas with the CEF. A number of highland units endeavoured to make
unofficial arrangements with each other to form a single battalion for overseas service. However, all of these
plans fell through and the contingents that had been formed for active service in Europe were all sent to
Valcartier, Quebec, to be mobilized. It was there that, ‘by chance rather than judgment’, four companies, from
four separate highland regiments, were formed to create a single highland battalion. The 50 th Regiment Gordon
Highlanders, the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada from Vancouver, the 79th Cameron Highlanders from
Winnipeg and the 91st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada from Hamilton joined forces to create the
16th Battalion (The Canadian Scottish). 23 The battalion was allocated to the 3rd brigade, 1st Canadian Division.
Whilst all four regiments which made up the 16th had arrived in Valcartier, some men in far-flung corners of
the dominion weren’t even aware there was a war on, which was especially true of British Columbia, the home
province of both the Gordons and the Seaforths, and a province from which many men enlisted. Men from all
the different units had their own traditions, kept their own tartans and badges and came from different parts
of Canada. There were differences in background and upbringing too. The Gordons and the Seaforths were
drawn mainly from Victoria, Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the adjacent islands, where many respectable,
well-to-do Englishmen had settled. ‘Old boys’ from various public schools and universities. The contrast could
hardly have been greater, as in the very same two units there were men and boys who had been born in
Canada and not as well off as their fellow soldiers who had been born in England. The Argylls and Camerons,
21
Army Historical Section, The Regiments and Corps of the Canadian Army (Ottawa 1964) 234, 235.
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 3.
23
Ibid, 5-7.
22
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hailing from Eastern Canada and the prairies of Manitoba, were mostly labourers and farmers, were a bit more
rough around the edges and predominantly born in Scotland or of Scottish descent. 24 It should come as no
surprise that no less than half the officers and eighty percent of the men in the 16th had been born in Britain. 25
This, in turn, led one commentator to remark that the battalion was composed ‘roughly speaking of Scotchmen
and gentlemen’. 26 They really were ‘the Canadian Scottish’, but were yet to become a coherent unit. Loyalty
and attachment to the 16th had to be fostered to make it into an effective fighting force. Four years later, on
Armistice Day 1918, the reputation gained by the battalion proves that they accomplished this objective. Their
motto, ‘Deas Gu Cath’, Gaelic for ‘Ready for the Fray’, was truly upheld. 27
On September 30th, 1914, the S.S. Andania, carrying the battalion, set sail for England, where she arrived on
the morning of October 15. Esprit de corps was strengthened whilst aboard the ship, not only through the
design and choosing of a badge and the aforementioned motto, but also through rivalry with another battalion.
Soldiers of the 14th battalion from Montreal had interfered with the pipe practice of young James Richardson,
known as Jimmy, a piper with the unit. The news spread like wildfire and the entire 16 th, the Argylls, the
Camerons, the Seaforths and the Gordons gathered together, brought out the entire pipe band, escorted them
to the quarters of the 14th and stood guard there whilst the pipers ‘played to their hearts content’. 28 After the
arrival in Devonport, the battalion quickly moved to Salisbury Plain by train, therewith entering the last phase
of preparations. The ground was wet, muddy and few days were spent in training. Just forty out of a hundred
and thirty days were used for training purposes, much of which was ineffective due to bad circumstances and
bad luck. The wildest rumours concerning the location to which the Canadians were to be sent were circulating
around the sea of bell tents that was the camp. In the end, the 16 th, along with the rest of the Canadian 1st
Division, was sent to France. The 16th boarded the transportship Maidan in the afternoon of February 11, 1915.
The ship set sail on the morning of the 12th and, having gone through a storm, arrived at noon on the 14 th in St.
Nazaire. 29
The 23rd of the same month, the 16th move to within three to four miles behind the front lines and were
instructed in trench warfare by the British 19th brigade. On March 2nd the battalion marched to Bac St. Maur,
right behind the frontlines which the Canadians were in the process of taking over from the British 7 th division.
On the night of March 3rd/4th the Can Scots, as they were popularly known, moved up to the front line where
they relieved 2nd battalion, the Border Regiment, in the Fleurbaix sector of the front. For twenty-five days the
men of the 16th got accustomed to life in the trenches. A life they would lead, if lucky enough not to get killed,
for three more years. They had their first man killed, yet were still daring, even reckless. The officers still had
wine, eggs, milk and coffee at their disposal. The trenches, so the men reasoned, were of a temporary nature,
and, as always, the war will be over by Christmas. At the end of March, the 16th was relieved and moved to an
area about six and a half miles behind the front. The first real test was yet to come, but wouldn’t be long. Late
24
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 9, 14-16.
M. Zuehlke, Brave Battalion: The remarkable saga of the 16th battalion (Canadian Scottish) in the First World
War (Mississauga 2008) 13.
26
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 16.
27
E.R.U. Peck, Cy Peck V.C., A Biography of a Legendary Canadian (Winnipeg 2008) 37.
28
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 22-27.
29
Ibid, 27-42.
25
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in the evening of April 16th, the battalion arrived north of the town of Ypres, past Wieltje and St. Julien, well up
in the Ypres salient, where they relieved the French. When, a week later, they moved to Ypres itself, they found
themselves caught up in quite a large German artillery bombardment and overrun with both French colonial
troops and French and Belgian soldiers fleeing from the scene of battle. The reason for this retreat was
unknown to the Canadians, but when they were moved up to the line that evening to plug the gaps left behind
by the fleeing troops, they experienced a rather curious tightening and dryness of the throat. The eyes and
nostrils began to ‘water freely’. 30 They were not aware of it at the time, but the Germans had released 168
tons of chlorine, the very first time it had been used on the Western front. It was not to be the last. 31 The 16th
moved up to the edge of the Bois des Cusiniers, later called Kitchener’s Wood, and were ordered to attack the
enemy positions together with the 10th battalion. According to one author, ‘the Canadians were aggressive,
even rash’. 32 It was to be the Can Scots’ first taste of large-scale fighting and with it came a large number of
casualties, both killed and wounded.
Despite being outnumbered, and in the face of heavy German resistance, the enemy were put to flight, ‘thus
saving one of the most delicate situations in the great second Battle of Ypres.’ 33 For had the German attack not
been stalled in Kitchener’s Wood, they would have broken through and found themselves behind the allied
lines, thus cutting off all the troops inside the salient. The entire Canadian division was pulled out on May 3 rd,
only to be ordered to attack Festubert on the 18th, but not before Major Cyrus (Cy) Peck had joined the
battalion, along with 224 badly needed reinforcements. Especially the Major himself was a welcome addition,
as no less than 16 out of 26 officers had been put out of action at Kitchener’s Wood, with 7 being killed and 1
being captured.34 The rest had been wounded. Major Peck would go on to carve out quite a legacy in the
battalions history. At Kitchener’s Wood, the first attack was blunted and resulted in heavy casualties for No 4
company, losing a quarter of their men. It was at the second attempt that the objective was gained, and again,
with heavy casualties. Two hundred and seventy seven in all, with three officers and sixty-eight other ranks
killed.
35
The 16th had reached farthest of all British units in the battle of Festubert. After the battle, the
battalion was moved to the rear to recuperate, until they were rotated back to the front line near Ploegsteert
in July of 1915, which, at the time, wasn’t exactly bustling with activity. The battalions days were mostly spent
expanding the trenches and patrolling. They were again relieved at the start of august and moved into
divisional reserve. 36
On August 12, after having recovered from being wounded at Festubert, Cyrus Peck was promoted as
second-in-command of the 16th.37 Three days later the units stint as divisional reserve ended and they were
sent to trenches on Hill 63, near Messines. Again, most of the time was spent carrying out everyday chores,
30
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 44-57.
Zuehlke, Brave Battalion, 50, 51.
32
K. Radley, We Lead, Others Follow: First Canadian Division 1914-1918 (St. Catharines 2006) 86.
33
J.F. Cadenhead, The Canadian Scottish: Stray papers by a private (Aberdeen 1915) 21.
34
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 83. Urquhart states that 16 out of 26 officers were put out of
action whereas Zuehlke, who cites from Urquharts diary, places the number at 17. However, having already
found a number of errors in the book by Zuehlke, I deem the number that Urquhart provides to be correct.
35
Zuehlke, Brave Battalion, 65-71, 75-78.
36
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 95.
37
Peck, Cy Peck V.C., 47.
31
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expanding defenses, improving existing ones and sending out patrols, the latter of which mostly took place
under the cover of darkness. In mid September the battalion went into divisional reserve for a second time. It
was however, distinctly different from the first. The atmosphere they encountered made it clear to everyone
that the great offensive, which was so often talked about in hushed tones, was close at hand. A lot of men were
jittery, even anxious to be able to take part in ‘the great push’. It proved to be an anticlimax. The 1 st Canadian
Division took no part in the Battle of Loos, the largest British offensive on the Western Front in 1915. 38
When the 2nd Canadian Division arrived a few days before the Battle of Loos, a Canadian Corps was formed.
Due to the organization required for such a move, committing the 1 st Canadian Division to any major action at
that time was considered inadvisable. The battalion went into frontline trenches at Messines on the 25 th. The
entire area was soaked with water, due to incessant rain and the overflowing of the Douve river. Trenches
were in a very bad state. The conditions were, for the most part, the same in divisional reserve. The everlasting
mud, ‘that most dangerous antagonist of all enthusiasm’, was around both the trenches and the huts. 39 It was
only around the middle of December that the rain stopped and gave way to clear skies and thus cold days. This
led to the trenches drying out and the morale greatly improving, as well as easing the mens fear ‘of that
bugbear of wet trenches, “trench feet”’. 40 Christmas eve and day were spent in the trenches. A German soldier
wished the ‘Jocks’ a ‘guid nicht’ and a Merry Christmas. On Christmas Day, both Germans and Canadians
walked out in the open, the former trying to entice the latter with bottle of wine and the latter singing Scottish
songs. A man of No 3 Company rushed out into No Man’s Land and exchanged souvenirs with a German
soldier. Both sides cheered them on. It was not to last. A machinegun fired a couple of bursts into the air,
making everybody run for cover. The battalion rotated back to divisional reserve a few days later. 41
The year 1916 had arrived and the battalion rotated back and forth between frontline service and divisional
as well as brigade reserve. Trenches up front were occupied at Messines before, at the end of March, the 16th
went back to the Ypres salient. Here, as in other sectors, a rotation policy was adhered to. Some frontline tours
took more casualties than others, but in all, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, insofar that ordinary is a
fitting word to describe life in the trenches in one of the greatest conflicts in human history. On June 3 rd, the
battalion, along with the 14th and 15th battalions, was sent in to stop a German attack on the salient. The attack
stopped, a Canadian counter-attack went in on the 13th. The counter-attack being successful, it drove the
enemy from their trenches and incurred heavy casualties, yet at a great loss of life to the 16 th. Again, especially
casualties amongst officers were very severe. The battalion went on to serve in the Salient for no less than
four-and-a-half months. 42 In August, the 16th was bound for the battlefields of the Somme. On September 1st,
two months after the offensive started, the battalion took its place amongst the reserves, waiting to be called
up. The call came soon enough and the battalion went in, necessarily being relieved on the 7 th. The attacks
continued and the 16th got stuck in the middle again at the end of the month, and, despite severe losses,
weren’t pulled back but ordered to ‘have another go’ on October 8 th. They were to try and take Regina Trench,
38
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 107, 108-111.
Ibid, 112.
40
Ibid, 114.
41
Ibid, 114-116.
42
Ibid, 123-128, 147, 154.
39
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recently dug by the Germans. Leading the attack was No 4 Company. Held up by enemy barbed wire in front of
the trench and being subjected to accurate enemy fire, the situation was getting critical. Jimmy Richardson
then started playing his pipes, calmly walking up and down the wire for a full ten minutes, oblivious of the
battle being fought around him. This inspired the men to overcome the wire and the enemy position was
captured. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross. After the battle, Richardson was detailed to take back a
wounded comrade and a number of enemy prisoners. Having covered about 200 yards, he remembered he’d
forgotten his pipes and insisted on retrieving them, despite being strongly urged not to do so. He was never
seen again. This was to be the battalions last action on the Somme front, for it was withdrawn afterwards,
having suffered eight hundred and twenty-seven casualties. It had been reduced to the strength of a single
company. 43
From the Somme, the 16th gradually moved towards the Vimy Front, in northern France. By now, the
Canadian Corps had grown to four divisions, but to turn it into an effective fighting force, mutual prejudices
had to be removed, especially prevalent between the 1st and 2nd divisions. On November 3rd, Cy Peck became
the commanding officer of the 16th. 44 Vimy was to be no ordinary battle. It has long been said that Canada, as a
nation, came of age at Vimy Ridge. The entire Canadian Corps, four divisions, together for the first time,
succeeded where both the British and the French had failed. The battle convinced the Canadians they were the
finest troops on the Western Front and the military hierarchy confirmed this by subsequently naming them as
assault troops. 45 Arriving near Vimy in October of 1916, the battalion spent time in the frontlines as well as in
training, preparing for the upcoming assault. The attack went in on the 9 th of April, 1917 and by the 12th the
Germans had been driven from their positions, which had been thought to be impregnable. William Johnstone
Milne, a young Scot from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his
actions on the 9th.46 It was the second time a member of the 16th had been awarded the Commonwealth’s
highest military honour for valour in the face of the enemy. Casualties were heavy, but there was a general
feeling that the gains made that fateful day outweighed the losses. 47 Earlier, Canadian units had often been
billed as being part of the British Expeditionary Force, instead of the CEF. For a long time, Canada, with its
status as a dominion, had been thought of by many as an integral part of the British Empire. A piece of Britain
across the Atlantic Ocean. The First World War, however, brought many differences to light. Not only in the
Canadians’ excellent performance in battle, but also in the relationship between officers, NCO’s and men. In
the British Army, officers were usually members of the upper class and there was a tremendous social gap
between them and the other ranks. Generally, this was different in the CEF, where the officers were more easygoing and often intermingled with their men, in stark contrast to their British counterparts.48 Despite, or
perhaps because of this, Canadian troops were oftentimes looked down upon by the British. Vimy Ridge
changed all that. Canada had come of age: ‘As far as I could see, south, north along the miles of the Ridge,
43
Ibid, 161-163, 174, 178-182, 187.
Peck, Cy Peck V.C., 67, 75.
45
P. Berton, Vimy (Barnsley 2003) 293.
46
Ibid, 218, 219.
47
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 202-204, 216-219.
48
Berton, Vimy, 160-163.
44
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there were the Canadians. And I experienced my first full sense of nationhood.’ 49
The army too, had matured. It had become a skillful and professional force, very different from the
enthusiastic adventurers of 1914. 50 A maturity that was to come in very handy in the third battle of Ypres, also
known as the Battle of Passchendaele, and even more so in the final phase of the war, better known in Canada
as ‘Canada’s 100 days’, in which the Canadian Corps was to break through the St. Quentin-Cambrai front,
known as the Hindenburg line. During the second Battle of Arras, two more Victoria Crosses were earned by
members of the 16th. For actions on September 2nd, 1918, Peck, by now a Colonel, who had already been
awarded the Distinguished Service Order twice, was awarded the V.C., the same day, the American William
Henry Metcalfe, who had enlisted with the Canadian Scottish, was also awarded the Victoria Cross. 51 Peck,
having been voted into the House of Commons in the khaki election of 1917, remains the only person ever to
be awarded the medal whilst elected to parliament. After his election he chose to remain with the battalion in
France and only attended a session of the House in March, 1919. 52
During the ‘100 days’, the Hindenburg line was broken and the Canal du Nord was crossed. The German
Army was fighting rearguard actions from Amiens to Mons. The 16th had played their part in this at Arras,
Blécourt, Cuvillers and Denain, to name but a few. On the 21st of October, 1918, the 16th moved into Vicoigne,
being greeted by jubilant French citizens. A day later the battalion was relieved and moved into corps reserve.
For the men of the Canadian Scottish, the war was over. They would remain in the rear area until Armistice
Day.
The Interwar Period
After the Great War had ended and the battalion returned to Canada, for disbandment in company with all
other war raised Canadian Expeditionary Force units, there was a great determination by all ranks that had
served in the unit that the 16th should not disappear entirely from the stage. However, due to it being raised by
no less than 4 different regiments, it did not have a clear regimental home. Whereas the Seaforths had a strong
claim, having provided 25 officers and 511 men to the 16th, no less than half the battalion, as well as having the
first Colonel, Regimental Sergeant Major and many officers and key senior non-commissioned officers drawn
from their ranks, the 16th was not perpetuated in their hometown of Vancouver, but in Victoria, on Vancouver
Island. This was due to strong political pressure from Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps and
former commander of the 50th Gordon Highlanders, and Cyrus Peck, who insisted that a new unit be formed
from the amalgamation of the 88th Victoria Fusiliers and the 50th Gordons would perpetuate the 16th. The unit
was christened ‘The Canadian Scottish Regiment’ in 1920 and Peck was appointed commander of the new unit
49
Berton, Vimy, iv. Quote by Lieutenant Gregory Clark M.C. of the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles. Berton is citing
from the November 13, 1967 issue of Weekend Magazine.
50
Radley, We Lead, Others Follow, 228-231.
51
Peck, Cy Peck V.C., 121-125.
52
Ibid, 102, 103.
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on April 28, ‘to command the regiment for purposes of reorganization’. 53 The Canadian Scottish Regiment, in
addition to perpetuating the 16th Battalion CEF perpetuated five other CEF battalions either raised by the two
original militia regiments or in the city of Victoria. These are the 48th, 67th, 88th, 103rd and 143rd Battalions. The
16th is the preeminent overseas battalion perpetuated as the 48th and 67th Battalions served as pioneers and
the 88th, 103rd and 143rd Battalions were broken up for reinforcements. 54 When, in 1925, the Battle Honours
Committee drew up a list of proposed battle honours, officers in the Canadian Scottish noted, much to their
dismay, that although the Second Battle of Ypres was represented, it did not satisfactorily emphasize the action
at Kitchener’s Wood. It was Lieutenant-Colonel Urquhart who was greatly determined to resolve this
unfortunate situation, which he started by petitioning the government in Ottawa. The units perpetuating the
10th Battalion CEF, the Calgary Highlanders and the Winnipeg Light Infantry, which fought at Kitchener’s Wood
together with the 16th, agreed that something must be done. Years later, in 1934, the 1st Battalion was
authorized to wear a special metal shoulder badge on a red felt background which bore an oak leaf and acorn,
surrounded by the regiment’s title, CANADIAN SCOTTISH.55
Throughout the Interbellum the unit continued its existence as a regular militia regiment, consisting out of a
1st Battalion in Victoria and a 2nd battalion headquartered in Nanaimo and keeping itself busy with both training
and ceremonial duties. As such the years passed by, until Great-Britain necessarily declared war on Germany
on September 3rd, 1939.
The Second World War
Canada declared war on Germany a week later on September 10, and, as in 1914, the nation turned to the
militia. Nine days earlier the regiment had been ordered to mobilize both battalions for the benefit of the
Canadian Active Service Force (CASF). It was decided that the regiment would go overseas with the 7 th brigade,
3rd Division. This ‘new’ unit, was called the 1st Battalion, The Canadian Scottish Regiment, but was to include
men from and represent both the 1st and 2nd battalion equally, as far as possible. Owing to the recruiting drive
to fill up the ranks, many men that were to go overseas, were new recruits, and thus had to be trained to bring
them up to the same level as the men who had been in the militia prior to the outbreak of war. After a long
journey across Canada by train, the battalion arrived in the military camp at Debert, Nova Scotia on October 9,
1940. They were to stay there for almost a year. Whilst preparing to go overseas, all ranks were presented with
a small book concerning the history of the unit by two surviving commanding officers of the 16 th, Colonels
Robert Leckie and Cyrus Peck, urging the men to ‘finish the job we then began’. 56 On August 25, 1941, the
battalion boarded the Stratheden, a luxury liner, and set out for Great Britain, much the same as their fathers
53
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 2-5.
Army Historical Section, The Regiments and Corps of the Canadian Army, 233-235.
55
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 27-30.
56
Author unknown, The Canadian Scottish Regiment, A Remembrance: From the survivors, All Ranks, of the 16 th
Battalion (The Canadian Scottish) C.E.F. 1914-1919 to All Ranks now serving in the Canadian Scottish Regiment
– which Regiment perpetuates the 16th (Unknown, 1941) 5.
54
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had done 27 years earlier. 57
The Canadian Scottish arrived in Scotland, early in the morning of the 1 st of September, where they were
welcomed by their allied regiment, the Royal Scots. Not long after the Can Scots entrained for Aldershot,
England, where they arrived on the 3rd. The unit, for the rest of 1941, was involved in ‘fairly intensive
training’.58 From 1942 onward, the focus was on ‘Battle Drill’, and many NCO’s as well as a few officers
attended Assault Course Schools. Route marches were intensified and platoon training exercises were
lengthened to 36 hours. The men were instructed in properly embarking on and disembarking from landing
craft (LCA), training up north at Inveraray in Scotland and down south in Bournemouth. Offensive exercises
were conducted on both battalion and brigade level. In the buildup to June 6, 1944, training was intensified,
more specialist equipment reached the unit and a full-dress rehearsal for Operation Overlord took place. Every
company of the battalion was taken into a heavily-guarded briefing room featuring a scale model of the area
where the 7th brigade was to land. On June 2nd, the men boarded ships in Southampton, which weighed anchor
and set course for the Solent, where they joined the great armada that was set for France. In the afternoon of
the 5th, 5,000 ships were set in motion, slow ships first, faster ones after, with the ships carrying the Canadian
Scottish following in the evening. They were bound for Normandy. 59
It was C Company, commanded by Major D.G. Crofton, that was to go in first. They were to land on Mike
Green, the beach at Vaux. Right behind them, a dozen Can Scots were mixed in with the Winnipeg Rifles’
reserve companies who were to land on Mike Red.60 They were to make sure the beach was clear of wire and
guide the bulk of the battalion when it landed. C Company, albeit suffering a number of casualties, managed to
get of the beach quickly and move inland. No 13. platoon’s objective was a casemate beside the road to Vaux
containing a 75mm artillery piece, which, as they found out, had been knocked out by the preceding naval
bombardment. Had it not been put out of action, the casualties suffered by C Company would have been
quadrupled. 61 The rest of the battalion landed about forty minutes after the first wave and were mostly
subjected to mortar and artillery fire, with only the occasional rattle of machine guns. By the end of the day,
the unit had proceeded six miles into France, farthest of all the infantry battalions that assaulted Festung
Europa that day. There were 87 casualties. 62
On D+1, the day after the invasion, the 7th brigade moved inland and dug in for the night. The next day, the
Winnipegs moved up to Putot-en-Bessin, while the Regina Rifles, also part of the 7th brigade, were sent to the
Bretteville l’Orgueilleuse – Norrey-en-Bessin area. The Canadian Scottish were held in reserve and were located
in and around Secqueville-en-Bessin and La Bergerie Farm. The Germans, recognizing the situation and knowing
that the only possibility – and indeed the best chance – to defeat the allies, was to quickly push them back ‘into
the sea’ and destroy the bridgeheads before they had a chance to bring in heavy materiel and reinforcements.
With the German 21st Panzer Division engaged elsewhere and the Panzer Lehr Division still on the march, the
57
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 74-79, 91-99, 110.
Ibid, 111, 112, 115.
59
Ibid, 124-131, 194-215.
60
T. Barris, Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944 (Toronto 2009) 114-118.
61
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 218-221.
62
Ibid,, 222,223, 234, 235.
58
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attack went in with one instead of three divisions. The 12th SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ was to do the job.
Its 26th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment was sent to attack Bretteville, Norrey, Putot and Bronay, with the 2 nd
battalion being responsible for the capture of Putot. During the night, the Regina Rifles were put under great
pressure but were still holding out. Word came through that the Winnipegs were unable to hold Putot and
were trying to withdraw after suffering heavy casualties, three of their four rifle companies being overrun. The
Canadian Scottish were given the order to counterattack Putot and hold it at all cost. They were the only
battalion between the enemy and the beaches. If they were to give way, the consequences were potentially
far-reaching. The attack went in on June 8th. The village was taken with a great number of casualties to the
Scottish and positions were taken up and consolidated during the night, in preparation for the inevitable
German counter-attack.63 Despite repeated German counterattacks, no further ground was given and the
Canadian Scottish remained in control of Putot. They suffered forty-five dead and eighty wounded.64
Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Cabeldu, commanding the regiment, was awarded a Distinguished Service Order for
his leadership and Lieutenant Aubrey Peck, nephew to the famous Cy Peck, was awarded a Military Cross.
Corporal Edward Jobes was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria Cross. 65
Advancing towards Caen, the Canadian Scottish attacked the village of Cussy and drove the Germans out.
Losses were high on both sides. It was scant consolation for the men that the 12 th SS by now had been badly
mauled and some were even surrendering, something which was previously unheard of due to the upbringing
and subsequent brainwashing of these youngsters in Nazi Germany. Afterwards the Scottish were to take part
in operation Totalize, Field Marshall Montgomery’s plan to encircle the German Seventh Army and Fifth Panzer
Army and crush them at Falaise. The Canadian Scottish started out in reserve but were later ordered to take Hill
168, which was close to the city. Albeit well defended, the hill was taken and the battalion stood just a mile
from Falaise, until they were relieved. The Germans by now were trapped in the Falaise pocket and the
Canadian Army took twelve-thousand prisoners over the course of just three days, August 19-21. 66 From
Falaise, the retreating Germans were chased through Dieppe and Boulogne towards Calais, which was taken on
October 1st. Next up, five days later, was ‘the Leopold’, a canal about seventy-five feet wide, with earthen, treecovered banks on both sides between eight and ten feet high close to the Belgian-Dutch border. It had to be
crossed as part of the Scheldt Estuary campaign which was designed to take Antwerp and give the allies a much
needed and greatly coveted port. It was tough going but in the end it proved to be successful. Twelve days
were spent in bitter fighting at the Leopold Canal and ‘never was a group of men happier to leave an area than
the Canadian Scottish was to leave the bridgehead over the Leopold.’ 67 They had however not seen the last of
the Scheldt Estuary. The days of rest after the Leopold Canal were not to last and the battalion was quickly sent
back into the fray, continuing the fighting until November 2 nd, after which they were sent to Ghent for a week
of well-deserved rest.
63
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 237-246.
M. Zuehlke, Holding Juno: Canada’s heroic defence of the D-Day beaches: June 7-12, 1944 (Vancouver 2005)
240.
65
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 248, 249.
66
Ibid, 276, 277, 300-306.
67
Ibid, 336, 356.
64
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After Ghent, the Canadian Scottish were sent to the Nijmegen area, where nearly 3 months were spent in
static warfare, until the entire 7th Brigade took part in Operation Veritable, Montgomery’s push into the
Rhineland. Fighting through flooded plains and thick woods, the Germans doggedly resisted and some of the
fiercest fighting since D-Day took place. On the 18th and 19th of February, the regiment suffered particularly
heavy casualties near a farm called Heseler Feld and a meadow nicknamed ‘Slaughter Hill’. Out of three
companies, only one hundred and thirty men remained. The rest had been killed, captured or wounded.
Another month would be spent fighting in the Rhineland, after which the war had entered its last phase. The
Canadian Scottish crossed the border into the Netherlands. Here they were liberators and friends, instead of
conquerors and enemies. 68
Generally, the fighting in the Netherlands was easier than it had been in Germany and the reception
afforded to the troops by the Dutch civilians was both welcomed and well-deserved: ‘(…) It gives us reason to
feel that the discomforts that we put up with at times are more than worth it. It is not necessary to be able to
hold a conversation with them to know of their appreciation of the Allied armies.’ 69 Several villages were
liberated by the Canadian Scottish and a battle honour was awarded for the liberation of Deventer. Heavy
resistance was encountered on the 21st of April at the village of Wagenborgen in the North-Eastern
Netherlands and a high number of casualties for this period of the war was sustained. 70 At Wagenborgen alone
the Regiment suffered twenty-three killed and forty-one wounded. However, it was not until 1989 that the
battle honour ‘Wagenborgen’ was awarded to the unit. It was to be the regiments’ last major action of the war.
After Wagenborgen, the Canadian Scottish moved in the direction of Germany, into Leer and onto the hamlet
of Loga. On the 4th of May, news reached the unit that a ceasefire was to come into effect the following
morning at 0800 hours. For many, it was a surreal feeling. The war diarist jotted down: ‘It was hard to realize
that it was true and there would be no more fighting.’ 71
The Canadian Scottish had the task of guarding no less than two thousand seven hundred German prisoners.
These were sent marching into Germany, being watched along the way. Leave was granted to a lot of men and
many went on tours or visited historic cities whilst waiting to be repatriated back to Canada. A lot of emphasis
was put on sport and great care was taken to preserve discipline among the ranks. The 4 th/1st Battalion,
Canadian Scottish Regiment, Canadian Army Occupation Force, was formed with the task of guarding German
prisoners-of-war in Germany and to occupy part of the country. Though named ‘Canadian Scottish Regiment’, it
only had a small percentage of men who had earlier served in Europe with the 1st Battalion. On April 21st, 1946,
one year after the battle for Wagenborgen, the 4th/1st Battalion occupational role ended when they boarded
the TSS Clan Lamont in Cuxhaven for the journey to England and from there back home, to Canada.72 After
seven years of active service, the regiment stood down, but, have since been ‘Ready for the Fray’.
68
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 363, 364, 390-396, 412-415.
Ibid. 417.
70
M.M. Huizinga and H. Doornbos, Van Canada tot Dollard tou... De Bevrijdingsgevechten aan Eems en Dollard,
15 april – 2 mei 1945 (Scheemda 1985) 39-42.
71
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 445.
72
Ibid, 450-453.
69
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3. Early life and enlistment
Who is the Canadian Scottish Regiment soldier? Where did he come from? What was his socioeconomic status?
Why did he decide to enlist in the army? Is this any different from other Canadian units?
Background
During the First World War, as was said earlier, the unit was roughly speaking composed of ‘Scotchmen and
gentlemen’, a mix of wealthy Englishmen and less affluent Scots. Half the officers and eighty percent of the
other ranks had been born in Britain. This should come as no surprise, as at the time, Canada was still very
much a part of the British Empire. In 1939, they were no longer automatically at war when Britain was as was
the case in 1914, but took their stand beside the mother country regardless. 73 Again, the nation looked to the
militia to fulfill its immediate needs and large numbers of volunteers flocked to the recruiting stations. The
population of Canada however, had changed. Large numbers of immigrants from European countries other
than those in the United Kingdom had come to Canada during the interwar period. People who had come
earlier were now having children themselves, with those children set to reach adulthood during the war years.
Between 1896 and 1914, around two and a half million immigrants settled in Canada. Around a million came
from Great Britain. Three quarters of a million came from the United States, many of them returning
Canadians. Half a million of these came from continental Europe, with large groups arriving from Germany,
Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland. A great number of these
settled in Western Canada, with British Columbia, the Can Scots’ home province, taking in large numbers. 74
However, not all of them went toward the west coast. The growing cities and towns in eastern Canada
attracted many an immigrant as well, as did the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. 75 This change in
demographic makeup was reflected in the army and thus in the Canadian Scottish.
This does not mean, however, that people of British descent had disappeared from the regiment. They were
still very much serving. The unit however, had become more Canadian and less British. Less members had been
born on the British Isles. Those born in Canada oftentimes felt Canadian, even if they were of British descent.
Those whose ancestors came from continental Europe quickly integrated and thought of themselves as
Canadian also. It was very much the same for those born outside of Canada. They wanted to be Canadian and
they felt Canadian. There were differences in socioeconomic status too. At the time, the country was coming
out of the Great Depression and for a lot of people, especially during the early 1930’s, life was tough. Others
still came from affluent families. All of these different groups and backgrounds were present in the Canadian
Scottish and can be divided into four distinct groups. For all four, a man who served with the regiment and who
is a clear example, will be introduced.
Gordon Holland was born in Vancouver in 1923. His father was born in England, went to Cambridge,
emigrated to Canada but went back to England on the advent of the First World War so he could join up with
73
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 74.
F. Hawkins, Critical Years in Immigration, Canada and Australia Compared (Montreal 1991) 4.
75
Hawkins, Critical Years in Immigration, 4.
74
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his old friends from his studying days. He served as a Lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders and went back to
Canada after the war. 76 In the interwar period, he served in the Canadian Scottish, attaining the rank of
Captain and later becoming a Major in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion. 77 Gordon’s great-grandfather was Sir Charles
Tupper, a Canadian father of Confederation, who led Nova Scotia into the Canadian Confederation in 1867, was
a leading conservative politician and shortly prime minister of Canada.78 His grandfather, Sir Charles Hibbert
Tupper, a conservative also, served as Minister of Marine and Fisheries and as Minister of Justice. 79 He was
named after his uncle, Victor Gordon Tupper, who won the Military Cross in the Great War and served as acting
Major and company commander with the 16th. He was killed at Vimy Ridge in 1917. 80 Another of his uncles was
Captain Cecil Merritt, who commanded No 3 Company of the 16th and was killed in 1915.81 Cecil Merritt’s son,
and thus Gordon Holland’s cousin, was Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt, known as Cec, who
commanded the South-Saskatchewan Regiment before and during the infamous raid on Dieppe and earned the
Victoria Cross, the Commonwealths highest award for valour in the face of the enemy. 82 Gordon himself
attended Brentwood College , a private boarding school, was second-in-command of the cadet corps and
joined the militia before the war. He went active in 1943: ‘I joined the army as I felt that it was my duty to our
country.’ 83
James Clarke, born in Vancouver in 1925, was the eldest of eleven children. ‘We grew up in the depression,
times were bloody tough.’ 84 As a young teenager, he joined the air cadets, transferred to the army cadets and
finally enlisted with Vancouver’s Seaforth Highlanders in 1943, before being transferred to the Canadian
Scottish.
Why did I join the army before my 18th birthday? Certainly not for the patriotism but for the thought of a
better, more exciting life. (…) One day, when my chums and I were at the Seaforth Armouries, a
recruiting officer approached us and advised us that if we could get a letter from our parents saying that
we were 19, we could join up now. Great adventure, travel to new places, food, uniforms to impress the
girls, after the war was over, education would be paid for and we would not be required to finish our
grade 12 as we would be given our Senior Matric. Sounded wonderful! Smart uniform, money in my
pocket, full stomach, travel, excitement and a chance for further education. 85
76
The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey. Medal Index Card of W.G.C. Holland.
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 13.
78
A publication from the Government of Canada, Sir Charles Tupper: Canada’s Sixth Prime Minister 1-5.
79
R.A.J. McDonald, ‘Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper and the Political Culture of British Columbia, 1903-1924’, BC
Studies 149 (2006) 63-86.
80
R.H. Tupper, Victor Gordon Tupper, a brother’s tribute (London 1921) Printed for private circulation only, at
the Oxford University Press.
81
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 84.
82
Royal Military College of Canada, ‘1866 Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt, VC, ED 1908 –
2000’ (version September 5, 2013), http://www.rmc.ca/cam/wh-mh/whc-cmh/merritt-cci-eng.php (March 4,
2014).
83
Personal recollection, V. Gordon Holland.
84
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
85
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
77
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Frank Schmidt was born in Unity, Saskatchewan in 1921. His parents, ethnic Germans from Odessa, Russian
Empire, had migrated to Canada in the early 20th century, in search of a better life. The family homesteaded on
the prairies of Saskatchewan before moving to the west coast in 1930: ‘I was nine years old and my parents
moved to Kelowna. They had six children, never had a pot to pee in. Everything they owned, they had tied up in
two sheets, on a pole. (…) No money. ‘ In 1940, he joined the army with a friend on a whim: ‘When I joined up, I
was very ignorant. I just went up to the armoury, and I didn’t tell my parents. A friend of mine, who was a
couple of years older than me, we were walking down the main street of Kelowna, and all of a sudden he said
‘Hey Frank, let’s go join the army’. We turned around and walk down the armoury, signed on the dotted line,
next day I got on the train, I ended up in Victoria!’ 86
Armand Denicola was born in Ceppaloni, just east of Naples, Italy, in 1922. He came to Canada with his
parents when he was three and a half years old. Life was tough, but the family got by. He joined the army in
1943 because he thought it was the right thing to do: ‘There was a reason for it, wasn’t there. You can’t let a
person like Hitler get away with stuff like that. You know, that’s not fair. That’s not right. (…) It had to be done.
No choice. We, Canadians, always stuck up for the rights, and we still do.’ 87
Thus, all four of the groups that I have described above were represented in the Canadian Scottish. These
people are by no means homogeneous. People born in- and outside of Canada. People from affluent English
families. People from less affluent English families. People from poor immigrant families. People from
middleclass immigrant families. Yet they all had a few things in common. They were Canadians. And for some
reason they had decided to join the army.
As is often the case, there was a surge of volunteers on the advent of war, but, since the spring of 1941,
reinforcements were badly needed and volunteers were no longer enlisting in large numbers. There were
nowhere near enough volunteers, especially in the infantry battalions. Therefore, the Canadian government
asked its people by referendum on the 27th of April, 1942, to free them from their earlier promise not to send
conscripts overseas. It was accepted by a 64% to 36% majority, with most of the naysayers hailing from
Francophone Québec, as had been the case in 1917. Although the majority had agreed, Canada’s government
was still reluctant to send conscripts overseas and only decided to do so on the 22 nd of November 1944, after
the army had suffered tremendous casualties in the Battle of the Scheldt. In the end 9,677 conscripts were sent
to continental Europe and only 2,643 were assigned to combat units. 88
Enlistment motivations
Apart from their different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, their reasons to enlist in the army differed
vastly as well. Some had prior military experience in the cadets, the militia, or both. Others hadn’t. Apart from
the motivations listed above, there were other reasons to enlist. Firstly however, we must take a look at the
types of men involved. In essence, there are four: men who were professional soldiers with the regular army
86
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
Personal recollection, Armand J. Denicola.
88
Bouchery, The Canadian Soldier, 4.
87
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before the war, men who were members of the militia before the war, volunteers who joined the active force
from civilian life and conscripts who enlisted under the N.R.M.A., the National Resources Mobilization Act, who
later volunteered for overseas service. The first category, however, does not apply here. At the start of the war,
Canada had three regular infantry regiments of a single battalion each, the Canadian Scottish not being one of
them. Canada’s regular army in 1939 was small, consisting out of only 4,261 men. If one also counts the air
force and navy personnel, it adds up to a grand total of around 9,200 professionals. 89 Consequently, command
experience of anything above a few companies was largely lacking, as was experience in the complex matter of
staff planning which is crucial to be able to command a large military force. 90 The militia, fully the NonPermanent Active Militia (NPAM) had about 51,500 reservists, who trained on a regular basis but in many cases
lacked proper equipment. Motorized vehicles were virtually non-existent and the available arms were almost
exclusively of the 1914-1918 pattern. 91 At the end of the war, 237,000 men and women had served Canada in
North-West Europe, whereas the field force stood at around 170,000 men. 92 Thus, it should come as no
surprise that the Canadian army experienced growing pains in its transition from a small and inexperienced
force to an army that was making the fourth largest contribution to the allies’ cause, after the Soviet Union, the
United States and the United Kingdom. 93
Men joining from the militia after their regiments had been mobilized for overseas service oftentimes did so
because they wanted to serve with their own unit and thus with their own friends. Patriotism was also a large
factor: ‘When the war started in September they called the guys in, anybody who wanted to go active service.
Volunteered to fight for king and queen, anywhere in the British Empire. No matter where they wanted. So I
went active.’ 94 Ken and Terry Byron grew up on Saltspring Island and there wasn’t much to do. Consequently,
as soon as they were of age, they joined the local militia platoon. It gave them something to do. When the war
broke out, they joined for adventure and out of patriotism. 95 Art Johnson’s path into the army was much the
same. 96 Al Bacon, born in Toronto, joined the active force from the militia, but instead of joining a Toronto
based regiment, he opted to join the Canadian Scottish because he ‘liked their hats’ and wanted to see the
west coast, where he expected the army would send him, considering the unit is headquartered in Victoria. He
wouldn’t see the west coast until after he came back from overseas. 97 Tom Halbert joined the militia in 1941 as
a 17-year old in search of adventure and went active as soon as he was able to go overseas, right after his 19 th
birthday. 98
89
J. Bouchery, From D-Day to VE-Day, The Canadian Soldier in North-West Europe 1944-1945 (Paris 2003) 3.
Colonel C.P. Stacey, O.B.E., C.D., etc. etc., Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, The
Canadian Army 1939-1945, An Official Historical Summary (Ottawa 1960) 1-3.
90
R. Chartrand, Canadian Forces in World War II (Oxford 2001) 9.
91
Bouchery, The Canadian Soldier, 3. Stacey, An Official Historical Summary, 2, 3.
92
Colonel C.P. Stacey O.B.E., C.D., etc. etc., Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War,
Volume III, the Victory Campaign, the operations in North-West Europe 1944-1945 (Ottawa 1960) 641.
93
Chartrand, Canadian Forces in World War II, ii.
94
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling.
95
Personal recollection, Kenneth and Terry Byron, with thanks to Kenneth Byron Jr.
96
Personal recollection, Arthur E. Johnson.
97
Personal recollection, William A. Bacon.
98
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
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Ron Cox joined because he had a ‘piss poor job’ in a brewery and wanted to get out of there. 99 James Whyte
joined for a similar reason, because he was: ‘Bored to death. Nothing better to do.’ 100 Bill Hannah joined
‘‘cause everybody else was in it.’ So did Bill Stevens: ‘There was a lot of the boys in Wells where we lived, that
were going so I went at the same time.’ David Boyd enlisted for the same reason. All of his friends were going,
so he wanted to go too. The same applies to Frank Schmidt. A large group of his friends from Kelowna all joined
up, so it was only natural he came along too. 101 Others joined to serve their country or because it was the right
thing to do, such as Gordon Holland, Munro MacKenzie, Armand Denicola, Harry Roberts, George Burton, Doug
Leask, George Gilbert, Dick Straw, Dave Janicki and Ed Peck. The latter obviously having family connections
within the regiment as well, with his father being the former battalion commander. 102
Broadly, the men’s motivations to enlist can be divided into four categories. Men enlisting because they
were in search of something more exciting than their current predicament, men going overseas because
everybody else was going, men looking to go overseas for adventure and men desiring to go because they felt it
was their duty or ‘the thing to do’. One reason, however, does not exclude another. These motivations seem to
be largely the same as they were in 1914, though at the time of the First World War, due to Canada’s status as
a dominion and its ties with Britain, more men joined out of patriotism and a sense of duty to the Empire and
less because they wanted to escape their current situation. 103 The Great Depression had not yet taken place
and, although life at the Canadian frontier in those days was far from luxurious, they hadn’t lived through a
worldwide financial crisis. 104 As in World War I, there were men who joined because all of their friends were
going. In the case of the First World War this is most clearly seen in the Pals battalions. 105 As always in a war,
there were those who longed for adventure. Not terribly much has been written on the subject of enlistment
motivations in World War II. In the United States, the recruitment posters encouraging men to join up mostly
called upon a man’s patriotism, followed by adventure and bettering one’s social status. Education, career and
job opportunities bring up the rear. These were only used sparingly. 106 Furthermore, the men’s reasons to
enlist were much the same in World War I as they were in World War II. In this regard, the Canadian Scottish do
not seem to be very different from other Canadian, British or even American units then and now.
Since 1914, Canada had changed. In 1939, the country was at war yet again, they had however, declared war
on Germany themselves and were not automatically at war when Britain was, as was the case in 1914.
Enlistment motivations, however, were much the same at the outbreak of the Second World War as they had
99
Personal recollection, Ronald E. Cox.
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
101
Personal recollection, Bill Hannah, William G. Stevens and David F. Boyd, with thanks to G. David Boyd Jr.
102
Personal recollection, V. Gordon Holland, D. Munro MacKenzie, Armand J. Denicola, Harry A. Roberts,
George V. Burton, Douglas C. Leask, Edward R.U. Peck. George W. Gilbert, from: George Gilbert: Army Stories
1942-1946. Richard Straw from: W. Sommer, ‘From Rural Langley to Juno Beach’, The Langley Times, November
10, 2006. Dave Janicki with thanks to Nick Janicki.
103
C.A. Sharpe, ‘The "Race of Honour": An Analysis of Enlistments and Casualties in the Armed Forces of
Newfoundland: 1914-1918’, Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, Vol 4. No 1. (1988) 27-55, 31.
104
Urquhart, The History of the 16th Battalion, 7-12.
105
K. Grieves, The Politics of Manpower, 1914-18 (Manchester 1988) 10, 11.
106
P.A. Padilla and M.R. Laner, ‘Trends in Military Influences on Army Recruitment: 1915-1953’, Sociological
Inquiry, Vol. 71, No. 4. (2001) 421-436, 429.
100
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been at the outbreak of the First. Similarities can be drawn between Canada and the United States also.
Therefore, it is likely that the men who served with the Canadian Scottish are not very different from other
men joining the army in times of war. Due to a large influx of immigrants at the end of the 19th and the
beginning of the 20th century, the population of Canada had changed significantly since 1914. It had become
more Canadian and less British. Even though many immigrants went to western Canada, with many of them
arriving in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and eastern Canada took in large numbers too, thus
changing the demographic makeup of the population there. The ethnic composition of the country had
changed and so had the ethnic composition of the army and thus of the Canadian Scottish.
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4. On to training
What did the men expect to find whilst in an army camp? What was the training like? What did they think of
going to war? Did the training in any way prepare them for what lay ahead?
The short answer is that a lot of them had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Only those with
prior military experience, mostly in the militia or the cadets, though there was at least one man who had
served during the Great War, had any idea what military discipline and training was all about. 107 This does not
mean that those without military experience came totally unprepared. There were a number of men whose
fathers had served in the First World War. Some had even served with the 16 th. These men could tell their sons
what life in the army was like. Some even advised them to go to specific units. However, not everybody joining
from civilian life had this luxury, which is especially true in the cases of men who were born outside the British
Empire or who were born in Canada, but to immigrant parents. One of those men was Frank Schmidt: ‘I joined
up, I was 19 years old, I didn’t know anything about the military. (…)I didn’t know there was a regiment, a
platoon or a division or a…. whatever. I knew nothing. I just volunteered.’ 108 One must also remember that for
most people, times were tough and so were the men. Circumstances were very different from those of today.
Thus, many new recruits, especially early in the war, adapted and learned quickly. 109
Training in Canada was largely centered on physical exercise, bayonet practice and rifle training. For many, it
was something they wouldn’t soon forget. D Company’s Armand Denicola remembers: ‘Bayonet practice, and
physical training, run five miles. (…) Lots of that. You had to be good on rifle and machinegun, grenades (…) it
was part of the training.’ 110 George Gilbert mostly remembers the physical aspects of his training but also has a
vivid recollection of the day he had to bayonet a bale of straw. However, the necessity of practicing a bayonet
charge in preparation for a modern war is questionable. Luckily enough, the Canadian Scottish did not have to
resort to a bayonet charge during the war. In Europe, they were few and far between. A soldier who’d come in
as a reinforcement, on his first night in action in early 1945, fixed his bayonet on his rifle before going into a
farmhouse that they were supposed to check for Germans. As soon as his sergeant saw this, he inquired what
that thing on the end of his rifle was: ‘I told him it was my bayonet and he promptly said: “Well take the damn
thing off before you hurt somebody!” I never saw a bayonet on a rifle again.’ 111 George Gilbert was happy he
never had to use his bayonet: ‘I am most pleased to say I did not have to go to this great extreme.’ 112 Route
marches were a big part of training: ‘Marching from Port Alberni down to Victoria and then back up. You know
how far that is?’113 They were used extensively in both Canada and the United Kingdom to test the endurance
and physical condition of the men, as well as training the officers and staff to handle large movements of
107
This man is K57810, Private A MacKenzie, killed in action June 9th, 1944. His gravestone reads: ‘Born Port
Albert, Ontario. Served 1914-1918. 1940-1944. “Fought a good fight”’. He is buried at Bretteville-sur-Laize
Canadian War Cemetery in France.
108
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
109
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 76-78.
110
Personal recollection, Armand J. Denicola.
111
Person recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
112
Personal recollection, George W. Gilbert, Army Stories 1942-1946, 2.
113
Personal recollection, Ronald E. Cox.
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troops. 114 One cannot resist thinking that apart from a physical aspect, there was also an important mental
aspect – will the men keep going under difficult and strenuous conditions? Will they be able to handle setbacks
and disappointments? Long route marches may not have been very popular among the men, but they were
likely very valuable in preparation for what lay ahead.
Obstacle courses and cross-country runs were another returning element of both basic and advanced
training, although they became less important as the war dragged on, due to mounting casualties and a dire
need for reinforcements. Art Johnson’s memory most clearly illustrates this:
Before you qualified to go overseas you had to do five miles in fifty minutes. With a full pack, that’s
about 40 pounds and your steel helmet and your rifle. (…) So I think they really wanted me to qualify
because I was playing out. So then they ended up, the corporal was carrying my kit bag, or my pack, and
an officer was carrying my steel helmet and the sergeant was carrying my rifle. They were helping me
along to make the time. I think they wanted me to get out of that camp because I, maybe caused a lot of
trouble.115
Obviously they did not want to get him out because he was a troublemaker. At the time of his training, the
Canadian Army was still fighting in the Normandy Campaign and casualties were heavy: ‘The CAUC (Canadian
Army University Course) training ended in April '44 - by then the army was more interested in cannon food
than technicians and most of us went into the infantry, artillery or armoured corps and we were sent for
training.’116 Thus, more and more corners were cut and men were hurried through, in an attempt to bring the
units in the field up to strength.
Apart from physical exercise and weapon practice, drill was another large part of training in Canada: ‘And
then it was just all parade square training, marching around the parade square, left turn, right turn.’ 117 Those
who joined early were sent to Debert, Nova Scotia, to receive further training whilst waiting to go to the United
Kingdom. Camp Debert was supposed to be able to hold a division and provide facilities for both training and
recreational purposes. There was but one small problem. The camp was far from finished. Conditions were
miserable, as even the officers noted. Huts were only half-finished, electricity half-wired, sewage half-finished
and there was no running water, to name but a few things. 118 In trying to make the best out of a bad situation,
the unit’s platoon of Assault Pioneers was put to good use, finishing huts and building wooden sidewalks, ‘miles
and miles of the bloody things’.119 Above all, men who were there remember the cold and the mud:
When we moved there, in October 1940, the regiment moved in, I’m in the pioneer platoon, we have
carpenters, bricklayers and what have you. There wasn’t a window or door in the building. We moved in
and it’s frost at night. There’s no running water. There’s no toilets. The portable toilets, they’re brought
out. No electricity. (…) We had to put the windows and doors in the bloody buildings when we first
114
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 184.
Personal recollection, Arthur E. Johnson.
116
Personal recollection, Gordon L. Rowat.
117
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
118
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 100, 103.
119
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
115
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moved there. And in the morning we got up, you had to get up and go on parade in the morning, we had
to shave. There’s no water. We had to go outside, break the ice on a puddle, and shave. With ice cold
water! You talk about tough times. Haha! That was tough going and mud! Mud up ‘til your bloody
ankles.120
The commander of Military Camp Debert at the time was Brigadier W.G. Colquhoun, M.C., who stood well over
6 feet and happened to have been a very good friend of the earlier mentioned Gordon Holland’s father and
was ironically called ‘Uncle Shorty’ by Gordon and his siblings when they were children. 121 This seemingly
unimportant fact only confirms that Gordon and his family were well established and well-connected in
Canada. Brigadier Colquhoun, however, did not play favourites, although he visited Gordon in hospital when he
got down with a bad case of the mumps. He told him ‘that he had been keeping an eye on me at a distance
during my training and was glad to see that I was doing well. He said that he had been in touch with my parents
and let them know that I was alright despite the setback of mumps.’ 122 The mumps however, caused him to be
left in Canada due to sickness when the rest of the unit went to England. Gordon later served in Continental
Europe as a scout/sniper with the Calgary Highlanders and came back to serve with the Canadian Scottish after
the war.
After Debert, the unit went to England and those who had joined early would be there for nearly three
years. At first, training in England was largely the same as it had been in Canada. Shooting practice, physical
exercise and more route marches: ‘Advanced infantry training. Yeah, well, when we got to England, we
marched up and down that island. That’s advanced infantry training.’ 123
Advanced and assault training
As D-Day drew nearer, training and exercise became more and more focused. From 1942 onward, ‘Battle Drill’
and ‘Battle Drill Training’ were introduced, and some officers and NCO’s had attended Assault Course Schools.
It was clear the unit, as were the other assault units, was being prepared to take part in the invasion of
mainland Europe. Like the others, the Can Scots went through more specific training ‘and went through
advanced battle training in the UK as all the junior officers did, I was a lieutenant.’124 There was an increased
emphasis on physical training. Route marches were lengthened. Three-mile runs, sports and large-scale
exercises became a more regular occurrence. So was the battle practice course, in which an entire company
had to overcome several obstacles such as barbed wire and trenches, whilst firing at targets of opportunity or
from the hip. 125 From July 1943 to June of ’44, the training schemes and exercises followed by the Can Scots
were all geared towards assaulting Hitler’s Atlantikwall. For this purpose, the unit trained on L.S.I.’s and
L.C.A.’s. These being Landing Ship, Infantry, which would take them from England to the coast of France, where
they would scramble down the sides of the L.S.I. and into the Landing Craft, Assault, which was to be their
120
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
Personal recollection, V. Gordon Holland.
122
Personal recollection, V. Gordon Holland.
123
Personal recollection, Ronald E. Cox.
124
Personal recollection, Morris M. Heath.
125
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 124-129.
121
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transport from the L.S.I. to the beach. The rigorous training would take them to the Combined Training Centre
in Inveraray, at the head of Loch Fyne, in Scotland. 126 ‘And we were training all the time. And particularly the
last 6 months of the training was for D-Day landing. (…) We went to Inveraray, Scotland. And we trained to land
from the ocean on the beach.’127 As a matter of fact, the Canadian Scottish, being trained as assault troops,
underwent particularly tough training, remembered by some as being ‘almost commando training.’128 For
others, it seemed to be commando training. 129 The rifle companies were supposed to get acquainted with the
Mae West lifejacket and in order to give them full confidence in its ability to keep a man afloat, they were
taken out on the Loch on L.C.A.’s and instructed to jump overboard, whilst wearing all their clothing and
carrying full equipment:
And there was one Lance Corporal McQuarrie, when we were up on combined operations in Scotland
we had to go in this boat, what they call a Mae West life preserver, jump off about half a mile out and
make it to shore. You know with your weapons and your backpack. On the way in I came up to this
McQuarrie and he was struggling because he couldn’t swim. (…) He was damn near drowning. So I
stayed away from him, I said just hold it, Jack, just learn to swim. I got a good dog paddle like this. And
you see if you’re making the waves too big they’re going to choke you. So he did, he made it to shore. I
taught him to swim on the way, but I didn’t have any trouble because I swam a long time before I joined
the army. (…) So here I actually, might have saved his life. (…) Well we were about, least five hundred
feet from shore. And the water was lord knows how deep, twenty or thirty feet. 130
Naturally, in large scale and newfangled exercises, things not always tend to go to plan. Preparing for
something as complex as Operation Overlord required resourcefulness and steadfastness on the part of both
infantrymen and planners. Due to the nature of the operation, many things had to be tested by trial and error.
Some of these things were found to be extremely impractical beforehand, others weren’t. The folding bicycles
issued to two platoons of D Company turned out to be very unhelpful on a sandy beach whilst getting shot at.
Thus, many of them were either left on the beach or in the English channel: ‘Everybody threw the bikes away.
The water was too deep. They were anchors for them, that’s all they were. Folding bikes. What a bunch of
garbage. God.’ 131 One of those things that wás chalked off beforehand was chicken wire:
We were making a shore landing up at Inveraray. And there was a great number of the brass there, to
watch. And I was chosen to be first man off the assault landing craft. And I was given a roll of chicken
wire, to carry. And I was supposed to unroll the chicken wire over the barbed wire fence so that the rest
of the platoon could run over the barbed wire. (…) And I ran up the beach, holding the roll of barbed
wire, quite wide out in front of me. I tripped and fell and my bayonet on the end of my rifle, was on my
shoulder, it stuck into the roll of barbed wire, and the bayonet got caught in the wire and I couldn’t pull
126
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 191.
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
128
Personal recollection, Harry A. Roberts.
129
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
130
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling.
131
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 226, 227. Personal recollection, James Whyte.
127
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it out. I ended up standing on the roll of wire, straining, trying to get it out. And the guys in the platoon
behind me were jeering and some of them were shouting encouragement and eventually I threw the
whole thing, wire, bayonet, rifle, the whole bunch, right over the barbed wire. And a little later a
sergeant came along with a Bangalore torpedo, which is just a pipe full of explosive. And blew the wire
apart. And I often thought afterwards what a ridiculous way to try and make the landing. And I noticed
on D-Day morning, as we crossed the beach, (…) I was looking around to see if there was any rolls of
chicken wire. There weren’t any. They’d given up on that idea. 132
After Inveraray, the unit was pulled down to the south coast, where more exercises were conducted, with the
larger ones usually being amphibious assaults, in obvious preparation for what was to come. Again, not
everything went according to plan, which was especially true of exercise Pirate. 133 In December of 1943, the
unit spent Christmas in the town of Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. The unit enjoyed a good relationship with the
local people and many men were invited to spend Christmas with English families. Wayne Arnold, at the time of
D Company, was introduced to the Yelf family by his buddy, Corporal Bill Knight, who was slated to return to
Canada for officers training: ‘He spoke with her family about Christmas day as he was invited to spend
Christmas there and asked if it would be okay if he introduced me to take his place. This was fine with them so
one evening Bill took me to meet Fred, Ethel, Jean and Ruth Yelf. Ruth and I became very good friends and the
Yelf home was to me my home away from home, which I enjoyed very much.’ 134
The battalion’s stay on the Isle of Wight, however, was not to last. At the end of February, the unit was
shipped to Southampton, where it would spend the rest of their time in England. Three months later, at the
end of May, the camp where the Canadian Scottish were staying, was sealed. Barbed wire surrounded the
camp and armed sentries made sure everybody stayed put. No-one was allowed in or out, except with very
special permission. Having acquired said permission, he was to be accompanied by an officer wherever he
went. Shortly, all ranks who were to take part in the initial assault were briefed and shown a large scale-model
of the area where the brigade would land, with the names of all the towns, villages and rivers represented by
code names. The entire thing was surrounded with secrecy: ‘It was a secret, I’ll tell you it was a secret. The
Germans didn’t know anything about anything coming over! (…) It was the biggest secret that was ever held in
the world.’135 On the 2nd of June, the men boarded the ships that were to take them over the English Channel
and into Normandy. Still they did not know where they were going: ‘Got on a ship and we didn’t know what
was happening. We had an idea, but we didn’t know what was happening till we were on the ship and (…) that
night, they got us together and they said ‘We’re going to France’. 136
Basic and advanced training was much the same for all units in the Canadian army, though corners were cut
later on in the face of mounting casualties and less and less men joining up. Again, this affected the entire
Canadian army and not just the Canadian Scottish. Training in Inveraray wasn’t limited to the regiment either. It
132
Personal recollection, Harry A. Roberts.
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 199.
134
Personal recollection, Wayne H. Arnold.
135
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
136
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
133
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was used from 1941 until June of 1944 and thousands of men passed through its gates. 137 The training regimen
becoming more and more exhausting as D-Day drew nearer wasn’t unique either. All units that were to take
part in the assault stepped it up a notch.
In training, there are many similarities between the experiences of the men in the Canadian Scottish and those
in other Canadian units. Basic training in Canada and advanced training, usually, in England. In the buildup
toward D-Day, the unit, like the other units making the assault, was kept very busy with large-scale exercises
and physical training, as well as taking Combined Training in Inveraray. All were designed to prepare them as
best as possible for the task at hand. Training wise, the Canadian Scottish are much the same as other units
that were tasked with making the initial assault on Festung Europa.
137
G. Slee, ‘No. 1 Combined Training Centre, Inveraray’ (version unknown)
http://www.combinedops.com/Training%20No1%20CTC.htm (March 31, 2014).
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5. Into battle
How did the men fare in battle? How did they deal with unexpected events? In what respect do they differ from
other units?
Whereas military history has often been written by the earlier mentioned Decisive Battle idea, it would seem
that first-hand accounts are catching on. However, this too may have its shortcomings, as it is very difficult, if
not impossible, to capture the reality of combat on a piece of paper. The way in which one soldier experienced
it, may not be the same as that of another. In fact, due to its chaotic nature, it is very unlikely that everybody
involved will give similar accounts. Fear, however, is ever present. Especially when going into battle for the first
time, as the Canadian Scottish would do on D-Day.138
Another important factor that is often present is comradeship. It has been said that it reaches its peak in
battle and no one should deny that conflict situations produce examples of true comradeship. It is only in battle
that a bond can be formed through overcoming a common objective. In peacetime, objectives can be attained
and missions can be accomplished, but a bond as formed in war will never be possible without the presence of
danger. The thrill, the excitement of battle, the adventure. It is shared and never experienced alone. Whereas
in training or on exercises the conditions may be close to real combat, especially when live ammunition is used,
soldiers know that they will not be put at great peril and will return ‘to fight another day’, so to speak. When
there is an enemy trying to kill you, the situation changes at once and any mistake may have dire
consequences. To prevent casualties, a group has to work together and trust each other. 139 It is in battle and in
battle only that true comradeship emerges: ‘An hour or two of combat can do more to weld a unit together
than can months of intensive training.’140
D-Day
Operation Overlord was, and still is, the largest invasion in the history of warfare. A truly monumental event.
For nearly everybody, the invasion of Normandy was their first taste of battle. For some, it was to be their last
as well. Those who had joined early had had four years of training. Everything was to come down to this. For
everybody involved, it was something they would never forget. Even 65 years on, when asked about D-Day, to
a man they remembered it clearly. ‘About 7:30 in the morning I guess it was. Fairly early, and I got off of my
craft (…) and we hit a bit of water, I think I was up to my waist in water. Had to rush out of the water to get
onto the beach. Of course there was shelling going on all the time. Machinegun fire, and mortar shells were
dropping, and artillery. Everything. Hot. Some guys didn’t get of the beach. I was lucky.’ 141
And then, we just got on shore, running up to the (…) beach, to get into the mainland for some
protection and that. Wasn’t too bad there, where we landed. There were Germans there, but the first
138
S.L.A. Marshall, Men against Fire: The problem of battle command (1st University of Oklahoma edition,
Norman 2000) 36, 37.
139
J. Glenn Gray, The Warriors: Reflections on men in battle (1st edition: New York 1959) 44-46.
140
Ibid, 44.
141
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
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thing I knew that we were in battle was, here was an officer, hanging on to a soldier, who, this part of
his arm was nearly all gone, had been shot. And the officer was holding this so he wouldn’t bleed
anymore. It was still there, but (…) nearly all the muscle was gone. I always remember that. 142
‘Well I, got off the boat, get in the assault craft, and then comes time to jump out. We landed square in front of
this pillbox, but the destroyers had put a hole through it. (…) We were going through the barbed wire and on
some of them my shovel twisted. I got stuck in the damned barbed wire. And the bullets are flying all around.
(…) So my corporal comes and got me out of there.’ 143 Frank Schmidt, George Burton and Ron Cox all survived.
Twenty-three members of the regiment died on the sixth of June, 1944. A further sixty-one were wounded and
one was missing. 144 Some of the fatal casualties were killed as soon as they set foot on French soil: ‘Last time I
saw Boothby he was dead on the beach.’145
It was C Company that went in first, under the command of the Winnipeg Rifles. After the initial assault,
other companies began coming in, with most of them still under German artillery and mortar fire, which
continued until the afternoon. 146 Wayne Arnold was among those that landed later on: ‘I didn’t hit the beach
until two o’clock in the afternoon. (…) The beaches at Courseulles-sur-Mer [see map 1] were all cleared of the
enemy, and there was a lot of traffic on the beach – mostly of late personnel coming in, like myself.’ 147 So was
Bill Hannah: ‘I came in later on in the day. I jumped of and not much good of a swimmer and I think the water
was just about up to my neck and I managed to get on, we had our full packs on you know. I managed to get on
the beach without getting drowned. Not very heroic.’ 148 After the landing on the beach, the Scottish moved
inland, taking hoards of prisoners. Their advance was so rapid that they simply didn’t have the time to properly
search all of them, instead they were disarmed and sent to the ‘bosch cage’ under armed escort. 149 Bob Stirling
remembers this very clearly: ‘Sergeant Major Stothard, the Regimental Sergeant Major and I started rounding
up prisoners who were coming into us. It was a straight road and there was a hedge on this side (…), and the
field had a hedge. And out of each one of them, prisoners were coming up, kamerad, kamerad, and I was
holding the Bren gun on them and Sergeant Major Stothard was taking all the wrist watches. (…) He had a
whole arm full of them. He had about nine.’150
Meanwhile, when they weren’t taking prisoners back; ‘we caught a paymaster, with a whole pile of dough’,
18 platoon of D Company, commanded by Lieutenant Aubrey Peck, who was a cousin of Cy Peck, was on their
way to La Bergerie Farm. At the end of the day, they were called back by headquarters. They had gone too far
142
Personal recollection, George V. Burton.
Personal recollection, Ronald E. Cox.
144
War Diary 1 C Scot R, June 6, 1944. Roy, Ready for the Fray, 231, 571-579. Reginald Roy has other numbers
for casualties on D-Day, being 22 fatal casualties and 65 non-fatal casualties.
145
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
146
War Diary 1 C Scot R, June 6, 1944.
147
Personal recollection, Wayne H. Arnold, from: Goddard, D-Day, Juno Beach, 179.
148
Personal recollection, Bill Hannah.
149
War Diary 1 C Scot R, June 6, 1944. ‘Bosch’ is an English spelling of boche, a French term for Germans, which
is not entirely positive.
150
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling.
143
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out and were in danger of being isolated. 151 It was, however, not just 18 platoon who had gone quite a way
into Normandy. The entire battalion had. They had gone six miles inland, the farthest of all the infantry
battalions in the British Second Army that had landed on D-Day. As a matter of fact, by order of LieutenantColonel Cabeldu, the battalions CO, they had even gone farther than their intended objective, which was a
great surprise to the men of the Regina Rifles, whose CO came into the village of Camilly, which was their
objective, exclaiming: ‘What in hell are you Scottish doing here?’ 152
D-Day, for the Canadian Scottish, went better than expected. Granted, there were eighty-four casualties,
twenty-three of them fatal, but the unit had advanced further inland than any other infantry battalion that had
gone ashore and casualties were much lower than expected, with the planners anticipating three or four times
the number of casualties suffered. 153 The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, a battalion in the same brigade as the
Canadian Scottish, suffered over one hundred and thirty casualties that day. 154 The third and final unit in the
7th brigade, the Regina Rifle Regiment, one hundred and eight. 155 To the east, at Bernières-sur-Mer, the
Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada suffered sixty-five casualties in the first few minutes alone. 156 At the end of the
day, they were the hardest hit among all the Canadian units, suffering one hundred and forty three
casualties.157 The North Shore (New Brunswick) regiment suffered a hundred and twenty four, Le Régiment de
la Chaudière, completing the 8th brigade, a hundred and four.158 Thus, the Canadian Scottish not only advanced
the furthest inland, they also sustained the lowest number of casualties doing so. The next great test, however,
was just around the corner.
‘Just a little jerkwater place.’
On D+1, the Scottish moved further inland and were held in reserve, behind the Winnipeg Rifles and the
Regina Rifle Regiment, who were holding the Norman villages of Putot-en-Bessin and the Bretteville
l’Orgueilleuse – Norrey-en-Bessin area respectively. To get a better understanding of the towns and the
importance of holding out, see map 1. The Germans, meanwhile, knew that the only chance they had to crush
the beachhead and indeed push the Allies back into the sea, was to attack them at the earliest possible
moment and drive them back, when they were still low on heavy weapons and armour support. To this end,
the Germans unleashed the 12th SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ upon the Canadian lines, with the 26 th SS
Panzer Grenadier Regiment responsible for the capture of Norrey, Bretteville, Bronay and Putot, whereas the
151
Personal recollection, Douglas C. Leask.
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 234.
153
Ibid., 235.
154
War Diary The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, June 6, 1944.
155
G. Bell, ‘Royal Regina Rifles’ (version March 10, 2014),
http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/royal_regina_rifles.html (March 10, 2014).
156
Goddard, D-Day, Juno Beach, 127.
157
Juno beach, ‘Queen’s Own Rifles’ (version November, 2012),
http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach/juno-contact-us.htm (March 10, 2014).
158
D Day, etat des lieux, ‘Casualty Report’ (version November 27, 2013),
http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/juno/en_page.php?page=casualties (March 10, 2014).
152
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second battalion of said regiment was to take and hold Putot-en-Bessin.159 In the early hours of the 8th, the
Winnipegs were attacked and as dawn drew nearer, enemy fire became fiercer. The enemy infiltrated the
village en masse and at 1330 hours, A, B, and C Company were completely surrounded, low on ammunition and
vastly outnumbered. An attempt was made to withdraw these companies but only a small number made it
back to battalion headquarters. Heavy casualties were sustained and what was left of the Winnipeg Rifles had
to be withdrawn.160 With the Manitoba-based regiment pulled out, the Canadian Scottish were the last infantry
battalion between the enemy and the landing beaches.161 To salvage the situation, the Canadian Scottish were
sent in to retake Putot-en-Bessin and hold it at all cost: ´Colonel Cabeldu, I heard him talking, having a little O
group with a couple of his sergeants and I heard him say “We’re here to stay, (…) we’re not backing out of
here.”’162
Much has been written about the behaviour of men in battle. Why do they kill? What is it like? It is a fact of
war that people get killed. As a soldier, you have a choice to kill, or not to kill. During World War II, as were the
results of an American study, only fifteen to twenty percent of soldiers could bring themselves to fire on an
exposed enemy soldier, thus having a large chance of killing him. When this was established as a fact, the army
set about changing that. By the time the Korean War broke out, fifty-five percent fired to kill. In the Vietnam
War, the number had risen to over ninety percent. 163 One could be inclined to say that the percentage of men
willing to shoot to kill rises when they are confronted with atrocities committed by the enemy they are facing.
And atrocities are what the Canadian Scottish were confronted with.
The enemy at Putot, the 12th SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’, had been raised in June of 1943, although
Adolf Hitler had given his agreement in principle earlier, on the tenth of February of that year. The formation
order specifically stated that the division be made up of ‘Hitler youths born in the year 1926’, and that: ‘the
cadre groups to be made available to the division will be composed of 400 HJ-Führer in essential positions (…)
as Führer and 2,500 HJ members in essential positions as Unter-führer.’164 The division consisted out of young
and fierce German soldiers. They had grown up in Nazi Germany and had been indoctrinated from an early age.
Some of the officers, non-commissioned officers and specialists were added to the ‘Hitlerjugend’ from the 1st
SS Panzer Division ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’, most of them hardened veterans from the Eastern Front. During
training, great emphasis was placed upon physical fitness, character development and weapons- and combat
training. Morale and confidence in oneself were high. 165
The Canadian Scottish managed to drive the enemy from Putot, but suffered heavy casualties in the process.
That night, it was learned that almost two dozen men from the Winnipeg Rifles who had been taken prisoner
had been murdered.166 That was the sort of men, or boys, they were up against.
159
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 238.
War Diary, The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, June 8, 1944.
161
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 241.
162
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
163
D. Grossman, ‘Trained to Kill’, Professorenforum-Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2001) 3-10, 5.
164
H. Meyer, The 12th SS: The History of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division, Volume One (Winnipeg 1994) 2-6.
165
Meyer, The 12th SS, 8, 12-14.
166
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 246, 247.
160
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They weren’t to be trusted and they were really vicious kids. (…) When we moved into that place beside
A company, one of our gun crew had lost his helmet (…) and I decided to find him a helmet, because
there’s a lot of casualties and I just went a few feet and there were four young Winnipegs that had been
executed, they’d obviously surrendered. And they had no weapons, and they’d been shot through the
middle of the head and through both hands, execution style. 167
Unfortunately, this is but one of many such incidents:
Real stinkers. Hitler Youth. Oh boy they were rotters. Thing was that the, they were so rotten, the little
kids were, ugh, little kids. Nineteen. Sixteen, eighteen. (…) At Putot, these two guys, Hobson and
Kirchin, (…) they were up there fighting. They had some prisoners who had given up and they had them
laying down, that’s all you could do when you’re in action. (…) Kirchin was going to move over to
another position. And when he walked past these three prisoners, one of them pulled out a revolver and
shot him in the back. Because they didn’t have time to search them to see if they had weapons. So. This
German kid pulled out a revolver, shot Kirchin in the back. Killed him. So Hobbie turned around and
wiped out a couple of Germans. Which is a normal reaction, your best buddy.168
It is a normal reaction indeed, as is attested to by plenty of examples from many different wars, from the
American Civil War to Vietnam and up to present day conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. 169 Instead of putting
fear into the Canadian Scottish, they became even more determined to hold out at Putot-en-Bessin and repulse
the German attacks. Due to the murders carried out by the 12 th SS, the Canadian troops in the area, the
Canadian Scottish included, were less inclined to take prisoners themselves. One veteran even alludes to such
an order being given: ‘That started something when they found some Canadians shot up. Then the word come
out, “take no prisoners”.’ 170 However, in this regard, it is very important to differentiate between the two,
much the same as Dave Grossman does in his acclaimed book On Killing.171 The great difference being either
shooting someone who has just surrendered in the heat of battle, or actually executing a non-combatant, in
this case prisoners-of-war, who have long since surrendered and pose no threat to the executioner
whatsoever.172
The 12th SS, on the 8th of June alone, murdered forty-five prisoners-of-war, mostly Winnipeg Rifles.173 This is
very likely a direct consequence of their upbringing and training, being heavily indoctrinated in both. Obviously,
Hubert Meyer, himself a former commander of the 12th SS, does not think the young men were ‘vicious kids’ or
‘rotters’. According to him: ‘[It] was not despair or fanaticism of the men, rather a determination to apply
167
Personal recollection, Harry A. Roberts.
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling. ‘Kirchin’ is Lance Corporal Stanley E. Kirchin, K62372, who was killed
on June 9th, 1944. ‘Hobson’ is a fictitious name.
169
R. Holmes, Acts of War: The Behaviour of Men in Battle (London 2004) 385-387. BBC News, ‘Marine jailed for
Afghan murder’ (version December 6, 2013), http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-25266206 (March 12, 2014).
170
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
171
D. Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (New York 2009) 201204.
172
Grossman, On Killing, 201-204.
173
Stacey, The Victory Campaign, 136.
168
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oneself in the coming combat with all one’s force in order to bring about a change of fate.’174 He continues,
stating that former enemies who thought the Hitler Youth division fought fanatically, are not correct. This
attitude, he goes on, has been attributed to the instructors having trained the soldiers in hate and fanaticism,
again he states that this is incorrect. He states that the ‘terror bombing of the home land, losses in the families,
the demand for an unconditional surrender from Roosevelt and Churchill reinforced the existing determination
to fight, but there was no hatred because of this for the soldiers on the opposite side.’ 175 He goes on to
describe differences between the German and allied soldiers’ fighting style. Whereas the allied soldier was
supported by great quantities of materiel and was numerically superior, the German soldier sought to
overcome these obstacles through ‘great personal skilled use of occasionally superior weapons and a special
courage.’176 Whichever might be the case, the young men of the Hitler Youth division fought ferociously, which
is still remembered very clearly by the men of the Canadian Scottish.
Prisoners had been shot after they had surrendered and had ceased to pose a threat. Some even had their
hands tied with rope. Most were shot in the head or neck. To say that they had been shot in the heat of battle
would be a flagrant and reprehensible lie. This is especially true of those Canadians shot in the grounds of the
Abbaye d’Ardenne, which at the time was the command post of the 25 th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment,
commanded by Standartenführer Kurt Meyer. 177 Men in the Canadian Scottish did not always adhere to the
Geneva Convention on prisoners of war either, but the circumstances were very different. These can be divided
into two categories, with the first being situations in which Hitler Youth soldiers had been taken prisoner and
still tried to kill their captors and the second being situations in which the advance was so rapid that prisoners
couldn’t be taken if the advance was not to be impeded in any way: ‘I remember Caen very well. I still
remember Caen. It was bad. We didn’t take many prisoners. (…) You couldn’t. We were running.’178 This,
however, was made possible by the men’s ruthlessness and hatred towards the 12 th SS, which they brought
upon themselves by shooting, in total, one hundred and fifty six Canadian officers and men, all within ten days
of the D-Day landings.179
At first, many men could hardly understand how ‘kids’ that age could be capable of committing such
atrocities: ‘ You hear about the Canadians, at Abbaye d’Ardenne. I think they got shot, a dozen or so in there. I
wondered how the heck they could do it, because they were all, 19, 20. All those guys.’ 180 However, most of
them would soon find out just how fanatic these young Germans were, even after they were captured, as is
attested to by many veterans: ‘They were about 16, 17. You know, young teenagers. And defiant you know.
They got taken prisoner, they looked at you like you were a piece of dirt.’ 181 ‘They were, they were the worst
174
Meyer, The 12th SS, 28, 29.
Meyer, The 12th SS, 29.
176
Ibid, 29.
177
Ibid, 9, 178.
178
Personal recollection, name withheld by author. At the time of the interview, the man in question paused
after stating they didn’t take many prisoners. He then made a shooting gesture with his hand, indicating how
they handled POW’s.
179
H. Margolian, Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy
(Toronto 2000) x.
180
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
181
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
175
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enemy that we faced. It was the Hitler Youth. Hitler Jugend they called them. Hitler Youth, they were terrible.
They wouldn’t die. They wouldn’t give up. (…) But we took some prisoners alright. But they would try to kill
you even after you took them prisoner. You had to be very careful.’ 182 ‘That, 12th Panzers, were the worst guys,
murderous bunch. One time (…) we had taken them prisoner. And they were lining up and we’re frisking them,
and one of them spit in my face. While I was trying to frisk him. So, and they were mean, you know. So I
jumped on his feet and he’s yelling, screaming, yelling. That must’ve hurt his toes. (…) There is no question we
intimidated some. (…) You better believe it. You know, you didn’t pull no punches.’ 183 Medics weren’t safe
either: ‘We had a first aid fellow, had a big red cross on their sleeves. And they’re not allowed to pack any
weapons. And he, a Hitler Youth kid came in surrendering and he made him out, fixed his wounds up. Made a
pillow for his head, give him a drink of water and a cigarette and he turned away, looked at the guy alongside
of him. And this kid pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back. (…) That was their attitude.’ 184 Even when
they were in Allied hospitals receiving care, they would still cause trouble: ‘I had a Luger Pistol, and when I
went into the hospital on the beach, the first day in the general hospital. In the bed next to me, there was a
little German prisoner. I had my kit beside me, and he could speak some English. He was yelling and screaming
and cursing people. I said to the nurse: “Please, take my kit away. I've got a gun in there, and if this guy keeps
screaming I'm going to be court martialed for shooting him!”’ 185 It would seem they remained defiant until the
very last, even when captured: ‘Some of our guys took a German SS trooper prisoner. He spoke very good
English, he told us how stupid we were to be there and that they were going to win the war. Well, our sergeant
heard this, and he was well over 6 feet tall. He walked over to the German, slapped his face, and said: “shut up
asshole, or we will kill you!”’186 Another Can Scot, who in this piece of writing refers to himself as ‘the lad’,
remembers very clearly one of his actions at Putot, which is obviously a retribution for the SS killing Canadian
prisoners-of-war:
A little later a corporal from D Company came by asking for a volunteer with a Bren. The lad was led to a
forward slit trench manned by a Bren gunner who had been shell shocked and as the corporal led him
away he waved his arm and said “There's your field of fire, shoot anything that moves." A few minutes
later an enemy machine gun crew appeared approaching at an angle and the lad remembering the
Winnipeg's, took careful aim. The lad who enlisted at sixteen was now twenty and had experienced the
grim reality of war which was simply "kill or be killed”. 187
The many examples given by veterans of the battle at Putot-en-Bessin, as listed above, illustrate clearly the
character, fanaticism and determination of the men and boys in the Hitler Youth division. Yet they were beaten
back, though at a high cost. In two days at Putot, the Canadian Scottish counted one hundred and twenty five
182
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
Personal recollection, Charles H. Adams.
184
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling.
185
Personal recollection, William A. Bacon.
186
Personal recollection, George W. Gilbert, from: George Gilbert: Army Stories 1942-1946.
187
Personal recollection, name withheld by author, from a memoir written long after the war.
183
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casualties, forty-five of them fatal. 188 ‘It was just hell on earth, that’s all I can tell you.’189
On D-Day and from D+1 to D+7, the Canadian Scottish’ performance set an example to the rest of the
Canadian regiments. On June 6, they had gone further inland than any other unit and had even gone past their
intended objective. At Putot-en-Bessin, they had stood fast where the Winnipeg Rifles had to withdraw. It
stands without a doubt that the victory won at Putot was important. In fact, it may have saved the entire
Canadian bridgehead as there were no other units between the Canadian Scottish in Putot and the beach. Had
they crumbled, the Germans could have advanced straight through to the beach, an action which would have
had dire consequences: ‘Putot-en-Bessin, I’ll never forget that one. Oh Jesus, that was hot. Everybody was, well
they were desperate(…), and I guess we were too. Because the beachhead wasn’t very big at that time, and if
they’d ever broke though, well, that would’ve been the end of that.’190 In this respect, the Canadian Scottish’
commendable battle prowess makes them stand out from the crowd.
The Rhineland and Heseler Feld
The Canadian Scottish were to play their part in Operation Veritable and the thereafter continuing fighting in
the Rhineland. A notable obstacle that had to be overcome was a German strongpoint nicknamed Little Tobruk.
After a clever assault, the enemy were overcome and the platoons involved started rounding up prisoners. 191 It
was here that the man in charge of No 12 platoon, Sergeant Dave Janicki, was killed by a German sniper. He
died on the 9th of February 1945, at the age of twenty-four.
Casualties were particularly heavy on the 19th of the same month, when C Company was virtually wiped out.
It was sent to attack a German position at Heseler Feld. They were to go over a hill with very little cover and
into a corner of the woods, with the intent to ‘clear out the very troublesome MG nests from there.’ 192 These
positions and the surrounding area can be seen on map 2. The attack was met with terrible fire from the
Germans and ‘C Coy was almost completely lost when only 6 men escaped from the holocaust into which they
had stepped.’193 Twenty men were killed that day and forty-one were missing. Almost all of them were C
Company men who had been taken prisoner. 194 The other companies were hit hard too and B, C and D
Companies in total numbered just a hundred and thirty men. It is no wonder that the men nicknamed it
‘Slaughter Hill’.195 ‘Can Scots almost wiped out. I was (…) badly wounded-February at Heseler Field-my
company "D" dropped from"130 men to 9". "C" Company wiped out.’196 Over the next few days, no less than
six German counter-attacks were repulsed and the pressure on the regiment’s front was eased by an attack
made by the 4th brigade to the Goch-Calcar road. On the 21st, much to the delight and enthusiasm of the men,
188
Stacey, The Victory Campaign, 136. The War Diary for the 8th and 9th show 126 casualties, with 40 fatalities
and 12 missing. It is very likely that the difference with Stacey’s official history stems from the 12 missing.
189
Personal recollection, Armand J. Denicola.
190
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
191
Author unknown, handwritten report titled A Coy, Heseler Feld.
192
War Diary 1 C Scot R for February 19, 1945.
193
Ibid.
194
Ibid.
195
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 395.
196
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
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the unit was relieved by the Royal Regiment of Canada.197 Under extreme pressure and subjected to severe
setbacks, the men were able to hold out, again. The atmosphere in the regiment however, had changed.
Casualties had been very severe and many old-timers were either dead or wounded. Over two-hundred
reinforcements were brought in to bring the unit up to strength. One of these was Gordon Rowat: ‘When I
joined the Regt in Germany I didn't learn much from the old guys because there was few of them left because
of the casualties on Feb 18-19. Also they weren't in a very good state of morale after the beating up they had
just taken.’198
Wagenborgen
On the 21st of April, 1945, the Canadian Scottish, lately becoming accustomed to sporadic and uncoordinated
German resistance, were in for a nasty surprise. The village of Wagenborgen, in the northeastern Netherlands,
as can be seen on map 3, which according to intelligence was only ‘lightly held’, turned out to be held by over
five hundred German troops.199 ‘It was difficult to estimate the enemy strength at WAGENBORGEN owing to
the conflicting reports of the Polish troops and the “helpful” civvies.’ 200 The lead company, D Company,
commanded by major Anthony Compton-Lundie, had seen from close-by that the village was not ‘lightly held’
as the report stated, but was in fact very well defended. D Company was to make the attack on its own, much
to the disbelief and chagrin of the company commander. The attack however, had to go in. Tom Halbert,
standing right beside the man with the radio, overheard the conversation that major Compton-Lundie, known
to his friends as Tony, had with another officer:
And Tony was just arguing, with whoever the hell was on the other end of the line, turned out to be, an
officer we called the Mad Shepard, Bill Matthews. (…) ”Oh no no no no, you got to go in for the attack.”
And Tony was saying: “It’s just crazy, too much of artillery and machine guns, just, this is silly for us to
try to attack.” Hell. You know what the Canadians were like, got to be, company is supposed to be a
hundred and twenty men, I don’t know if we ever had any more than about sixty-five. I still remember
Tony putting down the radio and looking at the guy with the radio (…), and he says: “Sorry fellows, but
we’ve got to go in”, “we’ve got to go in”. The man insisted.201
And thus, D Company made the attack: ‘Wagenborgen… Wow, we had some tough times there. Yeah that was
a bad one. We went into Wagenborgen, D company went in and the information we got from intelligence was
that there was only a small, (…) maybe thirty or forty Germans in… and then D company went in and all of a
sudden there’s two-hundred Germans. Enemy! All over the place!’202 As a matter of fact, Wagenborgen was
held by five-hundred to a thousand German troops.203 D Company was soon held up by a roadblock and
197
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 396-401.
Personal recollection, Gordon L. Rowat.
199
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 430-436.
200
War Diary 1 C Scot R, April 21, 1945. The intelligence report was based on what the Polish had observed.
201
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
202
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
203
Huizinga and Doornbos, Van Canada tot Dollard tou, 38.
198
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withering machinegun fire. Private Emile Soens, acting on his own initiative, drove a flamethrower-equipped
universal carrier at high speed toward the choke point and hit a mine: ‘The whole thing went up. And we were
seeing those two guys -I knew one of them, I knew both of them really- just sort of hanging at the side of the
gun carrier, just black as a spade. They must have died almost instantly.’204 While this was taking place, the lead
platoon took heavy casualties and: ‘Suffice it to say that nine of us, including a sergeant named Dodd who was
the only officer or NCO left, backed up a side ditch and lay in water for a number of hours waiting for dark,
before the Germans found us and we were forced to surrender.’ 205 Meanwhile, accurate German artillery fire
had hit the barn in which company headquarters had set itself up. Major Compton-Lundie, Lieutenant Denis
Huscroft, the Pioneer Officer, and Captain D. Innes, M.C., of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who was the Forward
Observation Officer, were killed.206 In all, the regiment suffered fifteen fatal casualties that day, twenty-one
men were wounded and fifteen were captured. 207 Nearly all of them were from D Company, which by then
numbered only forty-five and had to be withdrawn.208 The somewhat complacent attitude at battalion
headquarters quickly turned into a grim determination to avenge D company’s casualties and A, B and C
Companies were recalled from their positions to reinforce the Wagenborgen front and the area saw extensive
patrolling on the 22nd. That night, A and B Company put in an attack which was successful and saw them move
into the northern and southern end of the village. German forces tried infiltrating and put in a heavy
counterattack the next day but all were repulsed, taking heavy casualties in the process. By the late evening of
the 23rd, Wagenborgen was secured and the regiment had had its revenge for D Company’s casualties. 209 Over
the course of the three day battle, the regiment had suffered 23 fatal casualties, 40 non-fatal casualties and 16
were reported as missing, with most of those having become prisoners-of-war.210
One man who got wounded there, Art Johnson, remembers the moment he got hit:
204
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert. In Ready for the Fray, Sgt. Dodd, who was commanding the lead
platoon, says Soens’ attack with the carrier was planned.
205
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
206
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 431.
207
Ibid, 571-602. There is some confusion as to how many men were captured. Ready for the Fray only lists
three. Sgt. Dodd says he and his platoon numbered eight when they were captured, whilst Tom Halbert, who
was in the same platoon, says there were nine of them left. The casualty reports lists sixteen missing, however
one of these is major Compton-Lundie, who was killed. This leaves fifteen men who were captured. One reason
for only three being in Ready for the Fray might be the fact that Tom Halbert and most of the others who were
captured with him, escaped after a few days and never made it to German prison camps, thus they were
probably never recorded as prisoners-of-war by the Germans and when they made it back to their own lines,
they were no longer missing and very likely not recorded as having been prisoners, if only for a short while.
Fatal and non-fatal casualties are somewhat debated also. The numbers given by Roy are slightly different from
those in the War Diary. Roy states fifteen fatal casualties, whereas the War Diary gives fourteen. Non-fatal
casualties Roy puts at twenty-one, the casualty report at twenty-one and the war diary at twenty.
208
War Diary 1 C Scot R, April 21, 1945.
209
War Diary 1 C Scot R, 21-23 April, 1945. Author unknown, History of the regiment, from mobilization to
present day (Utrecht, 1945) 28.
210
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 571-602. Casualty report for February 1945, 1 C Scot R. Again, different numbers
are given. The casualty report lists 34 wounded, with at least one man, Arthur E. Johnson, having been
erroneously reported as having been wounded on the 24th, whilst he was actually wounded on the 22nd. That
brings the number up to 35, which is still 5 short of the number provided by Roy. The difference can likely be
explained with the number of men who were originally reported as missing.
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Then on, April the 22nd I know, that’s when I got wounded. This one in our outfit always was getting in
trouble. And he panicked and he, we were on one side of the dyke and the Germans were on the other
and he panicked and he run over the dyke and got in with the Germans. And they shot him. One of our
Canadian Scottish. (…) They shot him and he was paralyzed, wounded, went under, through his lung (…),
he was a heavy kid, 180 pounds, full equipment, so I had to drag him about a 100 feet, drag him along
the dyke. And every time I moved they shot at me. But I think they shot about 25 rounds at me before
they hit me. Cause I was counting the bursts, you know. I wasn’t walking, I was dragging him (…) But the
meantime, one thing that, when I was doing all this, I wasn’t there at all, I was, I showed you the picture,
there’s a picture there with my mother holding, holding my little baby brother. And I’m standing, I’m
there on under rhubarb, holding my hand up like this, shading my eyes from the sun. I was under a
rhubarb leaf. You know the big rhubarb. And that’s what I, picture I seen just before I got hit. 211
Comparing unit performances in a conflict is fraught with difficulties. It is relative by nature and prone to
subjectivity. However, the Canadian Scottish were able to advance the furthest inland of any infantry battalion
on D Day, which, by all accounts, is no mean feat. It would appear that this is largely down to LieutenantColonel Cabeldu’s aggressive leadership and the men’s excellent performance. His leadership abilities would
see him promoted to brigadier and transferred to command the 4 th Infantry Brigade at the end of August. The
unit would have the unusual distinction of providing the army with no less than three brigadiers, two of whom
had been promoted in the field. The first one, John Meredith Rockingham, had been a Captain with the
regiment and left to command the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry in 1942, before being promoted to brigadier
and assuming command of the 9th Brigade in 1944. B Company’s Major Lendrum would be promoted to
Lieutenant-Colonel and officer commanding of the Royal Regiment of Canada right after Cabeldu left. 212 This
speaks volumes for the leadership and skill of the officers in the unit and is a great credit to the regiment.
At Putot, three companies of the Winnipeg Rifles were completely encircled and the other companies had to
withdraw.213 The Scottish were sent in, retook the village in a bloody counterattack despite heavy resistance
and were able to hold out, thus potentially saving the situation. 214 There are a number of excerpts from a
report written by the war diarist that exemplify the splendid esprit de corps displayed at Putot: ‘Cpl. Bob
Mayfield of 8 Platoon, turned grinning to his section as they swung into the advance: “Boy! This is going to be
one hell of a good scrap!” This spirit was maintained throughout. (…) The casualties were naturally heavy but
never a wounded man whimpered – the opposite in fact was the case. Time and again badly wounded men had
to be ordered back.’215 Brigadier Foster, commanding the 7th Brigade, defended the losses the Winnipeg Rifles
had suffered by stating that their assault companies had been: ‘practically obliterated on the beach and the
gaps were plugged with reinforcements of all sorts, some not even infantry. There had been no time for
211
Personal recollection, Arthur E. Johnson.
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 311, 312, 622.
213
War Diary The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, June 8, 1944.
214
Meyer, The 12th SS, 9, 169.
215
T. Foster, Meeting of Generals (Toronto 1986) 319.
212
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reorganization.’216 The Winnipeg Rifles had lost over one hundred and thirty men on D Day. The Scottish had
suffered eighty-four casualties and thus faced the same problems, on a slightly smaller scale. 217 Therefore I do
not think that the way in which the brigadier defended the losses the Winnipeg Rifles had suffered holds out. It
would seem the Canadian Scottish, under heavy pressure, performed very well at Putot where ‘it was
questionable whether the men were more human or devil at this stage … men like Cpls. Dodd and Jobes and
Pte. Mulcahy … took turns jumping to the top of the bridge with a Bren gun at the hip and spraying the enemy,
laughing gleefully as they did so.’218
At Heseler Feld, the unit, despite a severe setback in the form of C Company’s decimation, stood firm against
no less than six German counterattacks. Whereas the quality of the officers had been demonstrated earlier, the
steadfastness and aggressiveness of the NCO’s was an inspiration to all at Heseler Feld. A great number of
junior officers had been killed or wounded and thus many platoons were led by sergeants, as was the case in B
Company, where all platoons were commanded by sergeants. The company itself, with Major English being
absent, was in the hands of CSM Nimmo. Later on, when Nimmo left to go to the command post, he left
sergeant Ken Byron in charge of the company. 219
Very much the same can be said for Wagenborgen. The loss of D Company was a hard blow to the regiment,
which had been lulled into a false sense of security due to the end of the war drawing near. However, as at
Heseler Feld, when C Company was lost, the regiment’s resolve strengthened and the objective taken.
Having analyzed four important – and to the regiment, proud – battles, one can say that the unit has a splendid
record and certainly stands out from other units when it comes to leadership, both by officers and NCO’s,
determination and steadfastness. They were able to overcome severe setbacks and hold out under strenuous
circumstances, which, especially at Putot-en-Bessin, was of the utmost importance. It would seem that the
Canadian Scottish were blessed with very fine officers, as they supplied no less than three brigadiers to the
Canadian army during the war, more than any other unit, as well as another Lieutenant-Colonel. The excellent
leadership and proud history of the regiment fostered a fine esprit-de-corps which likely enhanced its fighting
spirit, evidenced most prominently by the great advance made on D-Day and several days later at Putot. It
should be clear that in this aspect, the Canadian Scottish differ from other infantry units in the 1st Canadian
Army.
216
Foster, Meeting of Generals, 320.
War Diary The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, June 6, 1944. War Diary 1 C Scot R, June 6, 1944.
218
Foster, Meeting of Generals, 320. The quote mentions a certain Corporal ‘Jebes’, however, there is no
record of such a man in the list of C Scot R troops going to France and the citation for Corporal Jobes’ DCM
mentions him standing up in full view, firing his Bren gun from the hip, very much similar to the actions of
Corporal ‘Jebes’. Furthermore, Cpl Jobes, Cpl Dodd and Pte Mulcahy were all in 7 Platoon, with Jobes
commanding 1 Section, Dodd 2 Section and Mulcahy being in 2 Section also. Therefore, Corporal ‘Jebes’ is,
without a doubt, in fact Corporal Edward Jobes, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his
bravery. Corporal Dodd was later awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Cussy, see: Roy, Ready for the
Fray, 248, 275, 606, 607.
219
Report by CSM Nimmo entitled B Coy’s Story of HESELER FELD, page 4.
217
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6. Physical and mental hardship
What kind of hardships did the men encounter during their time fighting in Continental Europe? How did they
cope? What did they do to try and prevent this? Can this be contrasted with the behavior of men in other
conflicts or is there a resemblance?
Physical hardship
If a man’s father had served in the Great War, young men joining up to fight in Europe could know about the
conditions under which they fought. Being cold, wet and living in trenches for weeks on end and being hungry
at times. In World War II, trench warfare as it occurred thirty years earlier was mostly gone, but men were still
cold, wet and hungry. James Clarke, several years ago, remembered this clearly: ‘Yesterday, the weather here
was terrible, heavy rains and wind with snow flurries later in the day. This reminded me of the winter of 194445 in Holland and Germany. We had poor uniforms and leaky boots which meant we were cold and wet most
of the time. (…) The boots were heavy, too low, large tongues, not water tight. We often used our extra pair of
socks for gloves. We were always wet and cold.’ 220 Then there’s the army rations, which weren’t exactly
luxurious meals. Men in the regiment were very much inclined to ‘liberate’ or ‘borrow’ food and, mostly
alcoholic, drinks whenever they could. ‘We bartered. Sometimes you didn’t have to barter, if stuff was running
loose, you know, chickens. (…) And cut the heads off, first chicken for supper.’ 221 Eggs were popular items too,
and it was not uncommon for a man to shoot a pig, have it butchered and share it with his mates. Others took
the liberty of milking cows themselves.222 In Normandy, Calvados was a popular drink among the men, be it
either traded with the French and thus acquired honestly, or simply taken from an abandoned house. 223 Food
and Calvados was even better: ‘We managed to acquire a young pig and the cook had scrounged a medical
syringe from an enemy first aid kit and a bottle of Calvados, apple brandy, from a cellar. While a ham was
roasting he injected it with Calvados from the syringe and the result was delicious.’ 224
It was not just the privates who engaged in this sort of ‘appropriating’ behavior. Company Sergeant Major
Nimmo reports: ‘0230 hrs. We found some Eggs. Boy, oh boy! They were fried and eaten right away.’ 225
As might be deducted from the above, though conditions, especially when in the front lines, were far from
luxurious, an enterprising man could make the best out of a bad situation, by bartering or ‘borrowing’ for
clothing and food. Apart from that, most of the enlisted men came from humble backgrounds and lived
through the Great Depression. They were tough. They were survivors, in the words of one veteran.226
Or, in the words of another: ‘I feel my early childhood somewhat prepared me for what was ahead.’ 227
220
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
Personal recollection, Charles H. Adams.
222
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 235, 236. Personal recollection, Edward R.U. Peck, Douglas C. Leask.
223
Personal recollection, V. Gordon Holland.
224
Personal recollection, Harry A. Roberts.
225
Report by CSM Nimmo entitled B Coy’s Story of HESELER FELD, page 1.
226
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
227
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
221
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Mental hardship
Something which could hardly be changed or prepared for, were the mental difficulties arising from combat
situations. One way in which the army thought fit to battle combat fatigue, was through alcohol: ‘During the
war, we would get 1 1/4 oz. 150 proof rum every night---to keep us warm and also it would momentarily numb
our feelings.’228 And cigarettes: ‘We were encouraged to smoke to help with the stress.’229 Nowadays, battle
fatigue is known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is well-known and well documented. There is no
more fertile breeding ground for a mental disorder or a nervous breakdown as those that occurs when men are
subjected to prolonged periods of sleep deprivation, have little to eat, have to bear the toll of the elements and
live in constant fear of getting wounded or killed.230 In the Canadian Scottish, things weren’t any different. In a
report on the fighting in the Rhineland, Company Sergeant Major Morgan states:
The previous day this Coy had been subjected to the most severe shelling and mortaring that the enemy
are capable of sending over. Moaning Minnies, Rockets and 155s were the most common examples of
German firepower. During this time 7 men in the Coy had been wounded and several more had left the
Coy as PBCs. So it is easily understood that many of the men were in quite difficult nervous condition.
This condition is no novelty on the battlefield where every soldier going into battle is afraid; he is not
human if he has no mental disturbances before action begins. 231
Robert Stirling remembers a more personal matter: ‘There was an old guy named Wilson, he was sitting over
on, by a tree, crying. And he said “I’m too old for this stuff, welp welp welp, don’t want to go any further”, his
nerve had given out on him. And he had been in there a day and a half.’232 In severe cases, a man could be
stuck off strength and appeared in the casualty lists under the row ‘Other’, with the letters ‘PBC’ behind a
number signifying which day of the month it was. ‘PBC’ stood for Psychiatric Battle Casualty, something that
seemed to happen more often as the war progressed. One of these casualties was Corporal David Francis Boyd.
He served with the Canadian Scottish until he no longer could. He was transferred to the Royal Canadian
Engineers. As a carrier commander, David Boyd was responsible for himself and the crew that was under his
command. A long time after the war, one of his former crew members, Bob Stirling, sent a letter to David
Boyd’s son, explaining that he and his father had nothing to be ashamed of:
(…) From the minute we landed we could have been killed, not just any second, but any part of a
second, 24 hours a day by snipers, artillery, mortars or driving over mines. No matter where you were it
was always on your mind. It was very hard on the nerves. As Carrier Commander your Dad had to stand
up in the front of the carrier with his head and chest exposed to anything that was thrown at us so he
could tell the driver the way to go in a completely strange country. It was a lot harder on his nerves than
228
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
230
Grossman, On Killing, 68.
231
Report by CSM Morgan entitled C Coy’s Tragedy, 19 Feb 45.
232
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling.
229
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Andy and mine because he felt responsible for our lives as well as responsibility to the rest of the
platoon. (…) On the evening of D+1 we were told we had to stand too all night because 200 Gerry
paratroops had landed behind our lines. Your Dad and a Corporal Jackson and I stood in a slit trench
about 15 feet long and 4 feet deep all night, looking here and there in the dark. Every now and then a
para-flare would go up, making it look like a nice sunny day and leaving us brightly exposed. It was
extremely nerve racking and we were sure glad to see daylight. (…) Although you can’t possibly imagine
what it’s really like, it should give you some idea of how hard it was on the nerves. (…) I was talking to a
good friend of your Dad. That was C.J. Smith, he told me he [had] seen your Dad at a battle for a village
called Cussy, very close to Caen and said he was all right but getting sort of shaky. That we could both
understand. I don’t know when your Dad’s nerves finally went on him. In the first World War they
thought the soldier was shamming to get out of it but nowadays they know its battle fatigue and it hits
everybody different and some quite quickly. One fellow I had in my Carrier was crying after three days.
Another, at Rots couldn’t stop shaking. Another fellow after three weeks – it took another fellow three
blows as hard as he could hit to stop him yelling like mad. They had to shut him up because it could
bring on enemy fire. An officer after about six weeks couldn’t stop crying. It started when he was on his
way to report to the colonel. As I have gone on and on I hope I have given you some idea what a rough
time your Dad had. I am trying to show you there is no shadow on your Dad. He did a very good job as a
Carrier Commander and neither C.J. Smith or I have ever heard of any shadow on his name. He did a
very good job and you should be completely proud of him. 233
The feeling of possibly getting killed at any time was hard on the nerves. This was earlier evidenced during the
First World War, when death could come at any given time, in any given place. A shell might strike a house and
kill everybody inside, whilst those who were there just a few minutes earlier start to think: ‘That could have
been me’. There was, and is, nothing a man could do it about this. Death was arbitrary and could take anybody,
at any time. As David Boyd, troops in the First World War often endured feelings of tension and jumpiness. 234
David’s brother George was in the army too, serving as a signaler with the 5 th Canadian Armored Division.
Sometime during the war, they met after having not seen each other for a long time:
My uncle, George, told me about re-uniting with my Dad in Holland near Nijmegen. Dad was cleaning his
rifle, huddled down, working silently. Dad avoided making eye contact with his brother. George said it
was like talking to a man he didn’t know – he was silent, brooding and showed no visible expression.
George said that for the first time in his life he believed that my Dad was a very dangerous man – or he
was considering the clear possibility of dying. (…) He was apparently suffering from what we now call
233
Personal recollection, Robert Stirling. From a letter dated March 2004, with thanks to G. David Boyd.
J. Moran, The anatomy of courage: the classic WW1 study of the psychological effects of war (1st Constable
edition, London 2007) page number unknown, chapter twelve, Thoughts that fester in the mind and bring
defeat.
234
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“posttraumatic stress” and it would shadow him for the rest of his life. He saw a lot of friends die and
always felt guilty that he survived.235
Survivor’s guilt is a well-known ‘by-product’ for soldiers suffering from PTSD and veterans of the Canadian
Scottish are by no means alone in this respect. 236 After the war, David Boyd, instead of the dangerous man his
brother perceived him to be, turned into a very gentle and caring man: ‘I remember him gently catching a wasp
in his house with a napkin - and releasing it outside, unhurt.’237
Others couldn’t forget some of the things they had seen. Bodies belonging to either friend or foe, terrible
wounds, carnage and destruction. In a war as destructive as World War II, the nasty job of identifying and
burying casualties had to be done by somebody. For the Canadian Scottish, Padre Robert (Bob) Seaborn was
that man. He carried out his job with unwavering courage and devotion and carried a heavy burden. Bob
Seaborn has long since passed away, but some of his writings are still around and he remembered the difficult
task he faced, writing just after the battle for Putot, when he and a sergeant began gathering up the dead: ‘(…)
I had some reinforcement troops that had arrived dig some graves and started burying them. The days were
hot so I’d wrap them in a blanket and take off their tags and pay books and anything else like personal papers,
put these together, and then take the men into that field and bury them. Say a few prayers and then I’d sit
down and write as soon as I could to the next of kin. It was very exhausting and difficult psychologically.‘ 238
One veteran remembers he volunteered to help the padre out:
The lad had just been relieved from a shift of guard duty and he was eyeing the scene of the battle, the
morning after, when the battalions padre the Reverend Bob Seaborn, known as "Burying Bob, head of
the underground movement” due to his unpleasant but necessary task of identifying and recovering
casualties, drove up in his jeep, decorated with red crosses. He explained that his driver was ill and he
needed a volunteer to assist in recovering the bodies of the men killed during the deadly advance
through the field of wheat. The lad began a mornings' work that produced scenes that haunt him to the
present day.239
One member of the regiment mentioned Seaborn was the most unpopular man in the outfit before D-Day,
because his religious zeal was only ‘matched by his nervousness.’ However, after having seen the Padre carry
out his task caring for the wounded, whilst in the midst of a battle and leaving himself exposed to enemy fire,
the same soldier wrote his cousin in Canada, quoting from a buddy he had overheard talking about Seaborn:
‘Gee, I wish I was half the man that guy is.’240 Bob Seaborn was awarded the Military Cross for his actions on D-
235
Personal recollection, G. David Boyd, David F. Boyd’s son. The quote consists out of two parts, both of them
coming from emails from 2008.
236
H. Johnson and A. Thompson, ‘The development and maintenance of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
in civilian adult survivors of war trauma and torture: A review’, Clinical Psychology Review 28 (2008) 36-47, 37.
237
Personal recollection, G. David Boyd, about his late father, David F. Boyd.
238
From an interview with Bob Seaborn, excerpts appear in: Zuehlke, Holding Juno, 241.
239
Personal recollection, name withheld by author, from a memoir written long after the war.
240
Zuehlke, Holding Juno, 243.
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Day and remains a man who is regarded very highly by any and all members of the regiment. 241
It is no wonder that many men had a tough time being overseas. Not only were they a long way from home
for a long time, they could be killed or wounded on a near continual basis when they were up at the front. Like
the terrible conditions the men oftentimes had to cope with, psychiatric battle casualties have long been
overlooked by military historians, the same way they were largely overlooked at the beginning of World War II.
In fact, there was a lot of resentment, particularly in the senior ranks, toward including psychiatric tests in the
recruitment process.242 Added to that, the treatment of nervous breakdowns and PTSD was very much
misunderstood, both at the beginning as at the end of the war. 243 It would seem that even though the army
wanted to prevent cases of ‘shell shock’ as those encountered during the Great War, it did not do a very good
job, although there were a few psychiatrists within its ranks who tried to go against the grain. 244
As far as the Canadian Scottish and its men suffering of battle exhaustion are concerned, they are not alone.
They are joined by many a man who fought, irrespective of the conflict. In World War I, twenty-five percent of
all discharges were classed as psychiatric casualties. For World War II, the numbers are less clear – anywhere
from twenty to a staggering fifty percent. In the Korean War, over twenty five percent of combatants were
labelled as severe psychiatric casualties. After the Vietnam War, estimates varied. The National Vietnam
Veterans Readjustment Study surveyed eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand veterans and concluded that
a quarter was suffering from PTSD in differing degrees. Fifteen percent of the males and eight percent of
female veterans had to cope with full-on PTSD. Another eight to eleven percent of both male and female
veterans were experiencing symptoms that did not fit the diagnosis of PTSD but were affecting their lives, and
not in a good way, nonetheless. 245 Some of the more well-known Canadians who during the war were affected
by battle exhaustion to some degree include Stanley Scislowski and Farley Mowat. 246
It was not just the men themselves who were subject to mental hardship. Many of the soldiers were just
young fellows, and had parents or loved ones at home in Canada. For them, too, it was a hard time. Many
things were uncertain. They mostly had no more than a vague idea where their son was. Tom Halbert’s parents
had a harsh time, especially his mother, for she was to receive a dreaded army telegram, telling her that her
son was missing in action. Usually, the man in question had gotten killed and his body not yet retrieved. Tom,
however, survived. Captured by the Germans on the 21st of April, 1945, just outside of the Dutch village of
Wagenborgen, they were taken to Delfzijl and by barge to Emden in Germany that night. With the help of a
sympathetic German, he later managed to escape. It had been quite a while before his mother received
another telegram, informing her that her son was still alive.247 It is not hard to imagine what fear and
apprehension a mother would go through when her son who is at the front is missing in action. When they
241
Ibid, 243.
T. Copp and B. McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Canadian Army, 1939-1945
(Montreal 1990) 12-14.
243
Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 14, 15.
244
Ibid, 18-23.
245
J. Bourke, An Intimate History of Killing: Face to Face Killing in 20th Century Warfare (London 1999) 234,
235.
246
Mowat, My Father’s Son, 14-16. S. Scislowski, Not all of us were brave (Toronto 1997) 367.
247
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
242
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moved houses years later, she decided to throw out all of Tom’s army belongings: ‘She never forgot the pain
and unhappiness when she received "The Telegram" advising that I had been reported as Missing in Action. It
was more than 6 weeks before she knew that I was still alive, so she did not like anything that reminded her of
that time.’248 Many others were not that lucky. Dave Janicki, a sergeant in B Company, was killed in Germany.
His brother Nick, who was also serving with the Canadian Scottish, got the news when he was in England:
It was, matter of fact, it was just a few days before I came across the English Channel and I was in
Aldershot, and this sergeant came to the barracks and he called me out. He called me out and I knew,
I think I knew the minute he called me out what had happened, because he called me out and he said:
“I haven’t got any good news or something to that effect, I am the one that’s got to, you know, tell you
that your brother was killed.” So. You know. That was, what I got. And of course it was shocking, eh?
And of course, I guess the first thing that went through my mind, I was wondering how mom and dad
were going to feel. When they got the news and knowing that he was killed and I was still in action, eh.
I think that sort of helped pull me together. That, they had bigger problems than I would have.249
Nick had to continue on, for he was to go to continental Europe and into action the next day. He went on to
serve with the Canadian Scottish until the end of the war. Nowadays, as back then, he misses his ‘big’, older
brother, who is buried at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek. He often thinks of him and his other
buddies: ‘Makes you wonder why the good ones had to go, eh?’ 250
Battle exhaustion, shell shock, psychiatric casualty, name it as you like. It happens. Men in the Canadian
Scottish certainly weren’t the only ones that got affected. Whilst still largely unrecognized, large numbers of
veterans returning from the war had mental issues. Back then, if understood at all, psychiatrists only had a
slight idea of what to do. Many treatments stood on the verge of cruelty. 251 It truly was a science in its infancy,
much to the detriment of men who had come back mentally damaged. Decades later, some were and are still
displaying symptoms of war-related psychological distress.252 For them, it is a lasting reminder of the time
when they laid their lives on the line and went into combat.
There were also those that got through the war without being classed as a psychiatric battle casualty. That,
however, does not mean that they, for the rest of their lives, would be free from the burdens of war. Many
men had difficulties adjusting to civilian life upon returning home to Canada. Even after managing to blend
back into civilian life, memories of the war remained. They might become dormant over time, but they’re
there, waiting to be provoked and come back as if it happened yesterday.
The Canadian Scottish, as other infantry units, suffered both physically and mentally. Being cold, wet and
hungry wasn’t rare. However, clothing, food and beverages could be procured by enterprising individuals and
248
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
Personal recollection, Nick Janicki.
250
Personal recollection, Nick Janicki.
251
A. Allport, Demobbed: Coming Home after the Second World War (London 2009) 195.
252
Ibid, 209.
249
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thus lessen the discomfort. Battle exhaustion was something that could hardly be treated, due to which a great
number of veterans had difficulties in coping with their wartime memories. This is also true for those men who
became psychiatric battle casualties during the war. There was little understanding within the army and the
men themselves often felt ashamed, even though many, in fact, had nothing to be ashamed of. There was no
telling who, or how, where or when someone might suffer a nervous breakdown. The experiences of those who
served with the Canadian Scottish are, in this case, very similar to the experiences of other men who served in
a modern conflict.
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7. Coming home
What difficulties did the men face upon their return to Canada? How did they cope with their memories from
the war?
For many, going home was easy. They were glad to be back. They had left the war behind them. Or had they?
Men who had spent months or even over a year fighting in continental Europe were suddenly back in civilian
life. Home, it had become a nearly abstract term. Longed for by many men for a long time. However, not all
was as it seemed. The journey to get there may have been easy – but once there, it felt as though everything
had changed. Many of the soldiers had left as boys and came back as men. In a relatively short period of time,
they had grown up. They had to. And they had little time and patience for fun and games. Some went to
school. Others went to work. A lot of them had difficulties trying to adjust. George Gilbert remembered vividly:
‘I was so tired, and weak, I could hardly walk.(…) It was great getting home. But hard adjusting to civilian life.’ 253
James Clarke, who was promised his Senior Matric by a recruiting officer, came back disillusioned:
After the war, the few of us that returned home found that U.B.C. [University of British Columbia] would
not accept us as we had not written our Grade 12 matric exams so it was back to school to take our
Grade 12 over again. When we returned, (…) there was a tremendous generation gap with people who
were only a few years younger. We went away as boys and came back as men. We had fought a war,
seen our buddies wounded and killed, terrible bombing, starvation, something our younger peers could
not imagine. We wanted to catch up, get an education and a job. (…) I guess we were pretty serious, not
interested in some of the fun and games we were expected to participate in, e.g. trying to haze a 3 X
wounded soldier. 254
It wasn’t just the recruiting officer and his fellow students he was disappointed with. He was misunderstood
by civilians too:
Civilians did not understand what front line soldiers, particularly the wounded, went through. (…) I was
even asked by one woman as to how we got out of the front lines after an 8 hour shift, to our hotels and
restaurants for our places to sleep and eat. She had heard that we ate better than the civilians at home.
(…) Civilians saw war with flying banners, martial music and glamour, not the ugliness of the front line
and death. In answer to a Canadian woman who asked if we got overtime after 8 hours, I replied that we
got a flat bonus – 25 cents a day.255
James Clarke certainly wasn’t the only one who felt misunderstood. It was widespread, both in Canada and
Britain. Civilians did not know, did not understand and at times were jealous and dismissive towards returning
soldiers. They were jealous of all the perks and advantages the soldiers supposedly had enjoyed, whilst those
253
Personal recollection, George W. Gilbert, from: George Gilbert: Army Stories 1942-1946.
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
255
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
254
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who stayed at home had suffered from shortages of food and in the case of Britain, German bombardments.
According to them, the civilians had had a worse time than the soldiers had. 256 Naturally, this led to a lot of
resentment among those who came home. They felt ill-treated and disrespected and they had a right to do so.
Something perhaps more mundane but no less a remnant of active service, were reflexes learned during
wartime – that may have saved a man’s life – that were still in use. Oftentimes this consisted out of the man in
question diving for cover after hearing a loud noise, wherever it may be. For him, it meant shellfire. This
instinctive reaction may have saved his life in the past years, but right now, for many, it was an embarrassing
thing: ‘We still had street cars when I returned from overseas. One day soon after I returned home, I was taking
the street car into town and as the car was going up a slight grade the circuit breaker went off with a loud bang,
the next thing I know I am under the bench across the aisle. As soon as I realized what I had done I got off at
the next stop, with a red face, and walked the rest of the way into town.’257 Farley Mowat, when still at the
front, wrote a letter to his parents: ‘Wherever I go after the war, I hope it’ll be free of loud noises.’ 258 Whilst
some couldn’t stand loud noises, the memories of other men were stirred differently. They couldn’t stand heat,
the smell of diesel, whistling or other loud or high-pitched noises.259 Having nightmares and not being able to
sleep was another common occurrence: ‘It took about five years before I stopped having night mares and
waking up at nights, does not bother me now.’260 John Kuharchuk’s nightmares have stopped. However, in a
1980 study in the United States, nearly a third of veterans from WWII and the Korean War were still suffering
from recurring and frequent nightmares. 261
All of these are common reactions for returning soldiers and are a direct consequence of the time they spent
at the front. They are a normal part of the readjustment process and are often called war zone stress reactions.
They are also known as combat stress reactions or acute stress reactions. 262 They are the same back then as
they are now.
Irrespective of where people went, some inevitably took up drinking, a well-known reaction to stress.
Nowadays, it is not just alcohol which returning servicemen may use to numb their feelings. Substance abuse is
becoming more and more common.263 In the Canadian Scottish, no other than Lieutenant-Colonel Larry
Henderson, the Scottish’ Commanding Officer from February 1945 until June of the same year, started drinking.
He was a very capable battlefield commander who earned a Distinguished Service Order and was held in high
regard by the men serving under him. 264 After the war, Tom Halbert, who served as a private, came across Larry
Henderson, unshaven and still sobering up: ‘And all I could think to myself was Jesus, Larry. I remember. I
256
Allport, Demobbed, 109.
Personal recollection, V. Gordon Holland.
258
Mowat, My Father’s Son, 125.
259
Allport, Demobbed, 186-190, 193-197.
260
Personal recollection, John Kuharchuk.
261
B. van der Kolk and others, ‘Nightmares and trauma: A comparison of nightmares after combat with lifelong
nightmares in veterans’, American Journal of Psychiatry 141:2 (February 1984) 187-190, 187.
262
L.B. Slone and M.J. Friedman, After the war zone: A practical guide for returning troops and their families
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008) 65-68.
263
Ibid, 67, 72.
264
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 606, 622.
257
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remember way back, when private TJ, would be standing stiff as a ramrod in front of you.’265 The fact that
Henderson became a representative for a liquor company after the war didn’t help matters either. Frank
Schmidt, upon coming back, finally understood something he never could before he himself had joined up and
fought: ‘When I used to walk past the Legion, the First World War veterans used to come out staggering and
they were drinking and I thought, “Oh what a bunch of drunks”. But after I learned, when I joined up and I
learned what it was about, well they had a good reason to get in there and drink. To drown their sorrows, their
memories.’266 Frank himself, although he liked his beer and was in the army for five years, did not become like
the First World War veterans whom he used to see back home: ‘I never turned to liquor. But some of, some of
the fellows that I guess, I don’t know, who’ve had, maybe the action, being in action and stress… They couldn’t
handle it. I can handle it.’267 Doug Leask remembers a man who he went overseas with on the same draft. They
spent a lot of time together in training but, unfortunately, he too started drinking:
Bill Johnson was in the war, came home, and went to university and he was quite a clever guy. And Bill
Johnson, he was a most charming guy. And his brother was the boss of a big department store in
Vancouver. And Bill Johnson went to university after the war, became a lawyer, but he started drinking…
He became an alcoholic. (…) He had a nice, attractive wife. And he had this wonderful job. But he
couldn’t stay off the booze.268
In this regard, those who served with the Canadian Scottish are similar to those who served in other units, in
the same, or in other conflicts. Some came back with very bad memories, which haunted them for many
decades. Some started drinking. Others tried to get on with it as best they could, but couldn’t help certain
memories from crossing their minds when triggered by a sight, a smell or noise. For others, it didn’t just cross
their mind. They’d start shaking, cowering or even blacked out. Others, who had seen similar things, were fine.
A lot of men came back disillusioned. They had to go back to school or get a job – the country didn’t need
thousands of soldiers anymore. Suddenly, they were warriors without a war to fight, they had become
obsolete. Their identity as a warrior was swiftly and decisively taken from them. Most were able to move on,
but others, as is still the case, felt disenchanted and disappointed.269 Oftentimes they felt misunderstood.
Civilians simply did not understand what frontline soldiers had experienced. 270 Back then, it was largely the
same as it is now. Returning servicemen have a hard time relating to people back home and vice versa. Their
experiences have often changed the way in which they look at things. 271 What might be something trivial to
civilians, can be very valuable or disturbing to a veteran.
Survivor’s guilt is another issue that is widespread among war veterans and not limited to any unit. Why did
somebody survive while others perished? Death was arbitrary and could come at any given time, in any given
265
Personal recollection, Thomas J. Halbert.
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
267
Personal recollection, Frank J. Schmidt.
268
Personal recollection, Douglas C. Leask. Name changed by author.
269
R.J. Ursano and A.E. Norwood (ed.), Emotional Aftermath of the Persian Gulf War: Veterans, Families,
Communities, and Nations (Washington 1996) 28.
270
Holmes, Acts of War, 395.
271
Slone and Friedman, After the war zone, 73, 74.
266
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place. It did not care for background, rank, training or time spent at the front. There were men who could go
through five years of fighting without a scratch. Others were killed within a few days of arriving. There was no
telling who might be killed and who might survive. 272 These experiences are similar to those of veterans of the
First World War, who often felt a great burden of shame due to their survival, when so many others, perhaps
even close friends, were killed.273
Coming back was often mentally tough and many veterans didn’t talk about the war. If they talked, it was
mostly with other veterans, who could relate to their memories, their feelings and their thoughts. What their
old foe is concerned, opinions vary. Right after the war, the Can Scots were tasked with handling a few
thousand German prisoners, and: ‘They were just as arrogant at the end as the beginning. They never change,
do they? Strotting along. We just pointed them to Germany and said: that way!’274 Others try to take a more
conciliatory approach: ‘My dad was in the First World War, trench warfare, and he hated them, you know, and I
said to him, you can’t hate everybody in this world. (…) You have to do a certain amount of forgiveness, don’t
you, a certain amount. But it’s very, it’s very hard.’275
Looking back
Pondering about their wartime memories, some veterans get quite emotional. They say they never want to do
it again. Others wouldn’t have missed it. John Kuharchuk recognizes it made him into the person he is, yet does
not want to go through it again: ‘But all in all it was a good experience, and I wouldn’t want to do it again, I
think, I don’t think I’ll do it again. Even if I could, I wouldn’t do it, I don’t.’276 Bill Stevens’ thoughts are much the
same: ‘I can’t say I want to do it again. I had too many close shaves. (…) I had to go, after I come back, I had to
go through this posttraumatic stress.’ 277 However, he also adds: ‘There was a lot of good things that happened,
that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t had been over there.’ 278 Jim Whyte concurs: ‘Oh no, it was good in a
sense, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. No. There were lots of days I wished I was home. No, it was
good.’279 There seems to be some sort of duality going on here. They wouldn’t want to do it again, but they
wouldn’t have missed it either. This is very similar to what Richard Holmes writes in Acts of War. Most veterans
remember their wartime service with mixed feelings, very much aware of the sorrow and suffering it put them
through, yet also recognizing that it made them into the person they are. Very few regret their participation.280
Most would even do it again if they could.281 This attitude towards their wartime service seems to be prevalent
in the Canadian Scottish also. George Burton remembers his friends and the comradeship that was formed,
both in training in the United Kingdom as in the actual fighting in continental Europe: ‘I had a pretty good time
272
Allport, Demobbed, 190-193.
J.M. Winter, Remembering War: The Great War between memory and history in the twentieth century (Ann
Arbor 2006) 103.
274
Personal recollection, John E. Gregson.
275
Personal recollection, Armand J. Denicola.
276
Personal recollection, John Kuharchuk.
277
Personal recollection, William G. Stevens.
278
Personal recollection, William G. Stevens.
279
Personal recollection, James Whyte.
280
Glenn Gray, The Warriors, 44.
281
Holmes, Acts of War, 394-396.
273
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in the war, in the army. Not in the war, but in the army. (…) I had some very good friends. You make friends in
that kind of way. Very good. Most of them got killed. Or wounded.’282 The comradeship is another thing of
which many men were keenly aware and is likely a reason for getting back together at reunions. This is the
same for a lot of ex-serviceman’s organizations. Veterans seek to recreate the feeling of togetherness that was
present during the war years and oftentimes forged a bond that lasts a lifetime. It is, not surprisingly, one of
the main things that many veterans remember from their time in the service. The comradeship and esprit de
corps of their unit. 283 Whatever they went on to do after the war, due to their service they had a lasting
connection with the outfit they served in and therefore it was, and will always be, their unit. Furthermore,
those who have never been in combat often do not understand and for those who have been, it is difficult to
explain to anyone who hasn’t been through something similar. 284
Armand Denicola, speaking in 2009, explains why he attends the reunions: ‘What can I say. We lost men left
and right, and you know it was just, it’s something that I try to forget and yet you can’t forget, this is why we
come to these reunions, and refresh our memories.’ 285 Others echo similar sentiments: ‘It’s easy to forget the
bad things and to remember the better things from 65 years ago.’286 ‘It pops up once in a while, and then you
suppress it. It goes back for a couple of years.’ 287 ‘It was a tough go, but you try to forget the tough stuff and
remember the funny things, the good people you meet.’ 288
Added to that, most veterans are still very much convinced that they were only ‘doing their duty for their
country’, and that it was nothing special at all, such as Bill Hannah: ‘I was just an ordinary rifleman, that’s all.’289
These sentiments are echoed by many others, like James Clarke: ‘I will never forget what we did and why. I
was a proud Canadian soldier doing his duty. I still feel that way today.’290 And also by George Gilbert: ‘I am
proud to be a Canadian, and very proud to have served and fought for our country, and the dear people living
in Canada.’291
Even though Dave Janicki was killed in 1945, his letters home speak volumes for the way he felt, and, as he
felt, the same thoughts are often repeated by those who served in the Canadian Scottish: ‘(…) Some have been
wounded, and have come back to fight the second time + the third time. Some have gone to Canada, with no
legs and arms etc; but I know one thing, and that is that those who become cripples for life shall always be
proud because they have fought, beside men who fought for freedom, and for the destruction of the nazi war
machine.’292
282
Personal recollection, George V. Burton.
Holmes, Acts of War, 398 399.
284
Glenn Gray, The Warriors, 44.
285
Personal recollection, Armand J. Denicola.
286
Personal recollection, D. Munro MacKenzie.
287
Personal recollection, Ronald E. Cox.
288
Personal recollection, Kenneth Byron. From: Times Colonist, Jack Knox: Saltspring’s Byron brothers soldier
on, 68 years after first VE Day. Published May 7, 2013.
289
Personal recollection, Bill Hannah.
290
Personal recollection, James H. Clarke.
291
Personal recollection, George W. Gilbert, from: George Gilbert: Army Stories 1942-1946.
292
From a February 3, 1945 letter from Sergeant Dave Janicki to his brother, Private Nick Janicki. Dave Janicki
was killed six days later.
283
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Homecoming. The moment many men had dreamed of for years. They were happy to be back, but they
weren’t the same. A lot of them had left as boys and come back as men, which is often seen when young men
go to war. Some men had nightmares. Other men couldn’t stand loud noises or a particular smell. As is often
the case, there were those who sought to remedy their problems with alcohol. Others were burdened with
survivor’s guilt. Misunderstanding of veterans by civilians was commonplace. These experiences are very
similar to those of other veterans, both in the Second World War as in other conflicts. So are the thoughts of
men reflecting on their wartime service years later. Most of them would not want to do it again, but they
wouldn’t have missed it either. They recognize that it made them into the person they became. The reasons
why the men who served with the Canadian Scottish opt to attend reunions or keep active in the unit’s
association are similar to those of others. Oftentimes they want to recreate the feeling of togetherness, the
comradeship that was formed during the war. Furthermore, the men can talk about their thoughts and feelings
with other veterans in a way that would never be possible with civilians, a sentiment echoed by a great number
of veterans from all nations, from the First World War up to this day and age.
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Conclusion
Throughout this thesis, a look into the history of the Canadian Scottish has been made possible, with the
emphasis evidently on the Second World War. Quite a bit of supporting studies have been used, but it would
have been impossible without the memories of the men who were there. Their experiences have been studied
and compared with those of others who served in a modern, conventional conflict. Again, the emphasis was on
the Second World War. Are the experiences of the men who served with the Can Scots during that destructive
conflict similar to those of others? To be able to answer that question, a look into the history of the regiment
was taken.
The Canadian Scottish Regiment has its roots in the 16th Battalion (The Canadian Scottish) Canadian
Expeditionary Force, which went overseas with the CEF in 1914 and fought on the Western Front with great
distinction. No less than four Victoria Crosses were earned and the battalion played its part in several of the
hardest and most important battles that were fought in that destructive conflict. It was present at Kitchener’s
Wood, Ypres, Arras and Vimy Ridge, where many say the Canadian nationality was born when the Canadian
Corps, fighting together for the first time, captured the ridge, where the British and the French had earlier
failed. When it returned home to Victoria, the unit was disbanded, together with all the other battalions
returning from France, as the CEF was strictly formed to fight the First World War. However, all who had served
in the 16th were determined not to let it disappear from the stage in its totality. A new unit was to be formed
that perpetuated the 16th. Due to the 16th not having a clear regimental home because it was formed from four
different Scottish units, it was initially unclear as to where the new unit would be headquartered. Vancouver
had a strong claim, but due to strong political pressure from Sir Arthur Currie and Cyrus Peck, it was
perpetuated in Victoria. In 1920, the unit was set up and christened simply ‘The Canadian Scottish Regiment’. It
would fulfill its duties as a militia regiment until mobilized for active service to fight in the Second World War.
The men in the Canadian Scottish Regiment were well aware of the fact that they perpetuated the 16th
battalion and its excellent combat record, which is evidenced, among others, by the booklet the men were
given before they went overseas, which details the history of the 16 th and was presented to them by two
surviving former commanding officers of said battalion. Furthermore, the sixteen maple leaves in the
regiment’s crest symbolize the 16th battalion and the officer’s collar badges, in the form of the cap badge of the
16th, link the past to the present. The oak leaf and acorn, though adapted from the original metal shoulder
badge into a cloth one, was worn by the men back then as it is now, a constant reminder of the unit’s proud
history.
However, a conclusion cannot be reached on the basis of history alone. An in-depth look at the men who
served with the unit had to be taken. Who were they? Why did they enlist? What was the training like? Did
they undergo the same type of training as others? What was their experience in battle like? How did they
perform? How did they deal with the physical and mental hardships suffered by front line troops? Is this the
same for others? What was their homecoming like? How do they look back upon their wartime service?
The Canadian Scottish, in many ways, are similar to other Canadian infantry regiments, whose composition
had changed significantly since the First World War. Above all, they had become more Canadian and less
British. No longer were most of the men and officers born in what was still informally known as the Mother
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Country. However, this does not mean that men who were born in Great Britain had disappeared or been
pushed to the fringes of society. Quite the contrary was the case. Many influential and well-to-do men had
been born on the British Isles or were of British descent and, as had been the case in 1914, were still present in
the regiment. However, Canada’s population had changed due to a great influx of immigrants, with over half a
million coming from continental Europe and many of these settled down on the west coast and thus also in
British Columbia, the home province of the Canadian Scottish. Many immigrants from Great Britain arrived in
the country, too. On the whole, the immigrants assimilated quickly. They wanted to be and they felt Canadian.
This is the same for children born in Canada to immigrant parents. Thus, when war broke out, many of them
felt compelled to serve their country. The men’s reasons to join up vary and one does not exclude another.
Broadly, they can be divided into four categories. There were men who had had to work from a young age due
to the depression and thus were in search of something better than the current situation they were in. Others
joined because everybody else was going. As always in a war, there were those who longed for adventure.
World War II is no exception. Lastly, there were a lot of men who felt it was their duty or simply ‘the thing to
do’. Contrary to the ethnic composition of the unit, enlistment motivations had hardly changed from the First
World War. As a matter of fact, these four reasons would seem to be quite common in 20th century
conventional warfare. Thus, in this regard, the regiment is hardly any different from others.
Army training, for most new recruits, was a world they’d never seen before. Others came prepared. Many
men had joined the active force from the militia and thus had prior military experience. There were those
whose fathers had served in the First World War. At least one man had even served in the First World War
himself. Those who joined early found themselves sent to Camp Debert, which, in the beginning, was far from
finished. Whilst designed to hold a division and supposedly outfitted with proper facilities, the Canadian
Scottish’ platoon of Assault Pioneers was put to good use here, building wooden walkways to counter the mud
and putting doors in the buildings. In 1941, the battalion was sent to England. There, they took advanced
infantry training and as June 6, 1944, grew nearer, the training regimen was intensified. The unit went up to
Inveraray in Scotland for assault training and practiced landing on the beach from the Loch. When the
Combined Training Centre, as it was officially known, closed its doors, many thousands of men had trained
there. Men who came in later, more specifically taking their training in the second half of 1944, found that they
were hurried through. Unbeknownst to most of them at the time, the Canadian army was suffering from a lack
of new recruits and thus had trouble filling the gaps that both the Normandy campaign and the battle for the
Scheldt estuary had created. As a result, reinforcements were not as well trained as the men who had gone to
England early and had trained for two, three or even four years. This, too, was a common occurrence.
To be able to assess combat effectiveness, a great number of both primary and secondary sources were
used. War diaries for the Canadian Scottish were used as well as those of the Winnipeg Rifles and the Regina
Rifles. For what was perhaps the Can Scots’ fiercest and most important battle, the battle for Putot-en-Bessin, a
study using many primary sources written by their adversary, the 12th SS Panzer Division, was also used. For the
Canadian Scottish, D Day was to be their first great test. It turned out to be quite a success. Casualties were less
than expected. Furthermore, of all the infantry battalions that assaulted Hitler’s Atlantikwall that day, the
Canadian Scottish advanced the furthest inland. They had gone past their intended objective and even
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surprised the nearby Regina Rifle Regiment by having been able to walk into Camilly unopposed before they
got there. Having been able to advance no less than six miles was no mean feat and says a lot for the aggressive
leadership of the officers and the fighting prowess of the men. Another fact which speaks volumes is the
promotion of no less than three officers from the Canadian Scottish to the rank of Brigadier, with LieutenantColonel Cabeldu, who had led the regiment with great distinction in Normandy, among them. B Company’s
Major Lendrum would be promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and placed in command of the Royal Regiment of
Canada. At Putot-en-Bessin, the Canadian Scottish put in a counterattack that retook the village at great cost,
after the Royal Winnipeg Rifles had been overrun and had to pull out. After the Can Scots took the village, they
repelled all German counterattacks with vigour, inflicting great casualties upon the enemy but sustaining a high
number of casualties as well. Their enemy at Putot was a battalion from the 12th SS division ‘Hitlerjugend’,
which was considered one of the finest German units in Normandy. The division was largely made up of former
members of the Hitler Youth. They had been indoctrinated from an early age and fought savagely, murdering
over a hundred and fifty Canadian prisoners-of-war, mostly from the Winnipeg Rifles. When this news reached
the Canadian Scottish, they were less inclined to take prisoners themselves. This is a normal and common
reaction to such news, as is illustrated by many examples from different conflicts and as evidenced and
explained many times over by Dave Grossman in On Killing and Richard Holmes in Acts of War.
At Putot, the regiment was able to put a stop to the German advance at a critical time. Had they not held
out, the Germans could have advanced unopposed to the vulnerable beach, with possibly disastrous
consequences. At Slaughter Hill, in the German Rhineland, heavy casualties were sustained as C Company was
cut off, surrounded and the men killed or taken prisoner. However, what was left of the badly depleted other
companies were able to repel no less than six German counterattacks until the pressure on their positions was
eased by an attack the 4th Brigade had made elsewhere in the vicinity. At Wagenborgen the unit sustained a
high number of casualties late in the war after having made an ill-advised attack on a supposedly lightly held
Dutch village. It turned out to be defended by over five-hundred German troops and D Company, which had to
go in alone, suffered heavy casualties. Next, the battalion’s CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Larry Henderson, gathered
the other companies and in a fierce battle captured Wagenborgen, driving out the Germans and avenging D
Company.
The Canadian Scottish’ performance in battle is exemplary and sets them apart from other infantry
battalions. The leadership qualities the officers possessed were illustrated in Normandy and by the promotion
of several officers to high ranking commands. The unit’s esprit de corps and excellent fighting demeanour were
demonstrated on June 6, 1944, by advancing the furthest inland and later at Putot, by repelling the Germans at
a critical moment, thus potentially saving the entire Canadian front. At Slaughter Hill and Wagenborgen, the
unit showed it was able to handle severe setbacks and go on to win the battle. C Company’s loss was hard to
swallow and so was the mauling of D Company at Wagenborgen. In both instances, the men’s resolve hardened
and in the end, victory was attained.
Physical and more importantly mental hardships were commonplace throughout the infantry battalions.
Whereas physical problems such as being cold, wet and hungry could be altered for the better by enterprising
individuals, mental problems could not. Those with mental difficulties most certainly weren’t alone. Neither
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then, nor earlier as in the First World War, nor in later conflicts. Mental problems arising from being under
extremely stressful circumstances such as those in a war have been around for a long time, though the problem
truly came to light during and after the Great War. The case presented in this thesis, that of David Boyd, is most
certainly not unique. Long overlooked by more traditional historians, the mental strain that war puts upon a
man is in fact a very important and not to be overlooked aspect of any conflict. In this respect, the men aren’t
any different from others in similar circumstances.
Coming home, many men had difficulties and weren’t quite able to slip back into civilian life seamlessly. A lot
had nightmares. Others had combat-related stress symptoms whilst still others had PTSD. Survivor’s guilt
wasn’t uncommon and not unique to the Can Scots either. As always seems to be the case, there were men
who took up drinking, Larry Henderson, the former battalion commander, being the most prominent of these.
Readjusting was hard for many. There was a tremendous generation gap between returning soldiers and
people the same age, who had stayed in Canada. A lot of men went to war as boys and came back as men, a
transition that those who stayed behind did not make. Therefore, those who chose to further their studies, for
example at the university of British Columbia, often had a hard time relating to their classmates. They had a
hard time relating to civilians in general as, in the words of James Clarke: ‘Civilians did not understand what
front line soldiers, particularly the wounded, went through.’ Looking back and pondering about the past, the
general consensus is that they wouldn’t have missed it, but wouldn’t do it again either, as is attested to by
many veterans but is also supported by research done by other authors such as Richard Holmes in Acts of War
and Jesse Glenn Gray in The Warriors. What homecoming is concerned, the men in the Can Scots do not differ
from others.
On the whole, there is just one aspect of soldiering in which the Canadian Scottish are different from others.
Their exemplary combat record, started by the 16th and perpetuated by the 1st battalion in the Second World
War. Thus, in answer to the main question posited by this thesis, the experiences of the men and the actions of
the regiment are for a very large part similar to those of other units in the Second World War and in modern
conventional warfare on the whole. However, as stated above, the unit has built up an exemplary combat
record in both the First and the Second World War, a time when fighting was still the main and most important
work of a soldier. Its excellent leadership and esprit de corps, make them differ from other Canadian infantry
battalions in the Second World War in that aspect. However, as has earlier been stated, assessing a unit’s
combat record is very difficult, prone to subjectivity and relative by nature. Therefore it cannot be used to
conclusively set the Canadian Scottish Regiment apart from other units.
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Appendix: Maps
These maps have been taken from the appendices section in the back of Ready for the Fray.293
Map 1.
293
Roy, Ready for the Fray, 641, 648-650.
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Map 2.
Map 3.
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List of sources
Primary sources
Army files:
Casualty lists for the 1st Battalion, Canadian Scottish Regiment. (University of Victoria, Special Collections).
Report entitled A Coy, Heseler Feld, author unknown. (University of Victoria, Special Collections).
Report entitled B Coy´s Story of HESELER FELD, by Company Sergeant Major J. Nimmo DCM. (University of
Victoria, Special Collections).
Report entitled C Coy´s Tragedy, 19 Feb 45, by Company Sergeant Major C. Morgan. (University of Victoria,
Special Collections).
Medal Index Card of W.G.C. Holland. (The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey).
War Diary, 1st Battalion, Canadian Scottish Regiment. (University of Victoria, Special Collections).
War Diary, the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. (From the Royal Winnipeg Rifles association).
Unpublished personal sources:
Arnold, Wayne H., “Memoir”.
Gilbert, George W., “Army Stories 1942-1946”.
Diary and letters from Sergeant Dave Janicki.
Name of author withheld, “A memoir of a lad serving in a battalion at war”.
Interviews from the collection of author:
Charles H. Adams (June 2009)
William A. Bacon (June 2009)
George V. Burton (June 2009)
James H. Clarke (June 2009)
Ronald E. Cox (June 2010)
Armand J. Denicola (June 2009)
John E. Gregson (June 2009)
Thomas J. Halbert (June 2010)
Morris M. Heath (October 2012)
Bill Hannah (June 2010)
Nick Janicki (June 2009&2010)
Arthur E. Johnson (June 2009)
John Kuharchuk (June 2009&2010)
Douglas C. Leask (June 2009)
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D. Munro MacKenzie (June 2009)
Edward R.U. Peck (October 2012)
Harry A. Roberts (June 2010)
Frank J. Schmidt (June 2009)
William G. Stevens (June 2010)
Robert Stirling (June 2009&2010)
James Whyte (June 2009)
Correspondence:
David F. Boyd
Kenneth Byron
Terence Byron
James H. Clarke
Thomas J. Halbert
V. Gordon Holland
Gordon L. Rowat
Published primary sources:
Author unknown, History of the regiment, from mobilization to present day (Utrecht, 1945).
Author unknown, The Canadian Scottish Regiment, A Remembrance: From the survivors, All Ranks, of the 16th
Battalion (The Canadian Scottish) C.E.F. 1914-1919 to All Ranks now serving in the Canadian Scottish Regiment
– which Regiment perpetuates the 16th (Unknown, 1941).
Cadenhead, J.F., The Canadian Scottish: Stray papers by a private (Aberdeen 1915).
Tupper, R.H., Victor Gordon Tupper, a brother’s tribute (London 1921).
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Bourke, J., An Intimate History of Killing: Face to Face Killing in 20th Century Warfare (London 1999).
Chartrand, R., Canadian Forces in World War II (Oxford 2001).
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Copp, T., and McAndrew, B., Battle Exhaustion: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Canadian Army, 1939-1945
(Montreal 1990).
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McDonald, R.A.J., ‘Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper and the Political Culture of British Columbia, 1903-1924’, BC
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Peck, E.R.U., Cy Peck V.C., A Biography of a Legendary Canadian (Winnipeg 2008).
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Newspapers
The Langley Times
The Times Colonist
Internet
http://www.6juin1944.com
http://www.bbc.com
http://www.combinedops.com
http://esask.uregina.ca
http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach
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http://www.rmc.ca
http://www.timescolonist.com
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