The Calgary Highlanders

The Calgary Highlanders in WWII

The Calgary Highlanders were perpetuated from the 10th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) of the Great War. 

In September 1939, the battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel H Riley and his family were enjoying the long weekend at their family cabin at Gull Lake, Alberta when the telegram arrived containing the message “Mobilize”.  By the Monday of the Labour Day long weekend volunteers were pouring into Mewata Armouries in Calgary to enlist. (Point of interest: Gull Lake is a five minute drive from Bentley where Grandpa Hunt lived from 1965 until his passing in 1993).

Training in the winter of 1939 was harsh with lack of proper uniforms, weapons and equipment. As the size of the Calgary Highlanders rapidly grew, the barracks behind Mewata Armouries quickly became too small to house the men and they were forced to relocate to the tented Sarcee Camp. On 25 May 1940 the Highlanders left for Camp Shilo in southern Manitoba.

The 1^st Division had left for England on 25 January 1940. On 10 May 1940 the German army had attacked on the Western Front and the demand to have the 2^nd Division prepared to deploy overseas had escalated. The Calgary Highlanders were initially part of the 6^th Brigade of the 2^nd Canadian Infantry Division along with three other prairie battalions: South Saskatchewan Regiment from Estevan, Saskatchewan, the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders both from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Divisional structure was changed early in 1940 and as a result the Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to Jamaican for garrison duties. After returning to Canada they were sent to Hong Kong.

The 6^th Brigade trained in Camp Shilo until leaving by train on the morning of 21 August 1940 arriving in Halifax two days later. 923 Calgary Highlanders boarded the SS Pasteur the following day and disembarked in Gourock, Scotland 4 September.

(Picture: The SS Pasteur leaves Gourock, Scotland)

The unit was transported by train to the Guillemont barracks near Cove in Sussex. Shortly after they were moved to the 5^th Brigade to serve alongside the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada and Le Regiment de Maisonneuve – both from Montreal.

The Calgary Highlanders would spend the next four years training and performing coastal defence in event of an invasion of England by the German forces.

The Calgary Highlanders developed a training system called Battle Drill that provided intense physical training under live fire which would prepare the troops for when they were pressed into battle. The Battle Drill was adopted throughout other Commonwealth Forces stationed in Britain as their mode of training. Although not very popular with the soldiers it provided skills crucial to their survival in combat.

The Calgary Highlanders also provided coastal defence along the south coast of England at multiple locations from Bognor Regis to Bexhill. The Canadians defended against Luftwaffe hit and run raids on coastal towns as well as throwing up the first line of defence against an anticipated German invasion intended to slow any advance on London from the southern beachheads.

A mortar platoon (22 men) of the Calgary Highlanders were sent on Operation Jubilee (the raid on Dieppe) on 19 August 1942 but were never committed to battle.

The Calgary Highlanders would not see action until almost two years later during the invasion of northwest Europe. Operation Overlord (commonly referred to as D-Day) occurred on 6 June 1944. The 3^rd Canadian Infantry Division was involved in the Operation having landed on the Coast of Normandy at Bernieres-sur-Mer. It took four weeks for the Allied forces to capture the city of Caen and clear the beachhead for the 2^nd Division to land in France.

The Calgary Highlanders landed in Normandy on 6 July 1944. They would battle in the Normandy area for six weeks with their first action at Hill 67 and Claire-Tison enroute to Falaise.

Following action in Normandy the Calgary Highlanders advanced northward along the Channel coast toward the Netherlands. Along with the rest of the 2^nd Canadian Corps they cleared coastal port cities and destroyed the launch sites of the German V-bombs that were causing a great deal of civilian casualties in England. From the 6 to 18 of September the Calgary Highlanders fought at Dunkirk. Despite Allied efforts Dunkirk would remain in German hands until the end of the war.

 On 4 September 1944 the British captured the port city of Antwerp however the Scheldt estuary that leads from the North Sea to Antwerp was still in German control. Supplies for the Allied forces were being transported from Cherbourg in the extreme northwest corner of France and the logistical challenges would ease greatly once Antwerp could be utilized. The 3^rd Division and 4^th Armoured Division worked on clearing the northern area of Belgium and the south side of the Scheldt estuary while the 2^nd Division advanced to take the north side and in particular the Walcheren Peninsula. The Calgary Highlanders were involved in heavy fighting from north of Antwerp to Walcheren Island from 16 September to 8 November. By 28 November access had been cleared to Antwerp and supplies began to arrive.

The Calgary Highlanders moved to the Nijmegen region of Netherlands conducting nightly patrols and raids on German defences in late fall/early winter of 1944/45. In February 1945 the Calgary Highlanders fought through the Reichwald forest into the Rhineland region of Germany.

Once across the Rhine they advanced northward into the Netherlands to capture Groningen fighting along the way at Doetinchem and Holten. The Canadians found the German forces they were encountering were relegated to either very young men (mostly teenagers) or older men averaging 50 years old. The battle for Groningen took place 13 to 16 of April. Once secured in the hands of the Canadians, the Calgary Highlanders and the rest of the 2^nd Division then advanced into northern Germany.

On 26 April the Calgary Highlanders advanced towards Oldenburg. On 3 May the 5^th Brigade entered Oldenburg to find most of the Germans had fled. The fall of Berlin on 2 May and the surrender of the German Army in Italy indicated the war in Europe was nearing an end.

On 4 May the Calgary Highlanders prepared to advance on Wilhelmshaven but before the commanding officers could be briefed on the action news had come that the German army would cease action in northwest Europe the following morning at 08:00.  On 6 May the Calgary Highlanders moved to occupy Nordenham approximately ten kilometers south of Bremerhaven. This was where news was received of the complete surrender of all German forces and the ceasefire would take effect at midnight on 8 May. The war in Europe had come to an end.

On 25 November 1945 the train carrying the Calgary Highlanders from the east had arrived in Calgary. Only thirteen of the original 476 members that left for Camp Shilo in the spring of 1940 would be on the train. Some long serving members returned home early, many transferred to other units, several that were severely wounded were still in hospitals in England and elsewhere in Canada and 403 members were laid to rest in Canadian war cemeteries in Europe from Normandy to the North Sea. With the pipe band in the lead the Calgary Highlanders marched through the streets of Calgary and after a welcoming ceremony by then mayor Andrew Davison, the troops marched westward down 8^th Avenue to the Mewata Armouries where their journey had begun exactly five and a half years earlier. The Calgary Highlanders were back home once again.

I encourage you to read the “Battalion of Heroes – The Calgary Highlanders in World War II” by David Bercuson and check out the extensive and concise website of the Calgary Highlanders at http://www.calgaryhighlanders.com.  Both are excellent resources and provide great insight into the history of the Calgary Highlanders. I utilized both in my research and am grateful for the information they provided.

Interesting tidbit:

Appendix I of the “Battalion of Heroes” is a list containing the Original Nominal Roll of the Calgary Highlanders. In it is listed “M41885 Pte. Hunt, John Albert” and directly below is “M41884 Pte. Hunt, John William C.”. It is interesting that the man that enlisted immediately before our Grandpa was also named John Hunt.