This is a story about Henry, my grandfather. He was born in New Brunswick and grew up in the beautiful St John river valley close to the border with Maine. Aside from a couple of trips to Montreal and occasional trips across the border he never strayed too far from home.
Just a few weeks after the invasion of Poland by Germany Henry took a trip to Woodstock and joined the recently mobilized Carleton and York Regiment, this was before conscription started. A couple of weeks later he was ordered to Sussex New Brunswick for six weeks of basic training, this was followed by a week of leave then and then to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
On December 9th 1939 he boarded a ship in Halifax, along with the rest of the Carleton and York Regiment, and sailed for Britain.
He disembarked in Greenock on the 20th of December.
As an interesting aside, my paternal grandparents lived in Greenock, my grandfather worked in the extensive shipyards and my father was 4 years old when Henry landed in his hometown.
They boarded a series of trains in Greenock Central destined for an army transit camp in Aldershot Hampshire, before finally making the short journey to Quebec Barracks in Bordon Camp in Hampshire in early March 1940.
The Carleton and York were part of the newly formed Third Brigade of the First Canadian Infantry Division. Henry is assigned as a mechanic and driver to a field workshop tasked with repairing and recovering the battalions vehicles.
At this time rationing for basic foodstuffs had just been introduced in England and the 200,000 men of the British Expeditionary forces were deployed in France. Any hope for an early end to the fighting was destroyed with the invasion of the Low countries and the German sweep into France during the Spring of 1940 causing Chamberlain to resign and Churchill forms a coalition government.
In early May, while drilling on the parade ground at Quebec Barracks a lone German bomber appears over Bordon with no warning. It’s thought that the aircraft was lost and found a target of opportunity. The aircraft dropped a couple of bombs, killed 8 (10 by some reports) on the ground before departing at tree top height.
A small element took part in the ill-fated Dieppe raid in August 1942, but other than that the Carleton and York drilled and trained in Southern for the next couple of years. While in Bournmouth preparing for a training exercise on Salisbury Plain in March 1942 Henry was hit by a civilian car. He was taken to hospital in with a badly broken leg.
After a few days he was transferred to a military hospital in Aldershot, where he stayed for a couple of months before being sent back to Bordon and his home unit to continue his rehabilitation. The damage to his leg was severe and kept him on limited and light duties for over a year.
In June 1943 the Carleton and York along with the rest of the First Canadian Infantry Division embarked on transports from Plymouth and Falmouth to participate in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.
Henry was still recovering from his broken leg and was kept in Bordon until late August or early September. He then deployed to Italy, landing in allied held Bari and joining the Carleton and York near Foggia.
The First Canadian Infantry Division was now part of the British 8th Army and was tasked with breaking through the multiple defensive lines the Germans had set up running across Italy. The Carleton and York along with the rest of the division were tasked with supporting the crossing the river Sangro by New Zealand troops on November 28th 1943, and moving towards Ortona on the Adriatic coast.
Fortunately the German 86th Division that faced the New Zealand and Canadian troops were largely ill equipped replacements that allowed the allied troops to take all their objectives with little trouble. This was not the case along other parts of the offensive, where other parts of the 8th Army went against battle tested units and did not advance.
With the weather deteriorating the lines stabilized over the winter and the Carleton and York were withdrawn for a few months and were later assigned to support the 8th Army in the drive to Rome through the bloody battles at Monte Cassino and the Livi Valley through April and May 1944.
The Carleton and York continued north over the following months, through Rimini in September and holding at Lamone in November. At this point Henry and a majority of the First Canadian Infantry Division were withdrawn and sailed from Livorno to Portsmouth, arriving back in Bordon in just before Christmas 1944 to prepare for deployment to Holland to join the drive into the Rhineland in the Spring.
Some elements of the division arrived in Holland, but for the Carleton and York specifically the war moved too fast into Germany and they never joined the rest of the division in North West Europe.
Henry returned to Canada in early 1946, arriving in Fredericton with is new wife, Vera. In December1946 my mother was born and together they moved back to South East England in 1947.
In 1992 I visited New Brunswick, it seemed like I’m related to about half the St John River Valley. I was told quite a number of stories about Henry. A significant number of which of which he would deny (and in some cases has), and I’m fairly sure he would not want them published here.
This is the brief synopsis of six years of his life. How he came to Europe, made a difference, served his country and later returned to make Guildford his home. I had a tremendous grandfather that I loved. He taught me ethics, appreciating cats, not to be afraid of hard work, don’t get too attached to a car, never forget to have fun, let those around you know you love them, how to set the timing on a car, that you can never have too many tools and that my father should have been nominated for sainthood in 2002 (if you want to know more ask, I’m not going to expand on that here).
I’ve used a number of primary and secondary sources for the information, the dates, locations and operations are correct as far as I know. I’d like to thank the Canadian Department of Defence, specifically Paul McDonald in the Office of veteran’s affairs for his invaluable help and contacts that made the details possible, the 8th Hussars Museum in Sussex NB and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
The Carleton and York have gone through a number of amalgamations and their history, and by extension the history of Henry and those that served with him, are now part of the Royal New Brunswick Regiment.
Incidentally, the Royal New Brunswick Regiment have recently returned from a six month deployment to Afghanistan.
