Major Harry Eisenhauer
West Nova Scotia Regiment

‘Tis true they say I died as heroes go,
I scorned to bow to shot and shell,
But boldly led on against the foe
And leading thus I fell.
Death comes swiftly for the brave.
This brush with glory
Meant the grave for me.

(Eisenhauer, “Visit from an Old Friend,” 1989)

Born on 9 July 1920 in Lower La Have, Nova Scotia, Harry MacDonald Eisenhauer was a Dalhousie University student when selected for officer training in 1940. He went overseas as a reinforcement officer and was attached to the West Nova Scotia Regiment. By the end of the war, when he led the regiment home as commanding officer, he was one of only a handful of originals still with the unit who had landed at Sicily on 10 July 1943.

Promoted to captain, he served as the battalion intelligence officer in the Italian campaign. In this role he explained his admiration for Lieutenant-Colonel Pat Bogert: “I had the opportunity to have close contact with him over a long period of time. He was one of those COs who stayed up front where the action was.” Just as Bogert was shot in the leg, Eisenhauer was also wounded near Ortona in December 1943. “I was shot through the hip,” Eisenhauer stated, “… but the doctors in the hospital were amazed that I didn’t have the bullet go through my artery, in which case I probably would have died there.” His friend Major Harvey Jones died in the battle, and Eisenhauer composed the above poem as a memorial in 1989.

Eisenhauer returned to duty in May 1944 during the advance on the Gustave Line before being assigned as intelligence officer to the 3rd Infantry Brigade headquarters. By the beginning of 1945, he rejoined the West Novas as a company commander and ended the war at the rank of major. Just prior to the regiment being set to return to Canada, in September 1945, he succeeded Major W. Winston Mair in command. He then led the West Novas on the voyage home for demobilization in October.

Having participated in a number of wartime courts martial as defence counsel, prosecutor, and court member, he developed an interest in law. He completed a law degree from Dalhousie University before later moving to Alberta.

On 9 July 2020, almost exactly seventy-seven years after the Sicily landings, the Military Museums in Calgary hosted a celebration of Eisenhauer’s 100th birthday. He remarked, “I was wounded during the war, fortunately only flesh wounds, so I was very lucky there. So all in all, my life has been rather wonderful.”

Eisenhauer died in Calgary on 20 October 2024 at the age of 104.

Further Information:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/harry-eisenhauer-second-world-war-100-1.5644689

https://crestwood.on.ca/ohp/eisenhauer-harry/