Lieutenant-Colonel C.H. Neroutsos
14th (Calgary) Tank Regiment

There was such a tremendous loss of life that it will be very hard to treat it in an objective way. These are not tapes of historians, they’re merely tapes of a man who happened to be there with all his weaknesses and his emotions. And I do not know how far I want to go.

(C.H. Neroutsos tapes, undated)

Born in Victoria, British Columbia on 24 August 1904, Cyril Houlton Neroutsos was a McGill University graduate and marine and aviation representative for International Paints Canada Ltd. A prewar reserve officer in the machine gun brigade, in September 1939, he volunteered with the Three Rivers Regiment, which would be redesignated a tank battalion in the armoured corps. He served as second-in-command of the 12th Tank (Three Rivers) Regiment overseas while the Canadian tank brigade trained in the United Kingdom.

In April 1943, Neroutsos transferred to the 14th Tank (Calgary) Regiment, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel John Begg. Elven months after the regiment had first served in action at Dieppe, it deployed again this time under Neroutsos’ command. Now equipped with Sherman tanks, the tank brigade went to Sicily shortly after the 1st Canadian Division landed on 10 July 1943. By Operation Baytown, the invasion of Italy in September, the tank brigade had been redesignated 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade.

In the early campaign, Neroutsos commanded a mobile formation know as X Force composed of Calgary tanks, Carleton and York infantry companies, mortars, machine-guns, and anti-tank guns. For his later actions at San Leonardo on 9 December 1943, Neroutsos earned the Distinguished Service Order:

His own HQ was early establish in the town where this officer, under the most murderous mortar and artillery fire, directed the tank activity in this vital sector. The action of this officer unquestionably had a great influence on the further development of the division plan.

Injured after the Liri Valley campaign, in June 1944 he handed command of the regiment over to Major C.A. Richardson. Medically unfit for further service, Neroutsos retired from the army by the end of 1944. He resumed his position with the International Paints Canada Ltd, rising to president in the late 1950s.

He died in Vancouver on 17 December 1990.