Author: Matthew K Barrett

Brig. M.P. Bogert

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Brigadier Pat Bogert
West Nova Scotia Regiment
2nd Infantry Brigade
Bogart

He always seemed to rise to the occasion when the going got tough, and set a wonderful example. He was an extremely brave man, and was invariably to be found somewhere up forward, personally leading the battalion, however stiff the climb or hard the marching. When he gave an order one always felt that his reasoning was sound and that he would not knowingly send you into an untenable position.

(Bill Thexton, quoted in John Gardam, Canadians in War and Peacekeeping, 10)

Born on 17 March 1908 in Toronto, Mortimer Patrick Bogert was an RMC graduate and Permanent Force officer since 1930. Still a lieutenant with the RCR shortly before the outbreak of the war, he rose quickly following mobilization and served as a general staff officer with the 1st Division. By late 1941 he was a lieutenant colonel attached as an observer with the British Army in Egypt and Libya. With this fighting experience from North Africa, he took command of the West Nova Scotia Regiment from July 1942 until January 1943, when temporarily assigned to staff of II Canadian Corps. By popular demand of his officers, he resumed command in June 1943.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. R.D. King

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel R.D. King
West Nova Scotia Regiment
KingRD

There is no doubt that Col. King’s devotion to duty, both in the necessary administrative work prior to the operation and in the performance of his duties during the operation, contributed very considerably to the success of our attack on Dieppe.

(D.S.O. citation, 14 Sept 1942)

Born in Halifax on 29 April 1897, Robert Douglas King was drafted under the Military Service Act in June 1918 but would be discharged at the end of the year before going overseas. He however remained in the militia and would be commissioned in the Princess Louise Fusiliers. In 1940 he was appointed deputy assistant quartermaster general. While attached to 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, he earned the Distinguished Service Order for his “contribution to the success” of the Dieppe Raid on 19 August 1942, an operation not generally known as a success.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. A.A. Ernst

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel A.A. Ernst
West Nova Scotia Regiment
Ernst

He has a pleasant rather earnest manner, common sense and a firm character. His appreciation of ground is good and he can give clear verbal orders. His tactical knowledge of his own rm is good and that of other arms is up to the average of his rank.

He expresses himself clearly and sensibly in discussions. Although 46 years old he is fit and wiry and is fit to command.

(Commandant, Senior Officers’ School, 1941)

Born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on 12 July 1895, Arnold Albert Ernst was an accountant and a First World War non-commissioned veteran. He served for a year with the RCR as a private until he was severely wounded at Vimy Ridge. A bullet had passed through both lungs and he coughed blood for several days. He ended the war as a sergeant and rejoined the militia ten years later as a commissioned officer. On mobilization in September 1939, he transferred from the Halifax Rifles to go overseas as Major in the West Nova Scotia Regiment.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. M.F. Gregg

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel Milton Gregg
West Nova Scotia Regiment
Gregg

He personally killed or wounded 11 of the enemy and took 25 prisoners, in addition to 12 machine guns captured in this trench. Remaining with his company in spite of wounds, he again on the 30th September led his men in attack until severely wounded. The outstanding valour of this officer saved many casualties and enabled the advance to continue.

(V.C. citation, 6 Jan 1919)

With a Victoria Cross and two Military Crosses for heroism in the First World War, Milton Fowler Gregg was one of Canada’s most decorated officers. Born in Kings County, New Brunswick on 10 April 1892, he had enlisted as a sergeant in November 1914 and rose to a lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Regiment. Three-times wounded, three-times decorated for gallantry, Gregg “annihilated” a German machine gun crew at Lens in summer 1917 and repulsed an enemy counter-attack at Arras in summer 1918, before his actions at Cambrai in late September 1918, which earned the VC, the highest award for bravery in the British Empire.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. G.W. Bullock

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel George Bullock
West Nova Scotia Regiment

Would [I] be able to meet the spiritual needs of the men whom then Lieutenant Colonel Bullock had personally recruited and led into this maelstrom? … It was only later, after I had been attached to the West Novas, that I realized the importance of some of the questions Captain Bullock raised during that brief visit. So much was left unsaid.

(L.F. Wilmot, Through the Hitler Line, 11)

Born in Gibraltar on 4 June 1884, Gerald Wetherall Bullock was an Anglican clergyman in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia and an army chaplain who had been twice wounded during the First World War. He went on to join the militia and was active in the Canadian Legion. When critics complained that military camps taught young men bad habits, Bullock defended militia service, arguing that swearing and drinking were more likely to be picked up in civilian society anyway. He became commanding officer of the West Nova Scotia Regiment in 1936 and led the battalion overseas after mobilization four years later.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. G-A. Turcot

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Turcot
Royal 22nd Regiment
Turcot

People think soldiers are war-mongers. We’re not. We’re peace-makers.

(Turcot in Calgary Herald, 21 Oct 1972, 25)

Born in Quebec City on 9 December 1917, Gilles-Antoine Turcot was a hockey player and student at Laval University. He joined Les Voltigeurs de Québec in 1935 and mobilized with the 22nd Regiment four years later as a lieutenant. He served as a company commander during the invasion of Sicily, where wounded and evacuated. By late 1943, he was back in Canada training troops and promoted to lieutenant-colonel.

Continue reading →

Brig. J.V. Allard

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Brigadier J.V. Allard
Royal 22nd Regiment
6th Infantry Brigade
Allard

Durant plus de 20 ans donc, Bernatchez et moi avions fait ce que nous avions pu. Je ne peux taire, cependant, que des centaines de nos compagnons de langue française, à tous les niveaux et dans toutes les situations, s’étaient aussi battus, en ordre dispersé. Plusieurs avaient abandonné; d’autres avaient choisi la voie périlleuse, à bien des égards, mais plus facile—surtout dans la marine et l’aviation—de l’anglicisation. La grande majorité des francophones qui avaient servi avaient pu constater que ces forces n’étaient pas les leurs.

(Allard, Mémoires, 407)

Born on 12 June 1913 in Sainte-Monique-de-Nicolet, Québec, Jean Victor Allard had been commissioned with the Régiment de Trois-Rivières since 1933. Following an exchange with the 4th London Yeomanry in 1941, he returned to Canada to be an instructor at the officer staff college in Kingston, Ontario. Insulted to passed over for promotion in the now anglicized Three Rivers Regiment, he transferred from the armoured corps to the infantry as second-in-command of the Régiment de la Chaudière.

Continue reading →

Brig. J.P.E. Bernatchez

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Brigadier Paul Bernatchez
Royal 22nd Regiment
3rd Infantry Brigade
Bernatchez

Lieutenant Colonel Bernatchez, a Captain in the Royal 22nd Regiment on the outbreak of war, proceeded overseas in command of a company. His energy and enthusiasm and exceptional military knowledge resulted in his command in October 1941. Those same attributes are responsible for the high degree of discipline and morale of all ranks of his regiment.

(O.B.E. citation, 1 Jan 1943)

Born in Montmagny, Quebec, on 1 March 1911, Joseph Paul Emile Bernatchez was a graduate of RMC and one of fewer than fifty francophones in the Permanent Force prior to mobilization in 1939. In October 1941, at the age of only thirty, he succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel P.E. Poirier. As his two predecessors had been First World War veterans, this appointment signaled a changing of the guard of the francophone regiment. His over two years in command from training in the United Kingdom to the battlefields of Sicily and Italy represented an unusually long tenure for a battalion commander.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. J.P.E. Poirier

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel J.P.E. Poirier
Royal 22nd Regiment
Poirier

The case of this officer is one which it is rather difficult to deal with. He has a very pleasant personality, is very popular and has a splendid war record. Furthermore, when really sober is professionally capable. On the other hand, he seems quite incapable of withstanding the temptations of drink for more than a few weeks at a time, almost invariably lapses when it is really important that he should keep sober, his appearance has all gone to pieces and he seems unable to pass his promotion examinations.

(Brig. J.M. Prowse to adjutant-general’s branch, 7 Jan 1935)

Born in Thetford Mines, Quebec on 1 May 1896, Joseph Philippe Emile Poirier enlisted in the 22nd Battalion as a private and earned two Military Medals for bravery. Commissioned in June 1918, he joined in the Royal 22nd Regiment as part of the Permanent Force in 1920. He became second-in-command on mobilization in September 1939. After Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Flynn fell seriously ill in England and returned to Quebec in January 1941, Poirier took command of the regiment.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. P. Flynn

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Flynn
Royal 22nd Regiment
Flynn

Tuesday was bad for the Royal 22nd regiment, for in the course of war games now in progress south of Camp Borden the regiment’s whole headquarters staff became theoretical casualties in consequence of tank attacks.

(Leader-Post, 31 Aug 1938, 9)

Born in Quebec City on 13 December 1889, Georges Arthur Emile Percy Flynn was a lawyer and son of former Quebec premier Edmund James Flynn (1847–1927). Having served in England and Siberia during the Great War, he was appointed commanding officer of the 22nd Regiment in July 1938. The next month he took part in a war exercise at Camp Borden, where he and his entire headquarters were ambushed and “put out of action.”

Continue reading →