Second World War

Lt-Col. W.J. Moogk

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Lieutenant-Colonel W.J. Moogk
Royal Winnipeg Rifles

For a long time, people here considered us a rowdy crowd of over-paid, over-sexed soldiers … At one time we had higher figures in crime and venereal disease in the Canadian army than all the rest, with only one-third the number of people the others had.

(Quoted in North Bay Nugget, 16 Dec 1952, 5)

Born on 18 August 1910 in Waterloo, Ontario, Willis John Moogk graduated from RMC in 1934 and immediately took a commission with the Royal Canadian Regiment, explaining his motivation: “he had become used to eating three meals a day.” He served as adjutant when the RCR went overseas in December 1939 and was promoted to major six months later. Four of his children would be born in England while he was stationed there with his wife.

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Brig. T.G. Gibson

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Brigadier T. Graeme Gibson
Royal Winnipeg Rifles
9th, 3rd, 2nd & 7th Infantry Brigades

We in Canada inherited the regimental system and reaped its benefits in World War II and Korea … In our regiments from coast to coast, the system kept the militia alive for more than a century in peacetime and provided a warm human environment to the Canadian fighting man in the brutal adversities of war.

(T. Graeme Gibson, National Post, 5 May 1973, 36)

Born on 26 April 1908 in Toronto, Thomas Graeme Gibson joined the Queen’s Own Rifles in 1925 and became a Permanent Force officer with the Royal Canadian Regiment in 1931. He attended the war staff college at Camberley, England and first served as liaison staff officer with the 2nd Canadian Division in 1940. Following general staff duties with 2nd Infantry Brigade he was appointed commanding officer of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles in January 1942. He succeeded two First World War veterans twenty years’ his senior.

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Lt-Col. W.J. Bingham

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Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Bingham
Royal Winnipeg Rifles

[H]e was struck in the right upper frontal region by a fragment of shell … septic brain matter was exuding from the wound and X-Rays showed many fragments of bone in neighborhood of wood. On Oct 15th he was trephined and a perforated metal tube introduced. He has made an excellent recovery.

(Personnel file, medial board report, 13 Oct 1915)

Born on 7 September 1890 in Altemont, Manitoba, William John Bingham was a farmer and First World War veteran twice awarded the Military Cross. He enlisted with the 32nd Battalion out of Winnipeg in December 1914. He joined the 10th Battalion in France as a reinforcement officer following the Second Battle of Ypres. Within a month he had been promoted to captain but would be invalided with a serious head wound in October 1915.

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Lt-Col. J.K. Bell

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Lieutenant-Colonel John K. Bell
Royal Winnipeg Rifles

Symptoms at present time are similar to those which first appeared. They first appeared in the Winter of 1916-17 got progressively worse until the following summer … In 1910 he had another nervous breakdown after overwork.

(Neurological Report, 8 Mar 1919)

Born on 23 May 1886 in Aberdeen, Scotland, John Kidd Bell was a University of Glasgow educated solicitor in Winnipeg and First World War veteran. Having moved to Canada shortly before the war, he volunteered as a lieutenant with the 8th Battalion in September 1914. Gassed and captured at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he spent the next two and a half years in a German prison camp.

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Lt-Col. D.S.F. Bult-Francis

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Lieutenant-Colonel Denny Bult-Francis
8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Hussars)
BultFrancis

The Dieppe raid was not a failure, but will go down in history as one of the great battles of the present war, not compared to the African struggle but as a necessary part of the Allied victory.

(quoted in Montreal Gazette, 24 Nov 1942, 4)

Born in Highgate, England on 28 August 1910, Dennis Scott Fead Bult-Francis was a former member of the British Army and the Palestine Police Force. He moved to Montreal in 1939 and joined the Black Watch on the outbreak of war. Overseas in 1941, he transferred to the newly formed 8th Reconnaissance Regiment. He participated in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942 as a liaison officer to Major-General Ham Roberts.

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Lt-Col. J.F. Merner

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Lieutenant-Colonel Butch Merner
8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Hussars)
Merner

At this time of the year two things are inevitable, the after-festivities hangover and the CO’s more or less heartening message. Of the two my words are probably the more cheerful, as the hangover one can’t avoid, but this message need not be read. For those of you who have got this far it is obvious that you have nothing else to do so you might as well continue to the bitter end.

(Recce Zeitung, 1 Jan 1946, 2)

Born in Toronto in 1918, John Ford Merner was an original squadron commander in the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment and second-in-command during the Northwest Europe campaign. He served as acting commanding officer during absences of Lieutenant-Colonel B.M Alway and took over shortly before VE-Day. Before repatriation in late April 1945, Alway assured the unit his successor was “an experienced soldier who had been with the Regiment since its inception.”

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Lt-Col. B.M. Alway

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Lieutenant-Colonel Mowbray Alway
8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Hussars)
Alway

If I should not see you all again in a theatre of Operations, I ask that when you get back to “civvy street,” if you should at anytime see me, please let out a “yell” or make yourself known in some manner. If I recognise you I will do the same.

(Alway farewell address, war diary, 27 Apr 1945)

Born on 15 November 1910 in Hamilton, Ontario, Bruce Mowbray Alway was a graduate of the city’s Collegiate Institution and worked for a bank then a steel company. Although a member of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry since 1935, he transferred to the newly formed 8th Reconnaissance Regiment in the January 1941. Just over three years later, he succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel F.A. Vokes, who had been assigned to the 9th Armoured (British Columbia Dragoons) Regiment in the Italian theatre.

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Brig. C.C. Mann

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Brigadier Churchill Mann
8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Hussars)
7th Infantry Brigade
Mann

It was like watching a demonstration of tracer firing punctuated with the flash and crash of guns from both sides and although it was a thrilling and spectacular display, it filled us with foreboding as we all realized that the chance of our effecting surprise was greatly diminished.

(Mann, “Notes on Dieppe,” 1942)

Born on 6 September 1904 in Nutley, New Jersey and raised in Toronto, Clarence Churchill Mann was an RMC graduate, horseman and captain in the Royal Canadian Dragoons. He was attached to the headquarters staff of 1st Division and acted an instructor at the first Canadian staff college in England before being appointed commanding officer the newly formed 8th Reconnaissance Battalion in March 1941.

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Lt-Col. J.R. Hopkins

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Lieutenant-Colonel J.R. Hopkins
14th Canadian Hussars

It was when I was an observer and we were being attacked by a German aircraft. My piloted manoeuvred us into a position where I could use my rear gun. The German plane burst into flames and we saw a man fall out with his clothes all burning … I was very pleased it was him and not us.

(Times Colonist, 14 Feb 1976, 47)

Born on 26 October 1886 in London, England, John Richard Hopkins was a Saskatchewan lawyer and decorated veteran of the Royal Flying Corps. A law student in Swift Current before the First World War, he had enlisted with the Royal Canadian Dragoons in September 1914, took a commission with the 18th Royal Scots in 1915 and transferred to the air force in 1916. As an observer and pilot he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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Lt-Col. E.G. Johnson

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Lieutenant-Colonel E.G. Johnson
Toronto Scottish Regiment
JohnsonEG

Black Mac went by the manual. He firmly believed in spit and polish, square bashing, long route marches, unarmed combat, arduous training schemes—in short, in all the idiotic system of army life which strives to exclude every comfort and turn human beings into robots. So we polished our brass, blancoed our web, rose at ungodly hours for inspections by lantern-light, marched like the Duke of Marlborough’s unhappy sods, dug slit trenches and filled them up again, and slept many a night on the cold moors.

(Bert Whyte, Adventures of a Canadian Communist, 199)

Born in Toronto on 30 June 1909, Ernest George Johnson was manager of a photo engraving factory and a prewar member of the Toronto Scottish Regiment. He mobilized as a lieutenant, went overseas as a captain in December 1939, and succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel D.K. Tow as commanding officer in March 1943. The regiment deployed to France in July 1944 as machine gun and mortar support for the 2nd Division.

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