# Pte. Bill Bloggins — Descendant Report (Tier 3)

**Unit:** The Calgary Highlanders, 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division
**Service window covered:** mid-September 1944 through early November 1944
**Source:** Calgary Highlanders War Diary, Sep 1944 – May 1945

A note before you read this: we don't know Bill's exact arrival date, his company, his platoon, or the precise day and place he was wounded. What follows is an account of what his battalion was doing and where it was during the weeks he most likely served. Where the diary is specific, we've tried to be specific. Where it isn't, we've said so.

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## 1. Narrative

When Bill joined the Calgary Highlanders in mid-September 1944, the battalion was on a stretch of front near Loon Plage, just west of Dunkirk. Dieppe had fallen on 1 September with almost no fighting, and the 2nd Canadian Division had paraded through it for General Crerar two days later, but Dunkirk was still held by a German garrison, and the Calgary Highlanders had been drawing patrols and fighting recces around farms named Fme Geersen and Fme Charlemagne. On 15 September, Major Wynn Lasher's "Baker" Company had been pinned down by machine guns trying to assist "Dog" Company near the Geersen farm; after the fight, one man's webbing was found on the bridge and the diary records that he was "assumed to have been taken prisoner."

The next day, 16 September, was what the diary calls "a banner day" for reinforcements: thirty other ranks plus Major Stott, Major Baker, and Lts. Maguire, Mageli, and Holmgren joined the battalion. If Bill was not in this draft he came in with one of the smaller parties over the next ten days. The senior officers in the 16 September group had been "Blighted" — sent back to England wounded earlier in the campaign and now returned — and the men crowded around them to ask about Basingstoke. Whatever draft Bill came in on, this was the atmosphere he stepped into: a battalion that had been fighting since Normandy, run by a CO (Lt.-Col. D.G. MacLauchlan) who knew his officers by their first names and ran his orders groups in whatever kitchen or study the battalion happened to be in.

On 17 September the Calgary Highlanders were pulled out of the Dunkirk perimeter and sent east. The convoy crossed into Belgium on 18 September on roads "the best that had been seen for a long time," and the battalion's diarist — clearly looking out the side of the carrier — noted the famous First World War names along the route: Ypres, St. Julien, Passchendaele, Poelcappelle. The diary entry for that day says that as they passed St. Julien "Calgarians began to experience a certain well-known lump in their throats," because the battalion's predecessor unit, the 10th Battalion, had made its stand there on 22 April 1915 and earned the regiment the right to wear the oak-leaf shoulder titles. The men were showered with fruit, bread, and "at times with liquers" along the way, and they reached their concentration area at Wommelghem, on the eastern outskirts of Antwerp, that evening.

The next operation was the crossing of the Albert Canal. On the night of 21/22 September, after the Royal Highlanders of Canada (the Black Watch) had failed in their attempt the previous night, "Charlie" Company crossed the damaged lock gates at MR 769968 in single file as a fighting patrol, established a small bridgehead, and the rest of the battalion followed across the wrecked locks. The diarist describes the operation as "a complete success" and "a gratifying experience to watch the plan of Lt.-Col. D.G. MacLauchlan unfold in all its brilliant timing and co-ordination." Sgt. G.R. Crockett of 15 Platoon, Charlie Company, was eventually recommended for the Victoria Cross for the action. By 23 September, Bn HQ was at Chateau Helleputte at MR 769969, prisoners were "practically pouring in," and the bridgehead had forced a German withdrawal across an 18,000-metre front. For a reinforcement, this was the kind of action that would have introduced him to how the battalion actually worked: the careful planning, the use of artillery ("Shelldrake") to soften positions, the interrogation of prisoners through Belgian White Brigade volunteers, and the casual sniping of Germans in trees by Major Ellis's and Major Baker's companies on 24 September.

The pace then quickened. Between 27 September and 1 October the Calgary Highlanders were committed to the Brigade thrust toward Brecht. The fighting around Brecht and St. Leonard, particularly Major Kearns's Able Company on the night of 30 September/1 October, was intense — Able Company was at one point with the enemy on three sides, and a German tank "milling about trying to pin-point Able Coy" had to be engaged with PIATs at point-blank range. The diary records Lt. Casey killed and Lt. Doug Craddock wounded in the knee that night. By 3 October the battalion was at Lochtenberg, where Major Ellis's Baker Company was billeted in bungalows around a small lake. On the night of 3/4 October the battalion seized Fort de Schooten — Major Kearns's Able Company crossing the moat in a punt that Capt. Mark Tennant and the I.O. had patched up with rags and wax when the recce boats promised by Brigade failed to arrive.

This is the run-up to the Scheldt. On 6 October the battalion crossed the Dutch border for the first time, and on 7 October — "Ross Ellis Day," as it became known in the battalion — the Calgary Highlanders fought into Hoogerheide, just south of the South Beveland isthmus, taking 62 prisoners. The next several days, 8 through 10 October, were among the worst the battalion had: at the Jansen Farm at MR 626185, Able Company was overrun by a counter-attack on the afternoon of 9 October, Major Kearns was wounded by shrapnel while sitting in a chair at Bn HQ, Major Bruce MacKenzie of Dog Company was wounded, and the diary records the CO "almost in tears" when Capt. Mark Tennant — the battalion's much-loved scout/recce officer — was hit and evacuated. Major Ellis took over as 2 i/c, and on 10 October he led Baker Company forward to retake the lost ground around junction 622195. The intersection at 624198 became known in the battalion as "Hell's Cross Roads of Hoogerheide" and the Calgary Highlanders accounted for a reported 580 of the 600 German casualties the brigade inflicted in that sector.

After a 24-hour rest on 11 October — bath parade, exchange parade for Dutch guilders organised by Capt. Rolly Higgins, a "Geen Bier" sign hung at the bar — the battalion moved to a holding role around Hinkelenoord on the south bank facing Woensdrecht. Through 14 to 22 October they patrolled, fired on enemy positions across the dykes, and watched Lt.-Col. Stott's S.S.R. (themselves former Calgary Highlanders) attack to the north. Lt.-Col. MacLauchlan's DSO was announced on 16 October. On 21 October a fire broke out in the upstairs of Wolfert's Farm at 599189, the battalion's tac HQ, and the building burned to the ground; Pte. Sapinsky, the CO's carrier driver, was badly burned trying to fight it.

On 23 October the battalion attacked again to seal off the Beveland isthmus, with Capt. Pearson hit early and Lt. Wilkins taking over Dog Company. Fighting continued through 24, 25, and 26 October at Wynn 1, 2, and 3 around grid 6122, with hand-to-hand fighting in the area of road and rail 612225. By 27 October the enemy had withdrawn and the battalion handed over to the 8th Canadian Reconnaissance Regiment. This was the moment, for the first time in weeks, when the Calgary Highlanders had a meal that was not interrupted, distributed 50 cigarettes per man, and the GOC told Brigadier McGill that "the Calgary Highlanders have done a damn fine job for the Division."

The hardest fighting was still to come. On 28 October the battalion moved across South Beveland, through Schore and Goes to Heer Arendskerke. On 29 October — and this is one of the saddest entries in the diary — Lt.-Col. MacLauchlan was suddenly seen "almost in tears, bidding farewell to the officers and men." He had been removed from command without warning. Major Ross Ellis took over the battalion. By 30 October the Calgary Highlanders were on the eastern shore of the Sloe Channel, looking at the Walcheren Causeway: a narrow, raised, exposed dyke road about 2,000 metres long, the only land approach to Walcheren Island. The Royal Regiment of Canada had reached the eastern end. The Black Watch had attempted to push across that night and been stopped halfway.

If Bill was wounded "in early November during the Scheldt fighting," it was almost certainly during the Calgary Highlanders' own attempt on the Causeway between midnight 31 October and the morning of 2 November. Baker Company under Capt. Clarke set foot on the Causeway at midnight on 1 November and was halted about midway by machine-gun and mortar fire; Capt. Clarke obtained permission to withdraw. Dog Company tried again at 0605, made it past the road block, and reached the western end at 0933. Able and Charlie Companies crossed in turn. Capt. Wynn Lasher of Able Company was wounded that afternoon; Brigade Major George Hees crossed to take command of Able Company in his place, with Capt. Newman, the artillery FOO, volunteering as 2 i/c. On the morning of 2 November the Régiment de Maisonneuve and then the Glasgow Highlanders relieved them. The battalion's officer casualties for the action were Lt. John Moffat killed and Capt. Lasher and Lts. Lefroy, Schoening, and Hoy wounded; the diarist says only that "fighting along the Causeway had been terrific for the last 40 hours and words are inadequate to express all the difficulties that had to be surmounted."

Bill is most likely to have been wounded somewhere on that Causeway, on 1 or 2 November, though the diary does not name him and does not record other-rank casualties individually. He would have been evacuated back across the Causeway, through the Regimental Aid Post, and along the chain to a field ambulance and on to England. The battalion withdrew to Lierre, in Belgium, on the night of 2/3 November for a rest. They were billeted in private homes; Major Ellis was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 5 November; an officers' mess dinner was held at the Hôtel Commerce on the 6th, and on the 9th they began moving north to Groesbeek-Nijmegen, where they would spend the winter as the reserve battalion in a quiet sector. By the time Bill's battalion reached Groesbeek, he was already in a hospital in England.

What his service looked like, in the most ordinary terms: about six to seven weeks at the front, almost all of it on the move; nights spent in barns, ditches, kindergartens (one Bn HQ on 24 September was set up in a private boarding school with the children still living in part of the building), schools, and slit trenches; rations supplemented by potatoes and chickens from Belgian and Dutch farmers; long marches with the company carrier somewhere ahead; the rum issue at last light; and a battalion that, despite the casualties, kept up its sense of itself — the diary keeps mentioning cribbage games, photographs taken by Major Stott, and the CO's habit of getting "the familiar blue envelope" from home and exclaiming "That's the one." Bill was in this for one of its hardest stretches.

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## 2. Proposed Events List

For each event: date, location as the diary records it, one-line description, why it matters for Bill's story, page reference as recorded in the diary's comments column.

| # | Date | Location (diary text) | Description | Why it matters for Bill | Page ref |
|---|------|------------------------|-------------|--------------------------|----------|
| 1 | 15 Sep 1944 | Fme Geersen area, vicinity Loon Plage; companies at MR 147834, 148837, 148842 | Night action by Dog, Baker, Charlie Companies; one man's webbing found on bridge, "assumed taken prisoner." | The kind of fighting going on the day or two before reinforcements arrived — this is what Bill walked into. | (none recorded) |
| 2 | 16 Sep 1944 | Bn area near Loon Plage, France | "Banner day" for reinforcements: 30 other ranks plus Major Stott, Major Baker, Lts. Maguire, Mageli, Holmgren joined the battalion. | The most likely day Bill joined the unit; if not this draft, one of the smaller drafts in the following two weeks. | 14, 2, 14 |
| 3 | 18 Sep 1944 | Convoy from France into Belgium via Ypres, St. Julien (H-622556652), Passchendaele (H-685650), Poelcappelle (H-643685); ended at Wommelghem MR 7694 Sheet 23–33 | The battalion crossed the WWI battlefields where its predecessor 10th Bn fought on 22 April 1915; civilians showered the convoy with fruit and bread. | A representative "movement day" — far more typical of his service than combat days. | 15, 15, 15, 15 |
| 4 | 21–22 Sep 1944 | Albert Canal crossing at damaged lock gates, MR 769968; Bn HQ at Chateau Helleputte MR 769969 | "Charlie" Company crossed silently as a fighting patrol; whole battalion followed; bridgehead held against German counter-attack at first light. | Sgt. G.R. Crockett (15 Pl, Charlie Coy) recommended for the VC; the battalion's first major successful set-piece in this campaign. | 15 |
| 5 | 27 Sep 1944 | American Chateau MR 861035, Belgium Sheet 24 & 34 | Battalion concentrated at a "hotel-like lodge" before the push to Brecht; CO described in diary as "tired, overworked, worried and on edge." | Captures the tempo of a battalion under strain between actions. | 4, 15, 15 |
| 6 | 29–30 Sep 1944 | Tac H 873098; advance toward Brecht/St. Leonard | Calgary Highlanders attacked through R.H.C. positions toward grid 856089; Lt. Casey killed, Lt. Craddock wounded. | First major casualty day in his window; gives the family a sense of how exposed even a successful attack was. | (30 Sep: 15, 2; 29 Sep: none) |
| 7 | 3–4 Oct 1944 | Fort de Schooten, MR 7603; Bn HQ at Lochtenberg MR 788051 | Night assault on Fort de Schooten; Capt. Tennant patched up an abandoned punt with rags and wax to cross the moat. | A vivid example of how the battalion improvised under pressure. | 10, 3 |
| 8 | 7 Oct 1944 | Jansen Farm MR 626185, Sheet 23 NE; Hoogerheide objectives | "Ross Ellis Day" — battalion fought into Hoogerheide, took 62 prisoners. | First of the battalion's actions on Dutch soil; major engagement Bill was very likely present for. | 10 |
| 9 | 8–9 Oct 1944 | Jansen Farm 626185; junction 624198 ("Hell's Cross Roads") | Heavy German counter-attacks on Able Company; Capt. Tennant wounded, Major Kearns wounded by shrapnel at Bn HQ, Major MacKenzie wounded. | One of the worst days in the battalion's history during this period. | 8 Oct: 2; 9 Oct: 10, 1, 2 |
| 10 | 10 Oct 1944 | Junction 622195 ("Ross"), 61851995 ("Ellis") | Major Ellis led Baker Coy to retake lost ground; Capt. Bob Porter wounded; Bn moved to De Geest MR 622178 for rest. | The end of the worst phase of Hoogerheide. | 10 |
| 11 | 14 Oct 1944 | Bn HQ at Van den Maegdenbergh's farm, 600180; Hinkelenoord, Sheet 23 NE | Battalion took over from R.R.C. in static positions facing Woensdrecht across dykes. Scout Bill Alexander believed killed on patrol that night near 597206. | A representative "static" period of patrolling and OPs — very different from the set-piece days. | 3 |
| 12 | 16 Oct 1944 | Wolfert's Farm 599189 | DSO award to Lt.-Col. MacLauchlan announced; Major Baker reported in 8th General Hospital with peritonitis. | A morale-changing day for the unit. | 10, 3, 3, 2 |
| 13 | 21 Oct 1944 | Wolfert's Farm 599189 → P. van Gijn's home, Ossendrecht, MR 628166 | Fire destroyed the upstairs of the Bn HQ farmhouse; Pte. Sapinsky badly burned; battalion moved into Ossendrecht for a (curtailed) 48-hour rest. | A non-combat event the diary records in detail. | 10, 1, 2 |
| 14 | 23 Oct 1944 | Wolfert's Farm 599189 (re-occupied); attack to seal isthmus, objectives north of railway including 569203, 569206, 601213, 598206 | Capt. Pearson wounded; Lt. Wilkins took over Dog Company; battalion fought into the start of the South Beveland isthmus. | Major action Bill was likely involved in. | 10, 2 |
| 15 | 24–26 Oct 1944 | Woensdrecht; Bn HQ at home of van Liere 611201; objectives "Wynn 1, 2, 3" near grid 6122 | Multi-day push to clear the high ground; 13 prisoners on 24 Oct alone; close-range fighting — diary entry of 26 Oct describes a section throwing grenades into a German pillbox at very close range. | The action that finally sealed off the isthmus. | 24 Oct: 10, 1, 6; 25 Oct: 1, 10; 26 Oct: 10 |
| 16 | 28 Oct 1944 | Move from Woensdrecht across the Scheldt to Kruiningen 4223, Sheet 15 SW | Battalion crossed onto South Beveland; vehicles ferried over canal bridge; Bn HQ in a church at #36 Niewstraat. | Movement day across the captured isthmus. | 1, 10 |
| 17 | 29 Oct 1944 | Schore 4024 → Heer Hendrikskinderen, house at 311296 | Lt.-Col. MacLauchlan removed from command "almost in tears"; Major Ross Ellis took over the battalion. | Major leadership change just before the Causeway action. | 10, 8 |
| 18 | 31 Oct – 1 Nov 1944 | Walcheren Causeway, MR 2030 (Composite Sheet 14 NW NE SW SE); Tac H 217298, Rear Tac H 223293 | Calgary Highlanders attacked across the Causeway; Baker Coy halted midway; Dog Coy crossed at 0605 on 1 Nov; Able and Charlie followed. | **Most likely date and place Bill was wounded.** | 10 |
| 19 | 1–2 Nov 1944 | Causeway and dyke 208303 | Capt. Lasher wounded; Lt. Moffat killed; Lts. Lefroy, Schoening, Hoy wounded; battalion held east end of Causeway until R. de Mais and Glasgow Highlanders relieved. | The 40-hour engagement during which Bill was almost certainly hit. | 1 Nov: 10, 1, 2; 2 Nov: 10, 5 |
| 20 | 3 Nov 1944 | Lierre, Belgium, Sheet 24 34, MR 786861 | Battalion arrived for rest at the Technical School; men billeted in private homes; first quiet night since mid-October. | The day Bill's battalion went out of the line — he was already gone by this point. | 1 |

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## 3. Documents and Passages of Interest

These are diary entries the family may want to read in full. Where a date has more than one passage of interest, we've separated them.

| # | Date | Page ref | Why it's worth reading |
|---|------|----------|--------------------------|
| 1 | 16 Sep 1944 | 14, 2, 14 | The "banner day" reinforcement entry. Names the officers who came in, captures the ribbing of Major Baker about the "Basingstoke rumour," and gives a sense of what a reinforcement day actually felt like. The most likely day Bill joined. |
| 2 | 18 Sep 1944 | 15 (×4) | The drive across the Belgian frontier and the WWI battlefields. Vivid, unusual content — the diarist clearly moved by passing St. Julien Wood, where the regiment's predecessor unit fought in April 1915. The entry also has incidental detail (the "raw recruits in the White Brigade drilling near a detour sign" who collapsed in confusion when their squad was halted) that gives a sense of the diarist's voice. |
| 3 | 21 Sep 1944 | 15 | The Albert Canal crossing — the operation that established the battalion's reputation in this campaign. Includes the line that captures MacLauchlan's manner: "with a prophetic note declared 'We have made it.'" |
| 4 | 7 Oct 1944 | 10 | "Ross Ellis Day" — the fight into Hoogerheide. The diarist's account of the C.O. "almost in tears" when Capt. Tennant was hit ("There goes a stout fellow! Worth three men to us!") is one of the most human moments in the diary. |
| 5 | 9 Oct 1944 | 10, 1, 2 | The Able Company crisis at Jansen Farm — the day the company was overrun and Lt. Munro fought to bring out survivors, with Major Kearns wounded by shrapnel at Battalion HQ. A long, dense entry that gives the truest picture of how confused front-line fighting actually was. |
| 6 | 16 Oct 1944 | 10, 3, 3, 2 | The DSO award to Lt.-Col. MacLauchlan. Includes the touching detail that "I" Section celebrated by opening cognac donated by Major Ellis. |
| 7 | 21 Oct 1944 | 10, 1, 2 | The fire at Wolfert's Farm. An unusual non-combat entry — the battalion's own tac HQ burned down while the CO held an open-air orders group, and the diary describes the men salvaging the farmer's furniture. |
| 8 | 27 Oct 1944 | 10, 10, 11 | Long entry on the day the Calgary Highlanders came out of the line at Woensdrecht. Includes the GOC's praise ("The Calgary Highlanders have done a damn fine job for the Division"), the rare quiet humour around the Coy Commanders' meeting, and the German note left on Dog Company's objective: "Dear Tommy. If you get this room, thought to that, that you after a short time, go to the heaven. With the best heartfully wishes. Yours Fritz." |
| 9 | 29 Oct 1944 | 10, 8 | Lt.-Col. MacLauchlan's removal from command — "almost in tears, bidding farewell to the officers and men" — and Major Ellis taking over. The pivot point of this whole period. |
| 10 | 1 Nov 1944 | 10, 1, 2 | The Walcheren Causeway action. The most likely day Bill was wounded. The entry includes the Royal Canadian Engineer bulldozer operator's remark that he could fill in the crater "Well, the Calgary Highlanders are out there to protect us." |

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## Notes on uncertainty

What we don't know, and chose not to invent:

- **Bill's company.** The diary names the rifle companies (Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog) and Support Company throughout, and almost every entry describes one company doing one thing and another doing another. With no information on Bill's company we can't say which fights he was in personally — only which fights his battalion was in.
- **His exact arrival date.** "Mid-September" is consistent with the 16 September draft, but smaller drafts came in over the following weeks; he could have been any of those.
- **Where on the Causeway he was hit.** The diary records officer casualties by name and gives total numbers, but does not list other-rank wounded individually. "Early November during the Scheldt fighting" is most consistent with 1 November, possibly 2 November, on the Causeway.
- **The wound itself.** Diary describes the engagement, not individual injuries. His evacuation to England aligns with the standard chain (RAP → field ambulance → casualty clearing station → general hospital → cross-Channel).

If his service file is available through Library and Archives Canada, it should resolve company, date of wounding, and nature of wound — the diary alone cannot.
