| Rank | Corporal |
| Service # | A27161 |
| Unit # | R.C.A.M.C. |
| Resident | Ridgetown, ON |
Born 20 May, 1909 at Beechwood, (near Ridgetown, ON.) Next of kin reported as Mrs. A. Johnson of Ridgetown.
He signed up for service two weeks after war was declared, on September 16, 1939 in Guelph. According to his sister, Ruth Johnson Elgie, the motivation was at least partly to escape his grocery store job in Guelph with its long hours and low pay: “It wasn’t that he was so darn patriotic.”
Actually, Walter had left his $15 a week Sales Clerk job at Clayton Hogg’s Grocery in Guelph in 1932, and had been selling cars at the Reid Motors Dodge and DeSoto dealer in Guelph for seven years. In a 1942 assessment interview, he told his Field Captain he’d been making $40 a week as a car salesman. But as Ruth said, his motivation in enlisting wasn’t hugely partisan or jingoistic. He was just “following the crowd” , the Field Captain recorded.
On September 16, 1939 Walter joined the 11th Field Ambulance Unit, Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, and was sent for training in London Ontario. His rate of pay as a Private was $1.30 a day
Perhaps ironically, Walter ended up being a store keeper in the army. On November 21, 1939, two months after he joined, he was appointed Temporary Corporal in charge of Canteen in London. He got a similar appointment as Acting Corporal in charge of Canteens when he was transferred to Camp Borden in June 1940. He kept that rank until he was sent to Aldershot, England in September,1940 , where he “reverted to Pte. on ceasing to be employed as N.C.O., Clerk Unit Canteen.” Perhaps the “Severely reprimanded” noted (but never explained) on 22 August 1940 had something to do with this? Walter’s rank went back to Private for the rest of the war. He did win a Good Conduct Badge in October 1941, and again in September 1944 however.
As soon as he arrived in England, in August 1940, he was assigned to Quartermaster Stores. His job was to keep bandages, medical and other provisions in stock. He generally worked at the rear of the battlefields, away from direct fire. Sometimes he had to take emergency supplies up to the front and at least once, just missed being blown up. The corner of the hut the stores keepers were hiding in was hit, but nobody was seriously hurt.
Walter’s military service records provide little information about his movements during the war. His exit interview notes he spent 61 of his 74 months in service “in U.K. and N.W.E.” But, from his photo album and from published histories of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, Walter’s war time story can be pieced together.
Although Canadian troops had expected to join the British Expeditionary Force in France, Germany’s military success in Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium and Holland forced the Canadians to instead assume a purely defensive role in England. Initially, they were kept in reserve as a mobile counter attack force. But in the autumn of 1941 the Canadian Corps was made responsible for the direct defence of most of the Sussex coast. For the medical corps, there was extensive training in map reading, small arms, battlefield first aid, removal of casualties from tanks and transporting them down cliffs on stretchers, supplemented by formation-level training in the form of large simulated attack exercises.
In late May 1942, No. 11 Field Ambulance was sent to the Isle of Wight to begin intensive training for the attack on Dieppe which took place on 19 August 1942. Walt was fortunate to survive Dieppe: over 60% of the 6000 men involved in that raid were killed, wounded or captured.
His sister Ruth remembers the night of August 18, 1942 vividly. “Back then I wasn’t overly religious. But I got to thinking about Walt, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, ‘Watch over him God, watch over him.’ About a week later, a telegram arrived, with the cryptic message “OK LETTER FOLLOW –WALT” . It was several days more until a newspaper report of the Dieppe invasion appeared. Putting two and two together, we figured out that Walt had been in that deadly raid – and survived. I guess that’s why I have prayed ever since.”
After Dieppe, the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps units returned to England for extensive training as the elaborate preparations for an invasion of Europe began.
The army often requisitioned homes for offices and other facilities, and one day in 1943, Walter learned he was to report to Goodwood House, a country estate near East Lavant in West Sussex. He asked a pretty young woman on a bicycle for directions. She offered to show Walter and his colleague the way, and before their paths diverged, Walter had asked Marjorie Rose Crossland for a date.
The plan for the upcoming invasion of Europe was to evacuate all wounded to various English hospitals. Beginning with a series of lectures on gas precautions, aircraft recognition, and combined operations, the ambulance units progressed during the winter months to practical training in assault landings with the infantry battalions with which they were to operate. By May 1944 each unit was carefully schooled in its role and was packing equipment for the upcoming invasion.
14,000 Canadians landed in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. The assault sections of Nos. 14, 22 and 23 Canadian Field Ambulances were the only Canadian units taking part in the initial landings. Evacuations of casualties in the Normandy operations went on for weeks. By June 30, some 19,748 of the 21,016 British-Canadian casualties had been evacuated to UK hospitals.
Since their first meeting on the bicycle path, Walter and Marjorie had spent much time together. Upon learning that his unit, the 11th Field Ambulance, was about to be shipped to France, Walter asked leave to marry her. He was granted permission on June 27; they married the following day. “With no time to buy a new dress (I probably had no clothing coupons anyhow) I wore a suit which had been worn a few times before,” Marjorie told a Remembrance Day service in 2007. “No time to buy a wedding ring and so I was married with Walter’s signet ring, which did a good job for we were together for 41 great years.”
Five days later, July 3 1944, Walter shipped out of England. He disembarked at France on 6 July 1944.
Savage fighting, more casualties and more evacuations continued throughout the summer. On July 25, for example, the advanced dressing station of No. 11 Field Ambulance Unit cleared 250 casualties in 24 hours; No. 10 unit handled over 400 in the same time period. As the pace of the fleeing German armies quickened, medical services faced huge challenges keeping up, especially as the front became over 200 miles long, stretching from Dieppe to the Dutch border. “Great praise is due the ambulance car companies, confronted as they were by almost insurmountable obstacles,” wrote W. R. Feasby in the Official History of the Canadian Medical Services, 1939-1945. “They continued, both by day and by night, to maintain a constant service from forward units to base hospital.”
After the liberation of Paris, on August 25 1944, the First Canadian Army was assigned the task of clearing the coastal areas of France and Belgium and opening the channel ports for vital supplies. No. 11 Field Ambulance Unit was engaged in October 1944 in the Battle of the Scheldt, fought to provide naval access to the port of Antwerp by freeing the estuary and lands at the mouth of the Scheldt River from German control. During four weeks of very difficult, high casualty fighting, often on open, flooded lands, No. 11 Field Ambulance Unit operated advanced dressing stations and casualty collecting posts. By November 8, German resistance had ended. After clearing the channel of mines, the first Allied convoy entered the port of Antwerp on November 28, 1944.
For the next three months, the Canadians were given the responsibility of defending the Nijmegen Salient, the large area in the eastern Netherlands just won back from the Germans. At the same time, it was decided to stabilize the location of the larger, 1200-bed Canadian army hospitals in the Belgian cities of Turnhout and Ghent. It is perhaps during this time that Walter became friends with the Luyckx family in Belgium, some “very kind” people who saved the one egg they managed to get in their rations as a special present for him, his sister Ruth Johnson Elgie recalled.
Walter kept in touch with the Luyckx farmily after the War
In February 1945, the Allies launched the great offensive which was designed to drive the Germans back over the Rhine and bring about their final defeat. No. 11 Field Ambulance Unit was involved in this very difficult struggle through mud and flooded ground with water up to three feet deep. As the Allies made foot-by-foot progress through the Hochwald Forest, No. 11 removed up to 500 casualties per day to the Nijmegen medical area. Finally on March 10, the enemy retreated to the east bank of the Rhine
Twelve days later Walter sustained his only wartime injury. The batman (valet) for the Captain of the 11 Canadian Field Ambulance Unit was cleaning his officer’s Browning 9 mm pistol, when it accidentally discharged and pierced Walter’s thigh. No permanent damage was done. Walter got nine days off in the Casualty Clearing Station; the batman got docked 15 days’ pay.
The next battlefield initiatives were to clear German forces from the occupied Netherlands. The assault on Arnhem, in the western Netherlands, began on April 12, and after much house-to-house fighting the town was cleared two days later.
Fighting spread. By April 28, the Germans had been driven back to a line known as the Grebbe Line. A truce was arranged, fighting ceased in western Holland, and several days later food supplies began to move through for the grateful, starving people
Simultaneous with the liberation of the Netherlands, other Canadian troops were invading Germany. In rapid succession, No. 11 Canadian Field Ambulance opened advanced dressing stations in Cloppenburg, Falkenburg and Oldenburg, all towns in the agricultural regions of northern Germany.
The formal German surrender was signed on May 7, 1945. For the next week, fighting formations rounded up the defeated enemy. Medical personnel continued to treat their own troops as well as liberated prisoners of war, supervised captured German hospitals, and inventoried their medical stores and equipment.
The march back of the defeated German army began at the end of May, with 5000-10,000 fit soldiers and about 150 casualties arriving every day. Direction and coordination of the movement of injured, to either short-term care on the mainland or long-term convalescence in hospitals in the Frisian Islands, was by Canadian medical officers stationed at staging points along the various routes. It was completed by the end of June. By July 12, Canadian medical units had moved to the Utrecht area of Holland.
During August, No. 11 Canadian Field Ambulance was disbanded, its personnel being posted to vacancies in other medical establishments and on 18 September the movement of the Division to Canada commenced. Walt returned home to Beechwood at the end of September. His formal discharge “To return to civil life (On Demobilization) R.O. 1029 (5(ci)” took place on 3rd November, 1945 in London, Ontario.
Walter was awarded the War Medal 1939-45, given to all full-time armed forces personnel who served for at least 28 days between September 3, 1939 and September 2, 1945, the France and Germany Star awarded for one day or more of service in France, Belgium, Holland or Germany between June 6, 1944 (D-Day) and May 8, 1945 and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, granted to persons who voluntarily and honourably completed 540 days (18 months) Active Service between September 3, 1939 and March 1, 1947, and the Canadian Volunteer Service Clasp (silver bar) signifying 60 days service outside Canada.
Sources:
Elgie, Ruth Johnson. 2009. Growing Up in Howard Township, Kent County, Ontario. Waterloo: The Fountain Street Press.
Elgie, Ruth Johnson. Conversation with Kae Elgie, 18 October 2013.
Russell, Harold Feasby, W.R. (Ed.). 1956. Official History of the Canadian Medical Services 1939-1945. Volume One: Organizations and Campaigns. Ottawa: Department of National Defence. On-line. Available from the Internet: http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/docs/CMS_vol1_e.pdf
Johnson, Marjorie (Crossland). Photo Album.
Johnson, Walter. Military service records obtained from Library and Archives Canada.
Russell, Harold. 1999. “24th Canadian Field Ambulance. Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps.” Canadian Military History. Vol. 8, No.1, Winter, p. 66-67. On-line. Available from the Internet: http://www.wlu.ca/lcmsds/cmh/back%20issues/CMH/volume%208/Issue%201/Russell%20-%2024th%20Canadian%20Field%20Ambulance%20-%20Royal%20Canadian%20Army%20Medical%20Corps.pdf
Veterans Affairs Canada. 2000. Canada and the Second World War. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services. On-line. Available from the Internet: http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/Canada2
Reported returning to Canada from overseas duty aboard the troopship “Pasteur” expect to dock at Quebec City on the 22nd of September 1945. CDN 20/09/45. Reported returned from overseas duty CDN 23/09/45.
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