Canadian Scottish Regiment R.C.I.C

Details of the regiment were placed on active service on September 1, 1939 for local protective duty, and on May 24, 1940 it was mobilized as the 1st Battalion, The Canadian Scottish Regiment CASF. Both NPAM battalions of the regiment were well represented in the formation of this unit, although more than half of its first 750 members were recruits. Training began at Macaulay Point Barracks on Vancouver Island and continued at Debert, Nova Scotia. In June 1940.

On August 25, 1941, after training in Debert, the 1st Battalion boarded ship for England, docking at Glasgow at the beginning of September. HRH Princess Mary inspected it on September 23, 1941. Friendships were struck up with The Royal Scots, who adopted and kept Wallace in Edinburgh Castle for the duration of the war. Two years and nine months of training in southern England would ensue before it would be able to take part in the liberation of North West Europe.

The Canadian Scottish boarded assault ships in June 3, 1944. One company landed in Normandy on June 6th (D-Day) as a component of the 7th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. The main body, under Lieutenant-Colonel F.N. Cabledu, followed in 7th Brigade reserve and passed through the other two battalions. With the Scottish in the lead, the assaulting brigade advance a total of six miles farther inland than any other assaulting brigade of the British Second Army. Its first twelve hours of action had cost the battalion 87 casualties against an estimated 200 inflicted on the enemy.

One of the battalion’s last actions of war was the clearing of the Dutch village of Wagenborgen. It first attacked on April 21, 1945 with only one company, but that proved insufficient. Two days later it successfully attacked with three companies and beat off repeat counter-attacks. Canadian Scottish casualties at Wagenborgen were 23 killed and 41 wounded. Estimated enemy casualties, as on D-Day, were 200. In 1958 the regiment received 17 Second World War battle honours, but Wagenborgen was not among them. Thirty years later, a former commanding officer succeeded in having the error rectified.