102nd (Wentworth) Field Battery, Royal Canadian
Artillery
Throughout the late war, the 102nd Battery
saw many different kinds of service—from garrison duty to route restriction,
from field support to anti-aircraft defence, from patrols to regular infantry
service; in fact, its motto might well have been Omnia as well as Ubique.
Although many of the duties may have seemed unglamorous and far-removed
from artillery work, they were necessary and were carried out with the
same keen spirit and dash which has always characterized the Battery in
its normal employment in a "gunner" role.
By 1940 two batteries had been recruited
in Dundas; the first later became the 41st Battery, while the second, the
one with which this account is concerned, became the 102nd Battery of the
16th Field Regiment, R.C.A. In 1941 the Battery found itself converted
to a light anti-aircraft battery of the 8th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment,
R.C.A., successor to the 16th Field Regiment, R.C.A., and com-manded by
Lieutenant-Colonel B. W. Cormack. Progressing in training from "Macdonald
Models"—ingenious wooden guns devised by the Battery O.C., Major J. A.
Macdonald, in the days when arms supplies were scarce—to real Bofors anti-aircraft
guns, the Battery spent several months in Newfoundland providing anti-aircraft
defence for St. John’s Harbour.
In the summer of 1942 the Battery sailed
overseas with the 4th Canadian Arinoured Division, of which the 8th Light
Anti-Aircraft Regiment was a component. Training was intensified in England:
operational duties were also allotted. For example, the Regiment was
committed to the defence of Colchester, and each battery commander had
charge of either a sector or the mobile reserve. Following a brief initiation
to bombing—which gave an air of realism to training—the Battery was sent
to practice camps at Stiffkey and Dunley Hill, and to Clacton-on-Sea ("Cark"
Camp), where the Regiment was chosen to produce a demonstration troop.
In the early months of 1943 some variety turned
up for 102nd Battery in the form of operational duties again—this time
anti-aircraft defence at Bordon, and also at two Royal Air Force fields
in Kent. During the remainder of 1943 and beginning of 1944, more training
schemes followed, such as Exercise "Grizzly," an exercise which created
more problems than did any real operation met later on in action. Returning
to "Cark" Camp, the Regiment set up several records in anti-aircraft shooting
for Great Britain. Opera-tional diversions for the Battery included the
defence of elements of the 4th Division while being inspected by the Right
Honourable W. L. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada at that time,
and of the 4th Canadian Armoured Brigade while being inspected by General
Eisenhower.
Between 0 Day and the end of July, the Regiment formed part of a belt
of guns set up in Sussex to intercept Vi bombs, which were becoming quite
troublesome. In fact, the Regiment was the only Canadian regiment to be
credited with Vi kills by its own guns.
Finally, at the end of July, after several
years of training and wait-ing, the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, including
the 8th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, and hence the 102nd Battery, crossed
the Channel to replace the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division of the 2nd Canadian
Corps. Throughout Operation "Totalize," planned by the Corps to smash German
resistance around Falaise, the Regiment provided both anti-aircraft and
close ground support for the 4th Division. Around Caen the Regiment met
perhaps the heaviest fighting it was ever to face as the enemy fought back
with skill and spirit. At Hautmesnil the Regiment helped to discourage
the Luft-waffe, which was trying to destroy Canadian communications while
the 4th Division was preparing to attack Trun. Later, as the "Gap" was
being closed at Falaise, the Regiment’s 20-mm. guns proved useful in inducing
the surrender of many enemy troops.
Towards the end of August, after the
enemy had begun his retreat from Falais~, the 4th Division moved off on
the right flank of a II Corps drive towards the River Seine. The pursuit
continued rapidly past the Seine and the Somme and into Belgium until resistance
began to stiffen again. Eventually the drive was stopped— momentarily at
least—at the Ghent Canal, where the enemy began to substitute well-trained
field troops for the garrison ones encoun tered earlier during the pursuit.
It became obvious that the infantry
units of the 4th Division were faced with more resistance than one brigade
could handle effectively. Accordingly, the 8th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
was split up, and the gunners picked up their rifles to relieve the Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada at the bridgehead across the Ghent
Canal.
While the 2nd British Army was attempting
to reach Arnhem and Nijmegen, the 4th Canadian Armoured Division was ordered
to clean out the region between Ghent and the sea. For the first time since
Falaise, the enemy was able to use his heavy artillery, so that Opposition
continued strong. Since the need for infantry reinforce-ments remained
pressing and was becoming critical, the Regiment, along with the 18th Canadian
Armoured Car Regiment, was detailed to contain over a division of high-class
German troops across the Leopold Canal. This holding action permitted the
armour and regular infantry of the division to prod the enemy to the east.
One of the Battery’s tasks was to relieve the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
at Bruges; another was to defend the bridge at Balgerhoek. It also carried
out fighting patrols with the Lake Superior Regiment around the canal.
The Regiment continued fighting as infantry
for a month or so, until the flank of the 1st Canadian Army was secured
sufficiently well to permit the support of the 4th Division by the 3rd
Canadian Infantiy Division. At that time the Regiment was returned to anti-aircraft
work (except for occasional infantry duties) to Support units which were
to clear the western approaches to Antwerp with Operation "Switchback."
And so on from the Leopold Canal-Bergen-op-Zoom-
Enschot, s’Hertogenbosch, Haaren, and the Maas, where the Regiment formed
part of an elaborate build-up in numbers to defend the Maas against an
expected German attack. When this attack did not materialize, the Regiment
was used for route restriction to control the tremendous troop movements
taking place during the build-up for the attack on the Rhine, as well as
for its normal anti-aircraft duties. Then, in order to allow other units
of the 4th Division to prepare for their new parts in these February operations,
the Regi-ment was directed to assume its other personality and the Battery
relieved a company of the Lake Superior Regiment along the south bank of
the Maas—on the left flank of the Allied armies in Western Europe. Relieved
in this position by the 1st Polish Armoured Division, the Regiment moved
into Germany to take part in Opera-tion "Blockbuster," which was designed
to destroy the enemy stand west of the Rhine.
Despite strong Opposition, bad weather,
and difficult country, the 4th Canadian Division drove down from Cleve
to the Hochwald Forest before being withdrawn for a rest and refitting.
During this period, plans were made for the support of the 3rd Canadian
Infantry Division in its crossing of the Rhine. A heterogeneous but formid-able
"pepperpot," consisting of fire from all available tanks, machine guns,
heavy mortars, anti-tank guns, and Bofors guns from the 8th Light Anti-Aircraft
Regiment, was used to assist in the crossing. The intensity of the fire
may be imagined from the fact that the Regiment wore out forty-three barrels
in four days.
As the 4th Division advanced in early
April past the Rhine along the German-Dutch frontier, opposition remained
determined and the terrain became less and less suited for armoured warfare.
Along the way the Regiment was called upon to provide guards and control
for liberated prisoners of war, as well as the more orthodox artillery
support. However, although the German armies were collapsing elsewhere
in Europe, they took advantage of the wet and boggy country to make a spirited
defence in the area south-west of Olden-burg. Eventually, near the Kusten
Canal, the Regiment was ordered to serve as infantry again in order to
hold off the enemy on either side of the advance. Here the Battery fought
several actions with troops of a battalion of Royal Marines.
Then, after a series of patrols and
the taking of more prisoners near Oldeñburg and Bad Zwischenahn,
word came on the evening of May 4th, 1945, that the surrender of the enemy
in North Germany, North Holland, and Denmark had been arranged, and that
the cease fire order would come at 0800 hours on the following day. On
the evening of 5th May the Canadian Army’s Corps Commanders, Lieutenant-General
Foulkes and Lieutenant-General Simonds, accepted the surrender of the enemy
commanders on their respective fronts on behalf of General Crerar, the
Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Canadian Army.
After carrying out various odd jobs,
such as the rounding-up and disarming of prisoners and the collection of
stores, the Regiment was dispatched to Canada and home—this time under
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. Hegan, with the Battery commanded
by Major R. A. McAlpine. And, at last, on a cold wintry day, 16th January,
1945, the 102nd (Wentworth) Battery returned to Dundas. After demobilization
the Battery was raised again as a reserve unit; and, to complete its cycle
of conversions, converted to a field battery once more.
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