War Diary of 1st Battalion Canadian Scottish Regiment, Vol. 61, September 1, 1944 to September 30, 1944

The war diaries are official records kept by the Battalions during a one month period. They contain the daily orders, correspondence, newsletters, and an intelligence log detailing troop activities, locations, and weather conditions. The war diaries detail the activities and movement of the 1st Battalion from training in Canada and England to active duty on the Western Front and their return to Victoria in January 1946. This diary was kept while at Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. It has entries about moving troops through the countryside by any and every means possible, encountering many welcoming civilians as they move through the countryside, moving at night often, their goal being to contain and capture the enemy strong point in Calais, noting that the enemy has had 4 years to build and improve their defence systems around Calais including a ring of forts around the city, minefields, wire, anti-tank obstacles, flooded land with the ability to flood more, being informed that the Canadian Army may be used after the "peace" as an Army of Occupation, using patrols, air recon, civilian reports, and prisoner of war interrogations to ascertain enemy locations, the Legion showing films in a farm house and the "Heil Hitlers" written on the walls not getting in the way of the pictures, several Germans surrendering themselves to the battalion in the mornings or at night, taking over underground German billets that are excellent but that they always have the same "characteristic" odour, watching a "softening up program" of approximately 1000 R.A.F. bombers and crossing their fingers that they wouldn't get hit by friendly fire again, getting "kangaroos" which are remodeled S.P. Chassis that have room for around 15 men and have armour against shrapnel and small arms fire, noting that waiting for battle was harder than being in battle, being shelled by a submarine from the Strait of Dover, advancing on Calais behind a smoke screen and after engaging with them all day the enemy garrison surrendered, pushing forward into Calais and getting across the water obstacles by swimming, wading, using canvas boards and travelling "Tarzan-like" across on ropes, parts of the battalion getting pinned down by enemy fire, reaching a truce with the enemy and having a meeting with them where the Germans asked for a cessation of hostilities but would not surrender and then asked for the civilians to be evacuated from the city, "D" coy being separated without food and water for a bit, and eventually taking the city and finding that the German in command wouldn't talk terms until he had his dinner and then insisting on surrendering to an Officer in command, among other activities and information. Includes appendices covering casualties, intelligence log, battle log, situation reports, Prisoner of War interrogations, civilian reports, aerial photos, maps, operations "Well Hit" and "Undergo", Tommy Cooker and West Wall Climber, personal accounts of battle, and the Maple Leaf.

In Collection:

• Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) Collection

Creator

• Canada. Canadian Army. Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's)

Subject

• Canada. Canadian Army. Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's)
• War diaries
• World War (1939-1945)
• Canada. Canadian Army

Language

• eng

Identifier

• Vol. 61

Date created

• September 1, 1944 to September 30, 1944

Resource type

• Text

Rights statement

• No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only

Extent

• 115 pages

Geographic coverage

• France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
• France--Calais

Coordinates

• 50.95194, 1.85635
• 50.72571, 1.61392

Physical repository

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Collection

• Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) Collection

Provenance

• Transferred to UVic Special Collections from BC Archives, March 2006.

Provider

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Genre

• journals (accounts)

Archival item identifier

• Series 11. 4.29

Fonds title

• Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) fonds

Fonds identifier

• SC021

Is referenced by

• Finding aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/canadian-scottish-regiment-princess-marys-fonds

Date digitized

• February 26, 2019 to March 4, 2019

Technical note

• Scanned on Plustek Opticbook at 600 dpi TIFF.

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.58066/cer9-mz71

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