War Diary of 1st Battalion Canadian Scottish Regiment, Vol. 63, November 1, 1944 to November 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 Cadzand, Ghent, Tournai, and Goresbeek, Holland. It has entries about working with the Reginas to take care of the last pockets of Germans, recapturing men and returning them to the battalion, a medical officer from the Germans asking for a truce like other German garrison's have to tend to the wounded and dead and the Battalion refusing and demanding a full surrender of the German garrison, shortly later the German garrison completely and unconditionally surrendered and they took over 300 prisoners, this victory freed up the Scheldt Estuary for the passage of war materials through Antwerp, getting a movement order to Ghent for a break, being welcomed very warmly by a large crown of civilians in Ghent and enjoying Operation "Relax", the pipe band being popular with the civilians again and going to Paris to play, moving to another small village called Bottelaere untouched by the war and reorganizing and prepping to get back to the front, moving through villages celebrating Armistice Day on November 11 for the first time since 1939 as it was forbiddento refer to the meaning of the day under the German occupation, arriving at their new location, an ancient farm house in the middle of the woods and relieved the Americans who had been posted there, it being the fashion to wear silk scarves and the white ones from paratroopers being preferred but the camoflaged greens being "a la mode" as well, engaging with the enemy from a distance, consulting moon and tide tables to ensure patrols remain unseen and having problems with bright moons showing troop locations, the difficulty of living out of dugouts for weeks making everyone grubby using a mobile bath making sure the men had at least one bath in the last two weeks, a patrol getting lost and wandering into friendly fire, holding their position but taking heavy fire, and moving on to the village of Driehuizen being billeted in an old school building and getting cleaned up, among other activities and information. Includes appendices covering an intelligence log, battle log, maps, traces, defence plans, operation "Relax", recommendatiosn for honours and awards, sitreps, casualties, orders, a photograph of "Our Pipe Band" and a document describing their recent activities, "Our Padre" Capt. R.L. Seaborn document by Sgt. L. G. Woodcock describing the good work the Padre did for the Battalion and how they will miss him while he's gone, a Christmas card from the Canadian Military Staff in Paris, a photograph of "Our Pipe Band" marching through Paris, a report on the pipe band playing in Paris in front of Winston Churchill and General DeGaulle, a report by the pipe band about their time in Paris from November 9-16, 1944, patrols and reports, the West Wall Climber, Maple Leaf, correspondence and Investiture, Ghent.
- In Collection:
- Vol. 63
- 127 pages
- 51.36833, 3.40833
- 51.05, 3.71667
- 50.96411, 3.75487
- 51.77667, 5.93611
- 52.57833, 4.80694
- Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) Collection
- Transferred to UVic Special Collections from BC Archives, March 2006.
- Series 11. 5.6
- February 26, 2019 to March 4, 2019
- Scanned on Plustek Opticbook at 600 dpi TIFF.
- DOI
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