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The campaign in North
Africa began in June 1940, when Italy declared war on both France
and the United Kingdom. Fighting soon broke out between British
forces in Egypt and Italian forces in neighbouring Libya. French
forces in Tunisia ceased to be a threat to Italy after the fall of
France the same month. Italian forces were reinforced by German
troops in early 1941 in the form of the Afrika Korps. In less
than six months, the combined German-Italian force was given the
status of an army, and later an army group, of which the Afrika
Korps formed only a small part. The campaign saw various changes
in fortune, and the high-water mark of German success came in July
1942 at the first battle of El Alamein. After the second battle of
El Alamein in late October and early November, the British 8th Army
steadily pushed German forces westward out of Egypt, back through
Libya, and into Tunisia.1
North African theatre of war
from 1940 to 1943. Fighting in the Western Desert see-sawed back and
forth until the tide was permanently
turned at El Alamein in the summer and autumn of 1942.
At the end of
November 1942, British and American forces landed in northwest
Africa. With forces ashore in Morocco and Algeria, German and
Italian troops were penned into Tunisia. Following these landings, a
number of Canadian officers and non-commissioned officers were
offered three-month tours of duty attached to the newly arrived
forces in Algeria which was designated the 1st British Army. The
objective of these postings was to allow a number of small unit
leaders the opportunity of seeing combat and taking that battle
experience back to the Canadian Army in the U.K. before it was
employed in action en masse.2
Invasion of North Africa in 1942,
and major Allied formations which fought later in Tunisia shown as
well.
The British War
Office arranged for 78 officers and 63 other ranks to travel to
Algiers, arriving on 3 January 1943. Four other parties were
dispatched subsequently, and 201 officers and 147 other ranks were
eventually employed in North Africa. The men came from “practically
every type of unit – armored regiments, infantry, artillery, supply
and communications services and some medical officers.”3
The Official History of the Canadian
Army in the Second World War notes:
These
attachments took the form of employing the Canadians, as far as
possible, in the jobs they were best qualified to fill; they
went to appropriate units in the same way as British
reinforcements. Thus, an armoured corps officer might find
himself in charge of a squadron of tanks; an infantry captain
commanded a rifle company; a sapper N.C.O. cleared mines and a
staff officer did the work of an appropriate staff appointment.
That the service was very active is
indicated by the fact that 25 of the
Canadians became casualties, eight losing their lives.
The value of
this experiment is beyond question. Nothing can take the place
of battle in the final moulding of the efficient soldier. A
Canadian infantry officer wrote from North Africa, where he was
attached to a battalion of the Buffs, "Our training in England
since the introduction of battle drill has been pretty good but
no scheme can approach the physical and mental discomfort of
actual battle. If I am able to get across some ideas on my
return it should make the initial impact of actual battle less
severe on our troops."4
The first contingent
included artillery officers (Captain N.B. Buchanan, Captain F.D.
Brooks, Captain D.A. May, Captain J.D. Muir) and an artillery
sergeant-major, E.A. Ayres. Armoured corps officers included Major
F.W. White, Major Don Worthington, Captain G.F. Levenston, Captain
Edward G. Styffe, Captain R.J. Graham (shown below), Captain P.R.R.
Williamson, Captain H.A. Smith, and Lieutenant Laird Boviard,
previously an aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General McNaughton. Captain
Buchanan earned a Military Cross during his service with the 1st
Army, and added a bar to it after returning to the Canadian Army and
fighting in Italy.5
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Canadian
war correspondent Ross Munro, photographed in Sicily in
1943. |
Among the Canadians
in North Africa was correspondent Ross Munro. The program was
considered a success, and the majority of major Canadian infantry
and armoured units in the U.K. sent at least one man to take part.
These men returned to their units in the U.K. and contributed to
their training before employment in the Mediterranean and Northwest
Europe.
Canadian
senior officers also were able to improve their knowledge as a
result of the Tunisian campaign. General Crerar flew out to
Tripoli in February 1943 with a group of British generals and
attended a very instructive study period conducted by General
Montgomery at the headquarters of the victorious Eighth Army. In
April Brigadier G. G.
Simonds visited the same Army and watched the Wadi Akarit
battle.
On returning to
England he was appointed to command the 2nd Division in
succession to General Roberts (who now took over the Canadian
Reinforcement Units), only to be transferred almost immediately
to the 1st following the death of General Salmon. A few weeks
later his division was fighting as part of the Eighth Army in
Sicily.6
 Sergeant
Emile Jean “Blackie” Laloge of The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada
went to the 1st Battalion, Loyal Lancashire Regiment. He arrived in
North Africa as an observer in April, but in fewer than two weeks
was put into action leading a platoon.7 He returned to
the United Kingdom and was disappointed not to return to the
Seaforths, which went into action in Sicily in July 1943, just weeks
after the fighting in North Africa ended. Instead he was used as an
instructor in the U.K., applying his battle experience to tactical
instruction. He went to The Calgary Highlanders after D-Day, and
during the fighting on Walcheren Causeway took command of "D"
Company after its officers were wounded. At one point he threw three
German hand grenades back that had landed among his men. He was
awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and during the Rhineland
fighting in February 1945 added the Military Medal to his
decorations for actions at Wyler.8
Perhaps the best
chronicled experiences of Canadians in North Africa have been those
of Strome Galloway of The Royal Canadian Regiment, who commanded a
company of the 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles in Tunisia. He
went on to command a company of the RCR in Sicily, Italy and the
Netherlands, and acted as battalion commander on a number of
occasions.9 He published several books after the war and
had a regular column in Legion Magazine. Among his writing was a
detailed account of the attack of "F" Company, 2nd London Irish
Rifles at Stuka Farm on 26 February 1943, in which he led a bayonet
charge over open ground against German paratroopers.10
Battle Honours
No formed units of Canadians took part
in the fighting in North Africa. The Canadian government had desired
that if the invasion of France was not possible in 1943, Canadian
units in the U.K. should be employed in Africa instead. The
commander of 1st Canadian Army remained adamant that the Canadian
forces not be split up and employed piecemeal.11 The
decision was eventually made to employ the 1st Canadian Division in
the invasion of Sicily following the North African campaign. A
number of Canadian base units were established in Africa following
the expulsion of the Germans and Italians, including a 1,200 bed
general hospital and convalescent depot.12 A number of
Canadian officers also served on planning staffs and in
administrative roles, as the formations fighting in Sicily and later
Italy required uniquely Canadian administration of some matters.13
Of particular importance was a base reinforcement depot so
that "reinforcements" (i.e. replacements for casualties) could stage
closer to the fighting in Sicily than the U.K. In the event, three
battalions of reinforcements were sent to North Africa and a fourth
went straight to Sicily for immediate use as required.14
As the campaign moved
from Sicily to Italy, other units transited North Africa on the way
to the war. No. 1 Company Canadian Dental Corps was one such unit.15
By October 1943, only some support and administration units
had moved from North Africa, while the Canadian Section, GHQ 2nd
Echelon, the Base Reinforcement Depot, and No. 14 Canadian General
Hospital were still near Philippeville. As units of the 1st Canadian
Corps arrived in the Mediterranean, concerns about the wide
dispersal of Canadian units led to further relocations of forces in
Africa to Italy. Headquarters No. 1 Base Reinforcement Group was
created along with a second reinforcement depot. The 2nd Echelon
moved from Philippeville in December 1943, along with the first
reinforcement depot, and the group established itself at Avellino,
thirty-five miles east of Naples. A number of hospitals were
established, including No. 14 General Hospital which also
transferred from Africa.16
The advance party of I Canadian Corps
headquarters travelled to Italy by way of Algiers, and other units
and formations briefly stayed in North Africa on the way to Italy,
including elements of the 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division and the
First Special Service Force.
The Africa Star was
awarded to Commonwealth soldiers who served at least one day in an
operational area of North Africa. Those who served with the 1st
Army, including the Canadians sent for battle experience, were
entitled to a FIRST ARMY bar (denoted on the undress ribbon by the
numeral "1.")
Notes
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"North Africa Campaigns." Encyclopedia
Britannica accessed online at
https://www.britannica.com/event/North-Africa-campaigns
-
Stacey, C.P. Official History
of the Canadian Army in the Second World War Volume I: Six Years
of War (Queen's Printer, 1955)
pp.248-249
-
The Ottawa Citizen, 6
January 1943
-
Stacey, Ibid
-
Munro, Ross. “Canadian Troops Now in
North Africa, to Get Battle Training.” The Ottawa Citizen,
6 January 1943. Also, Edward Styffe name from “Oscar R. Styffe,
of Lakehead, Dies”, The Winnipeg Tribune, 9
January 1943. Also Nicholson, Gerald. Official History of
the Canadian Army in the Second World War. Volume II: The
Canadians in Italy, 1943-1945 (Queen's Printer, Ottawa,
ON, 1957), p.242
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Stacey, Ibid
-
"African vets anxious for Sicily battle",
Nanaimo Daily News, 13 July 1943, p.1
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"Be-ribboned veteran says Rifles were
magnificent", The Leader-Post (Regina), 13 August
1945, p.3
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"Career Soldier was 'loyal to the bone.'"
The Ottawa Citizen, 13 August 2004, p.A5
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Galloway, Strome. "Fixed Bayonets at Stuka Farm."
World War II Magazine, February 2002, pp.26-32
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Nicholson, Ibid, pp.24-25
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Ibid, p.38
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Ibid, p.34
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Ibid, p.37
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Ibid p.176
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Ibid, pp.349-351
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https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/medals-decorations/details/15
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