The Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade September 1939 - June 1945

Early Organization

The 5th Brigade was originally intended as an all-Quebec brigade, with the majority of units under command speaking French.   Canada's only Francophone overseas formation commander, P.E. Leclerc, took command of the Brigade in the autumn of 1940.  The units of the Brigade had been widely scattered after the trying period of initial mobilization and training at Valcartier.   The Black Watch had been sent to Newfoundland and Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal to Iceland in the summer of 1940 as other units of the division were shipped to the United Kingdom.

As the brigade began to concentrate in the United Kingdom, the Brigadier worried that if the 5th Brigade were to be made up entirely of French Canadian units, it would appear to francophone officers that their only opportunity for higher command would be in the sole position of commander of that specific brigade.  The decision was made to move the Calgary Highlanders into the 5th Brigade.   The divisional commander, Victor Odlum, also thought it preferable for English and French soldiers to have wider opportunities for contact with each other.  Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal went to the 6th Brigade upon their arrival from Iceland.

Fifth Field Regiment

The Fifth Field Regiment mobilized in 1939, frm two Quebec batteries and two New Brunswick batteries.  Like the infantry, the artillery went through several re-organizations before finalizing the way it would go into battle in 1944.  By then, three batteries of 25-pounder guns would be under command.

Commanding Officer Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade	Dates in Command	Destination on Leaving Appointment
Brigadier P.E. Leclerc, MM, ED	Autumn 1940 - 1 April 1941	To Canada to command 15th Infantry Brigade.
Brigadier A.V. Whitehead	1 April 1941 - January 1944
Brigadier J.C. Jefferson, DSO	January 1944 - 27 February 1944	To 10th Infantry Brigade to command The Algonquin Regiment
Brigadier W.J. Megill	27 February 1944 - 1945	Division disbanded

	Brigadier Pierre Edouard Leclerc had served in the First World War with both the engineers and the infantry, winning the Military Medal for bravery and a battlefield commission.  Between the wars, he rose to command Le Regiment de Joliette, and eventually an entire Militia Brigade.  As one of a very few francophones who had completed the Militia Staff Course, he was selected as the brigadier of what was intended to be an all-Quebec brigade.   Leclerc was popular with the divisional commander, but by April 1941, his corpulence (and resultant angina) finally led to his being released from active service overseas due to medical reasons.  He returned to Canada to command a brigade and eventually won promotion to Major General and command of the 7th Canadian Division.  For his "sound judgement" and "devotion to duty" he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. After the division's disbandment in 1943, he commanded forces in Newfoundland before retiring on medical grounds.  He had become the first French-speaking general to command a division in the Canadian Army.
No Photo Available	Brigadier A.V. Whitehead was described by General Montgomery in March of 1942 as having "a good brain" and the ability to "inspire confidence" but was also judged to have "no great training ability."   He was transferred ouf of the 5th Brigade in early 1944 due to his age - 45 years old was considered too old for active command.
	Brigadier James Curry Jefferson was a veteran of the Italian Campaign.  He had been decorated with the Distinguished Service Order for his command of the Edmonton Regiment at Leonforte in July 1943, and a Bar to his DSO at Ortona in December.  He was only in brief command of the 5th Brigade before transferring to the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division where he commanded the Algonquins and then the 10th Infantry Brigade.  Jefferson was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1945 for his service with the 4th Division, in addition to being Mentioned in Despatches and receiving the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.
	Brigadier William Jemmett "Bill" Megill served in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals from 1923 to 1928, enlisting at the age of sixteen.   He left the military to study engineering, then re-enlisted in 1930, accepting a commission along with a leave of absence to finish his degree.  He held many posts in the RCCS in the 1930s, attended staff college in India, and returned to Canada after the outbreak of war to take a series of staff positions as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1942 as General Staff Officer I in the Third Division and then as a Brigadier as senior staff officer to I Canadian Corps.  In October 1943, he reverted to Lieutenant Colonel to gain field experience commanding The Algonquin Regiment.  While Crerar had rated his professional abilities high while serving as staff officer with I Canadian Corps, he was also thought to be unimaginative.  Megill himself agreed with Crerar that he lacked field experience, and had hoped to gain combat experience as a battalion commander before his sudden, and personally shocking, appointment as Brigadier of the 5th Brigade in February 1944.
Megill was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in March 1945 for his command of the Brigade in Normandy, Belgium and The Netherlands.  He also received a Mention in Despatches, as well as being made Officer of the Order of Leopold with Palm (a Belgian order) and was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm.

Training

The Brigade trained with the rest of the Division on several exercises that were of more value to high level staff officers learning how to move large units of men than to the infantrymen in the brigade itself.  By the end of 1941, with over a year's worth of training interspersed with long periods of garrison and coastal duty (defending against possible German invasion), the Canadians came under the influence of British Lieutenant General Bernard Law Montgomery.

Montgomery's Inspection

One of Montgomery's first acts on being appointed commander of South East Command, where the Canadians were stationed, was to rename his command South East Army.  He embarked on a series of inspection tours of the Canadians, and his recommendations were accepted by Canadian commanders gratefully, even though many of his decisions were based on extremely hasty inspections.

The visit of General Montgomery to the 5th Brigade on 3 March 1942 was described very simply in the Calgary Highlanders War Diary:

The Army Commander and his Aides arrived at Battalion Headquarters at 1108 hrs. He had a short conference with the Commanding Officer and then interviewed the Company Commanders one at a time. The talks were over at 1200 hrs. and the Army Commander proceeded to Brigade Headquarters without further inspection of the Battalion.

During this brief visit, he formed several opinions; the Brigadier he thought "had a good brain" and was able to "inspire confidence" but had "no great training ability."  The Calgary Highlanders, he felt, had "a very decent lot of company commanders without being outstanding.  They have never been taught how to train their companies."   The men were "quite first class" but the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel MacLauchlan who until the month previous had been a rifle company commander, was felt to be "completely out of his depth as a battalion commander."  The battalion commanders of both the Black Watch and Maisonneuves were also felt to have no idea of how to train a battalion for war, and for the most part, Montgomery described battalion command in the brigade as "an amateur show" and further felt that throughout the entire brigade "the art of training is not understood."

Key among Montgomery's objections was the reliance on Battle Drill to teach simple procedures, while at the same time apparently ignoring company level training dealing with the various phases of war.  In other words, companies were not learning how to carry out company tasks, examples of which Montgomery gave in his written notes included as fighting a contact battle, offensive action in fluid conditions, the deliberate attack, re-organizing and holding ground once gained, counter-attacking, attacks in low light conditions (ie dusk or night), and forcing the passage of obstacles. 

Montgomery's poor appraisal of the 5th Brigade was significant when troops were selected for the Dieppe Raid, originally to take place in July 1942.  The 4th and 6th Brigades were assigned to the raiding force, as they were felt superior to the 5th.  As Terry Copp, historian of the brigade points out in his book The Brigade, "This was one competition 5 Brigade was fortunate to have lost."

In August 1942, the Brigade conducted their first field exercise in which infantry battalions were supported by tanks and had live artillery fired over their heads in support.  This was done as the final preparations for the actual Dieppe Raid were being made.

Dieppe

One company of the Black Watch was included in the force that landed at Blue Beach on 19 August 1942.  The Calgary Highlanders' mortar platoon was embarked for the raid - without the knowledge of the battalion - but was not landed.   One Calgary Highlander staff officer at Brigade Headquarters was killed on the main beach.  Other than that, the brigade would be the only full strength brigade in the division for many months after the raid had decimated the 4th and 6th Brigades.

Rebuilding

Much of the period from September 1942 to February 1943 was spent with further company and battalion training.  The first divisional level exercise after Dieppe was Exercise ELM, on 21 February 1943.  A week later, Exercise SPARTAN, the largest of the military exercises conducted in the UK during World War Two, was held.

SPARTAN revealed that the Division was not yet properly trained.  While the Brigadier, and unit war diarists, felt that their performance had revealed many successes, it was noted by General Crerar that not enough attention was paid to co-ordination and entrenching after an attack.  Senior commanders were, according to historian Terry Copp, "beginning to gain a clearer picture of what the war would actually be like."

After SPARTAN, in addition to the coastal duties which still made up their routine, the battalions of the 2nd Division began to take part in more sophisticated, and realistic, training.  Brigade Exercise OUTBURST in June 1943, for example, consisted of an advance to high ground, establishment of a defensive position, and then staged withdrawal.  The Calgary Highlanders War Diary described the scenario as a "Force breaking out of a bridgehead to occupy a vital tactical locality."

Stagnation By late 1943, rumours were rampant that the Brigade would again be reorganized.   The Maisonneuves and Calgary Highlanders were rated "below average" in October.  Infantry battalions had gone through a major organizational change in May, and there was widespread turnover in officers, NCOs and men as the Fifth Brigade entered its third year in the United Kingdom with little to do but train. January 1944 saw the infantry of the entire division go back to basics, starting with platoon training, followed by company training in February and battalion training in March.  As the older commanding officers were replaced with younger men, Brigadier Megill still had many difficult decisions.  The CO of both the Maisonneuves and Calgary Highlanders were good at administration and considered good soldiers, but the battalion second-in-command in each case were considered better leaders capable of holding the units together. During 1944, precious little time was spent on training in tank-infantry co-operation, due to a shortage of armoured units with time to participate in that training.  In February 1944, the 5th Brigade mortar platoons were deemed better than those of other units, and the Calgary Highlanders' mortarmen were deemed "well trained in every respect."

Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade 1944 - 1945 The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Le Régiment de Maisonneuve The Calgary Highlanders Units of the supporting arms included: 5th Infantry Brigade Ground Defence Platoon (The Lorne Scots) 5th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery 5th (Westmount) Field Battery 28th (Newcastle) Field Battery 73rd Field Battery 5th Infantry Brigade Company, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps Number 18 Field Ambulance, Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps 5th Infantry Brigade Workshop, Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

Storm Boat Training In April 1944 the brigade began training for what was envisioned as a primary mission in the upcoming invasion.  The grand plan was to land in Normandy with the Third Canadian Division leading the way for the Canadians, with the support of the 2nd Armoured Brigade.  The Second Division would follow as the bridgehead expanded.  While some historians point out that the principle objective of D-Day itself - the city of Caen - did not fall for over a month, the overall plan for the Normandy invasion called for the Allies to reach the River Seine on D+90 (ninety days after the invasion). The Allies, as it turned out, did this ahead of schedule.  However, it was anticipated that the Seine would be used as a natural defensive obstacle by the Germans, and that an assault crossing of the river would be necessary.  The 5th Brigade trained on the River Trent in April 1944 for this mission.  In actual fact, the Normandy battles turned out very different from what the planners envisioned.  While April and May saw much useful training done in conjunction with divisional, corps and even army level engineers, it would bear little resemblance to the reality the Division would find south of Caen in July and August of 1944. In October 1944, when the division was tasked with crossing the Slooe Channel in The Netherlands, the 5th Brigade would be selected due to the fact that they had received "stormboat training" in England.  By that time, after the horrific casualties suffered both in Normandy in July and again in The Netherlands in October, few of the men who had undergone that training would be left. On Dominion Day - 1 July 1944 - the Division began to move to the marshalling areas, where they would embark for France.