The Highland Light Infantry of Canada has seen its numbers depleted greatly by time, but time can never erase what the unit has so proudly achieved
May 09, 2009
Jeff OuthitRECORD STAFF
WATERLOO REGION
They can remember when reunions lasted two days and drew hundreds of war veterans, keen to reminisce about when they were warriors.
Now they can barely summon 20 old men to a luncheon. The youngest is 83. Some are quite frail. They are outnumbered by wives and widows. And so at noon today, the Highland Light Infantry of Canada plans its last annual reunion. There are just too few veterans left to carry on.
Don Matthews, 84, is taking it hard. He loved being in the regiment in the Second World War. These men are his brothers-in-arms. He lived with them, fought with them, cheated death with them.
"I'm one of the proud fellows," he says. "I worship them."
But after today, he may only see the handful who are left at funerals. "I don't want it to end," he says. He dabs at his eyes as they fill with tears.
The Highland Light Infantry mobilized locally in 1940 to help defeat Nazi Germany. Its men fought across northwest Europe and left more than 260 comrades buried there.
The regiment passed into history long ago. Its bloodline survives in the Royal Highland Fusiliers.
Time is taking its men, but can never erase what they achieved.
When Canada asked for help, they responded. They trained and then they fought, to help save the world from a terrible tyranny.
The regiment's darkest day is seen as its finest hour. On July 8, 1944, the Highland Light Infantry was ordered to capture Buron, a village in Normandy held by ferocious Hitler Youth and SS troops.
Liberating the village cost 62 dead, 200 wounded. In a daylong battle, launched across an open field where enemy bombs fell like rain, the regiment lost half its assaulting force.
It was the regiment's first major battle, and the first time local soldiers fought together as a single unit. Veterans remember it as bloody Buron.
Matthews was there. He was just 19 and so green, experienced soldiers left him behind on night patrols. They worried he would make too much noise and get them all killed.
He left Buron a much harder man.
Matthews never knew bullets could whistle so loud, until they screamed past his head that day. He learned you don't dwell on why the man next to you falls in combat. And you don't stop to help him. You keep going, because that's your best hope to prevail, and to survive.
"I prayed after it was all over," he says. "I was scared. Not enough to cry. But I was scared."
Nelson Hilborn was there. He was 20 when an enemy rocket killed the soldiers around him, leaving him dazed and bleeding, the lone survivor of two mortar crews.
That day, he learned how to plant rifles in the ground to mark the dead. He learned what a man looks like after he's been cut to pieces, trying to reach a trench.
He learned you can save a man by using your bare hands to squeeze his brain back into his shattered skull, then bandage it up as tightly as you can.
Though shaken by the carnage at Buron, it was not Hilborn's first shock. That came a month earlier on D-Day, when the door of his landing craft opened onto the bodies of three men killed taking the beach.
"Of course I hesitated," he says. But he had to get out quickly so he drove his tracked carrier over their corpses. "That hurt me very badly," says Hilborn, 85.
After Buron, the Highland Light Infantry fought across France and into Belgium, Holland and Germany. A long honour roll lists the men who fell. They are buried across north-west Europe.
Today's reunion is 64 years after the Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945. Bob Roos and Ray Brayshaw helped organize it, planning it to be the last. "I guess it's time," says Roos, of Cambridge.
Roos, 86, went overseas to fight with the Highland Light Infantry, but ended up with the South Saskatchewan Regiment. They had their own Buron, but it was called Foret de la Londe.
The three-day battle near the Seine river killed 44 of his comrades and wounded 141, in August, 1944.
Brayshaw, of Cambridge, went overseas three months before the Nazis surrendered in 1945. The army held him in reserve in England and he never saw combat. It frustrates him still.
"I just felt I missed something," Brayshaw says. He'll be the youngest veteran there, at 83.
What veterans want people to remember about the Highland Light Infantry is that its brave men chose to fight.
"They were all volunteers," Roos says. "That's the most important thing of all."
They stepped up when Canada asked. Many gave their lives. There's no greater sacrifice.
jouthit@therecord.com
Highland Light Infantry of Canada
Motto: Defence Not Defiance
Headquarters: Galt
1866:
Creation of the 29th Waterloo Battalion of Infantry. Several name changes later, this becomes the Highland Light Infantry.
1915-1918:
Earns eight battle honours in the First World War.
September, 1939:
Canada declares war on Nazi Germany, to launch the Second World War.
May, 1940:
The Highland Light Infantry mobilizes in Waterloo County. Hundreds enlist within three weeks.
July, 1941:
With almost 1,200 men, the regiment sails for Great Britain from Halifax and disembarks in Scotland.
1941-1944:
Training and exercises in Great Britain. The regiment trims to just over 800 men.
June 6, 1944:
Highland Light Infantry lands in Normandy, hours after the beaches are secured.
July 8, 1944:
The HLI attacks and takes Buron, a village outside Caen, suffering heavy casualties.
October, 1944:
The HLI helps clear the approaches to the Belgian port of Antwerp in the Scheldt campaign.
Feb.- March, 1945:
The HLI helps clear the Rhine river in Germany.
April-May, 1945:
The HLI helps liberate the Netherlands.
May 8, 1945:
Nazi Germany surrenders. Victory in Europe.
1954:
The Highland Light Infantry merges with the Perth Regiment.
1965:
Merger with the Scots Fusiliers creates the Highland Fusiliers of Canada.
1998:
Named the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada.
May 09, 2009
Jeff OuthitRECORD STAFF
WATERLOO REGION
They can remember when reunions lasted two days and drew hundreds of war veterans, keen to reminisce about when they were warriors.
Now they can barely summon 20 old men to a luncheon. The youngest is 83. Some are quite frail. They are outnumbered by wives and widows. And so at noon today, the Highland Light Infantry of Canada plans its last annual reunion. There are just too few veterans left to carry on.
Don Matthews, 84, is taking it hard. He loved being in the regiment in the Second World War. These men are his brothers-in-arms. He lived with them, fought with them, cheated death with them.
"I'm one of the proud fellows," he says. "I worship them."
But after today, he may only see the handful who are left at funerals. "I don't want it to end," he says. He dabs at his eyes as they fill with tears.
The Highland Light Infantry mobilized locally in 1940 to help defeat Nazi Germany. Its men fought across northwest Europe and left more than 260 comrades buried there.
The regiment passed into history long ago. Its bloodline survives in the Royal Highland Fusiliers.
Time is taking its men, but can never erase what they achieved.
When Canada asked for help, they responded. They trained and then they fought, to help save the world from a terrible tyranny.
The regiment's darkest day is seen as its finest hour. On July 8, 1944, the Highland Light Infantry was ordered to capture Buron, a village in Normandy held by ferocious Hitler Youth and SS troops.
Liberating the village cost 62 dead, 200 wounded. In a daylong battle, launched across an open field where enemy bombs fell like rain, the regiment lost half its assaulting force.
It was the regiment's first major battle, and the first time local soldiers fought together as a single unit. Veterans remember it as bloody Buron.
Matthews was there. He was just 19 and so green, experienced soldiers left him behind on night patrols. They worried he would make too much noise and get them all killed.
He left Buron a much harder man.
Matthews never knew bullets could whistle so loud, until they screamed past his head that day. He learned you don't dwell on why the man next to you falls in combat. And you don't stop to help him. You keep going, because that's your best hope to prevail, and to survive.
"I prayed after it was all over," he says. "I was scared. Not enough to cry. But I was scared."
Nelson Hilborn was there. He was 20 when an enemy rocket killed the soldiers around him, leaving him dazed and bleeding, the lone survivor of two mortar crews.
That day, he learned how to plant rifles in the ground to mark the dead. He learned what a man looks like after he's been cut to pieces, trying to reach a trench.
He learned you can save a man by using your bare hands to squeeze his brain back into his shattered skull, then bandage it up as tightly as you can.
Though shaken by the carnage at Buron, it was not Hilborn's first shock. That came a month earlier on D-Day, when the door of his landing craft opened onto the bodies of three men killed taking the beach.
"Of course I hesitated," he says. But he had to get out quickly so he drove his tracked carrier over their corpses. "That hurt me very badly," says Hilborn, 85.
After Buron, the Highland Light Infantry fought across France and into Belgium, Holland and Germany. A long honour roll lists the men who fell. They are buried across north-west Europe.
Today's reunion is 64 years after the Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945. Bob Roos and Ray Brayshaw helped organize it, planning it to be the last. "I guess it's time," says Roos, of Cambridge.
Roos, 86, went overseas to fight with the Highland Light Infantry, but ended up with the South Saskatchewan Regiment. They had their own Buron, but it was called Foret de la Londe.
The three-day battle near the Seine river killed 44 of his comrades and wounded 141, in August, 1944.
Brayshaw, of Cambridge, went overseas three months before the Nazis surrendered in 1945. The army held him in reserve in England and he never saw combat. It frustrates him still.
"I just felt I missed something," Brayshaw says. He'll be the youngest veteran there, at 83.
What veterans want people to remember about the Highland Light Infantry is that its brave men chose to fight.
"They were all volunteers," Roos says. "That's the most important thing of all."
They stepped up when Canada asked. Many gave their lives. There's no greater sacrifice.
jouthit@therecord.com
Highland Light Infantry of Canada
Motto: Defence Not Defiance
Headquarters: Galt
1866:
Creation of the 29th Waterloo Battalion of Infantry. Several name changes later, this becomes the Highland Light Infantry.
1915-1918:
Earns eight battle honours in the First World War.
September, 1939:
Canada declares war on Nazi Germany, to launch the Second World War.
May, 1940:
The Highland Light Infantry mobilizes in Waterloo County. Hundreds enlist within three weeks.
July, 1941:
With almost 1,200 men, the regiment sails for Great Britain from Halifax and disembarks in Scotland.
1941-1944:
Training and exercises in Great Britain. The regiment trims to just over 800 men.
June 6, 1944:
Highland Light Infantry lands in Normandy, hours after the beaches are secured.
July 8, 1944:
The HLI attacks and takes Buron, a village outside Caen, suffering heavy casualties.
October, 1944:
The HLI helps clear the approaches to the Belgian port of Antwerp in the Scheldt campaign.
Feb.- March, 1945:
The HLI helps clear the Rhine river in Germany.
April-May, 1945:
The HLI helps liberate the Netherlands.
May 8, 1945:
Nazi Germany surrenders. Victory in Europe.
1954:
The Highland Light Infantry merges with the Perth Regiment.
1965:
Merger with the Scots Fusiliers creates the Highland Fusiliers of Canada.
1998:
Named the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada.
1 comment:
Hi There
My husband and I were at the Armoury in Cambridge on Saturday to see the historical mititary displays, look at the HLI museum and to read the War Diarys. My husbnad's Uncle died July 8th, 1944 in the battle for Buron. Every year thery open the place up for the community to see. Too bad you haven't been able to add more material to your blog.
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