Tag Archives: Victoria Cross

Honouring Canada’s Victoria Cross recipients – Lance Corporal Frederick Fisher, VC

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The first profile of the series, Honouring Canada’s Victoria Cross recipients, honours Lance-Corporal Frederick Fisher of St. Catharines, Ontario.

Newspaper clipping of a grainy photograph of Lance-Corporal Fisher with the following caption: “Lance-Corporal F. Fisher (13th Canadian Battalion), who was awarded the V.C. His brave action cost him his life. Two of his brothers are in the Army.”

Lance-Corporal F. Fisher, V.C. (MIKAN 3215642)

Lance Corporal Fisher, age 20, was serving with the machine gun section of the 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada when the Second Battle of Yypres commenced on April 22, 1915.

Colour poster of a Union Jack on its side with a notice for recruitment for the 13th, 42nd 73rd Battalions, known as the Royal Highlanders of Canada and allied with the Black Watch.

Recruitment poster for the Royal Highlanders (MIKAN 3635556)

On that day, the German Army released chlorine gas over a 6.5-kilometre front, mainly in a section held by French colonial and territorial troops. The French, who were on the Canadian left flank, had 6,000 casualties within 10 minutes of this attack, and many of those not immediately affected fled. The Canadian 1st Division troops moved to close the massive gap that opened in the line.

Reproduction of a typed page describing the troop activities for the period from April 22 to April 30, 1915.

Extract from the war diaries of the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion from April 22 to April 30, 1915 (MIKAN 1883219)

The following day, as the defences around him collapsed, Lance-Corporal Fisher and six other men went forward with a machine gun and held off advancing German infantry under heavy fire, allowing the Canadian 18-pound field guns to be withdrawn. Four of the defenders died in the process. Later the same day, Fisher and four men of the 14th Battalion again went forward to fire on advancing German troops. Fisher was the only man to survive the engagement. He was killed later that day while once again attempting to repulse a German attack. His citation in the London Gazette, June 23, 1915, recounts that Fisher: “most gallantly assisted in covering the retreat of a battery” (London Gazette, no. 29202). Like many Canadian soldiers killed in the opening days of 2nd Ypres, Fisher’s body was never recovered. He is named on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, along with the names of more than 54,000 other soldiers from Britain, Australia, Canada, and India with no known graves. His Victoria Cross is held by the Canadian Black Watch Museum in Montreal. Library and Archives Canada holds the CEF service file for Lance-Corporal Frederick Fisher.

First World War Centenary: Honouring Canada’s Victoria Cross Recipients – Battle of Second Ypres

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In the first week of April 1915, members of the 1st Canadian Division, including many of the earliest volunteers of the war, were moved north from Bethune, France to the active section of the line near Ypres, Belgium. A medieval Belgian city, Ypres was the scene of one of the war’s earliest and bloodiest battles in 1914 and had assumed great strategic importance. When the front stabilized in November 1914, the Allied lines bulged out around the city into the German line, forming a salient, surrounded on three sides by higher ground.

On April 22, 1915, in an effort to eliminate the salient, Germany became the first nation to use chemical weapons, releasing over 160 tons of chlorine gas across the Allied front. Members of the 1st Canadian Division, who had been in their trenches barely a week, found themselves desperately trying to defend a 6.5-kilometre gap in the Allied lines as the French division to their left crumbled in the face of Germany’s new weapon. The chlorine gas clung to the ground and filled the trenches, forcing the troops to climb out and into the path of heavy machine-gun and artillery fire.

A black-and-white photograph showing a city completely destroyed by war. A column of troops, most on horseback, are travelling through it.

A scene of the destroyed city of Ypres, showing the Cathedral, Cloth Hall, and Canadian troops passing through, November 1917 (MIKAN 3194491)

A black-and-white photograph of an ornate gothic building and other adjacent buildings.

The Cathedral and Cloth Hall in Ypres, before the Great War (MIKAN 3329077)

German troops moved forward but, having planned only a limited offensive and lacking adequate protection against their own chemical weapons, they were unable to exploit the break in the line. Throughout the night and the subsequent days, Canadian and British troops struggled to maintain the line. Canadians mounted a counterattack at Kitchener’s Wood (derived from Bois-de-Cuisinères) and endured the terrible fighting at St. Julian: their Canadian-made rifles jamming in the mud, and soldiers violently sick and gasping for air. Somehow, they managed to hold the line until reinforcements arrived on April 28. The losses were tremendous: 6,035 Canadians (or one in three soldiers) became casualties by the time the 1st Canadian Division was relieved. This toll among an army whose members had almost all been civilians just months prior.

At Second Ypres, the Canadians were initiated into the horrors of modern warfare, and from this moment on they would continue to develop into a highly respected formation in the Allied forces.

From April 23 to 25, as part of our series, First World War Centenary: Honouring Canada’s Victoria Cross Recipients, we will tell the stories of Lance-Corporal Frederick Fisher, Lieutenant Edward Donald Bellew, Company Sergeant-Major Frederick William Hall, and Captain Francis Alexander Caron Scrimger.

View the Flickr album – Canada at Ypres

First World War Centenary: Honouring Canada’s Victoria Cross recipients

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As part of its commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, over the next three years we will profile each of Canada’s Victoria Cross recipients. Each profile will be published on the 100th anniversary of the day that the actions for which the recipient was awarded the Victoria Cross took place.

Colour photograph of a medal. Ribbon is crimson. Cross-shaped medal is bronze with a lion above a crown bearing the inscription For Valour on a scroll.

The Victoria Cross (MIKAN 3640361)

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration in the Commonwealth and takes precedence over all other medals, decorations and orders. A recognition of valour in the face of the enemy, the VC can be awarded to a person of any rank of military service and to civilians under military command. So far, 98 Canadians have been awarded the Victoria Cross, beginning with Alexander Roberts Dunn who in 1854 fought in the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. The Victoria Crosses were awarded to 71 Canadian soldiers during the First World War, and 16 were awarded during the Second World War. The remaining VCs were awarded to Canadians for the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (in which William Hall of Nova Scotia became the first-ever black recipient of the VC) and the South African War (1899–1902).

In 1993, the Canadian Victoria Cross was adopted in place of the British VC. The medal is identical to the British VC but the inscription is in Latin—Pro Valore—a linguistic ancestor to both English and French. The Canadian Victoria Cross has yet to be awarded.

The profile series will also include links to photographs, service papers, war diaries, and other digitized artifacts in Library and Archives Canada’s collections that help to tell the stories of the Canadians who experienced the Great War on many fronts, including the home front, and whose actions and memories shape how contemporary Canadians remember and understand the first truly global conflict.

We will begin our First World War Victoria Cross profiles with Lance-Corporal Frederick Fisher.

Victoria Cross recipient and Second World War tough guy: Major David Vivian Currie

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Seventy years ago, on August 18, 1944, Major David Vivian Currie led 200 men and a dozen M4 Sherman tanks into the town of St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France in order to block the escape route of the German 7th Army out of the Falaise Pocket. Though hugely outnumbered by a detachment of the German 2nd Panzer Division, the actions that Currie and his men took effectively sealed off the only escape route for the Germans. For his efforts, Currie earned the Victoria Cross, the highest military gallantry decoration in the British Commonwealth.

Black and white photograph showing a man peering out over a tank turret.

Major David V. Currie, VC, South Alberta Regiment, Breda, Netherlands, November 25, 1944. (MIKAN 3224834)

Major Currie was born in Sutherland, Saskatchewan in 1912 and trained as an auto mechanic and welder. A major in the 29th Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (South Alberta Regiment) in 1944, Currie had only ten days of combat experience when he was tasked with capturing, cutting off, and holding the road through St. Lambert.

Currie was leading “C” Squadron, a small force of tanks and anti-tank guns, together with two infantry companies of the Argyll and Southerland Highlanders, with no artillery support and little reconnaissance. When his first attack was repulsed, Currie snuck into the village on foot, surveyed the German defences, and rescued the crews of two disabled Canadian tanks. The following day, he had seized and consolidated a position half-way inside the village. Over the next 36 hours, Currie so skillfully organised his defences in the face of near-constant counterattack that he not only held the unit’s position but inflicted disproportionately heavy casualties on the German forces.

Black and white photograph showing a man sitting on top of a tank, leaning against the machine gun and looking off to the left.

Major David V. Currie, VC, of the South Alberta Regiment in a Humber I scout car, Halte, Netherlands, November 12, 1944 (MIKAN 3227188)

The Germans attempted their final breakthrough of the Canadian positions on the evening of August 20th but were routed by a surprise Canadian assault. Over 2,100 German soldiers were taken prisoner by Currie’s force of less than 200. Currie then completed the capture of the village, thus denying the remnants of the German armies their last escape route from the Falaise Pocket. The battle of St. Lambert was to be the final battle of the Normandy Campaign.

Black and white photograph showing a group of German soldiers with their arms raised in the air surrounded by Canadian soldiers.

Major David V. Currie (third from left with pistol in hand) of The South Alberta Regiment accepting the surrender of German troops at St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France, August 19, 1944. (MIKAN 3396233)

In the months following St. Lambert, Currie participated in the Battle of the Scheldt and the liberation of the Netherlands. He later achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and served as sergeant-at-arms in the Canadian House of Commons from 1960 to 1978. He died in 1986. The armoury in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan is named the Lt. Colonel D. V. Currie Armoury in his honour, as is Currie Avenue in Saskatoon.

To learn more about Canada’s military past, visit the Military Heritage pages.

120th birthday of William George Barker, Canadian flying ace and Victoria Cross recipient

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November third marked the 120th anniversary of the birth of William George Barker, Canadian First World War flying ace and Victoria Cross recipient. One of Canada’s most renowned fighter pilots and the most decorated serviceman in the history of the British Commonwealth, Barker shot down 50 enemy aircraft during the First World War.

Major William G. Barker, 1918.

Major William G. Barker, 1918 (MIKAN 3623168)

Barker was born in Dauphin, Manitoba on November 3, 1894. He enlisted in the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles in December 1914 and arrived in France in September 1915 where he served as a machine gunner. In early 1916, Barker transferred to 9 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He transferred to 15 Squadron in July and shot down his first enemy aircraft from the rear of a B.E.2 aircraft. He was awarded the Military Cross in the concluding stages of the Battle of the Somme for spotting German troops massing for a counter-attack and calling down an artillery attack that broke up the 4,000-strong force. After an injury in August 1917, Barker served as a flight instructor in the UK but his ongoing requests for front-line service saw him join the 28 Squadron by the end of the year. Though unexceptional as a pilot, Barker exceled through his aggression in combat and highly accurate marksmanship, coupled with a tendency to ignore orders and fly unofficial patrols.

Major W. G. Barker, VC, (5th from left) with captured Fokker D.VII aircraft at Hounslow Aerodrome, April 1919.

Major W. G. Barker, VC, (5th from left) with captured Fokker D.VII aircraft at Hounslow Aerodrome, April 1919 (MIKAN 3523053)

On October 27, 1918, Barker was attached to 201 Squadron, Royal Air Force and flying a solo excursion over the Fôret de Mormal when he encountered a formation of Fokker D.VIIs from Jagdgruppe 12. In the ensuing battle, which took place immediately above the Canadian lines, Barker shot down four enemy aircraft before crash-landing inside Allied lines. Severely wounded, Barker had only recovered enough to walk the few paces at his Victoria Cross investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace by March 1919.

Major W. G. Barker, VC, with captured Fokker D.VII aircraft at Hounslow Aerodrome, April 1919

Major W. G. Barker, VC, with captured Fokker D.VII aircraft at Hounslow Aerodrome, April 1919 (MIKAN 3214719)

As the most decorated serviceman in the British Commonwealth, Barker is credited with one captured and two (seven shared) balloons destroyed, 33 (and two shared) aircraft destroyed, and five aircraft out-of-control.

Following the war, he and fellow flying ace William “Billy” Bishop formed Bishop-Barker Aeroplanes Limited. Barker joined the fledgling Canadian Air Force as Wing Commander in 1922 and was appointed Acting Director in 1924. He suffered the physical effects of his injuries throughout his post-war life.

He died on March 12, 1930, aged 35, when he lost control of his Fairchild KR-21 biplane trainer during a demonstration flight at Rockcliffe Air Station. His funeral was the largest national state event in Toronto’s history.
Library and Archives Canada holds the CEF service file for Major William George Barker.

To learn more about Canada’s military past, visit the Military Heritage pages.

Sergeant Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, VC

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Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith (May 3, 1914 – August 3, 2005) was the last living Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC) and the only private in the Canadian Armed Forces to receive this decoration during the Second World War. It is the highest military honour awarded to British and Commonwealth Forces.

Private Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, V.C.

Private Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, VC (e010786349)

Private “Smokey” Smith earned this distinction 70 years ago—on October 21 and 22, 1944—in Savio, Italy, where he was fighting with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. His unit was ordered to establish a bridgehead across the Savio River, which had risen significantly due to torrential rain, making it impossible for tanks and anti-tank guns to cross. Having successfully crossed the river, the unit’s right flank was attacked by the German 26th Panzer Division. Smith, an experienced member of the anti-tank platoon, had participated in the amphibious Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, been wounded twice, and been part of fierce street fighting during the advance in Italy. Sheltering in a ditch as a German Panther tank rolled toward him and machine guns raked his position, Smith waited until the tank was within 30 feet of his PIAT (Projector, Infantry Anti-Tank, a.k.a. “tank-stopper”) and then stood up, fired, and disabled the tank. Still in full view of the enemy, he drove back the Germans who leapt from the burning tank, along with a second Panther and 30 infantry soldiers, all the while protecting a wounded comrade. According to his VC citation, “Private Smith, still showing utter contempt for enemy fire, helped his wounded friend to cover and obtained medical aid for him behind a nearby building. He then returned to his position beside the road to await the possibility of a further enemy attack.” (The London Gazette, no. 36849, December 20, 1944). Smith’s unit consolidated the bridgehead position and paved the way for the capture of San Giorgio Di Cesena and a further advance to the Ronco River.

Private Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, V.C., of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada

Private Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, VC, of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada (MIKAN 3227168)

As Smith later told it, he was placed in a Naples jail by Military Police to keep him out of trouble until he could be sent to London to receive his VC. He was, by his own words, a man who didn’t like to take orders but who believed firmly in the job he had to do. Following the war, Smith re-enlisted in the army but did not see combat. He later served as a recruiting sergeant in Vancouver and remained in the army until his retirement in 1964. Smith received the Canadian Forces Decoration and was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1996 in recognition of his service to Canadian veterans’ organizations.

To learn more about Canada’s military past, visit the Military Heritage pages.