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Gilhuly, Gordon Joseph

Private

Algonguin Regiment

Royal Canadian Infantry Corps

A 50062

Gordon Joseph Gilhuly was born on 4 July 1912 and lived in William Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario with his parents until he joined the Canadian

army. He was the son of John C. Gilhuly, born around 1876 and Irish at birth; his mother, Delima Mary Gilhuly was born in 1888 and was of

French extraction. The family attended the Roman Catholic church.

Gordon had three brothers and four sisters and his younger brother

Francis Xavier also joined the army later and served overseas. His father worked as an express truck driver with the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Wallaceburg was a small community of fewer than 5000 souls when Gordon was a child. It lies southwest of Toronto and some fifty kilometers

from the US border. Here Gordon went to the local school between the ages of six and sixteen and completed grade VIII. He could have

continued his education in High School but times were hard and he preferred to leave school and go out to work. He first worked in a sugar

factory and then spent the next eleven years as a nickel and chrome plater at the local Brass Factory. The firm was willing to employ him again

after the war and Gordon was happy to return to this work.

In his spare time, Gordon liked reading detective stories and the

newspapers and listening to the radio news; he also enjoyed going to shows. At school, he played baseball and softball. Before he enlisted, he

had spent a month training with the Kent Regiment in the militia.

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Gilhuly family, Gordon top left.

IN THE MILITARY

On 8 August 1940, at the age of 28, Gordon enlisted in Chatham, Ontario. Initial tests reported favorably on his intelligence and learning capacity;

special mention was made of his mechanical aptitude. The interviewer found him sociable and agreeable in manner. He was of a sturdy build,

5ft.9ins. tall, weighing 175lbs. and in good health. After a few days, he was placed with the Kent Regiment, an infantry regiment which did not go

overseas in WWII but was used for coastal defense in Nova Scotia and British Columbia. Its headquarters was in Chatham, Ontario, some 30

kilometers from Wallaceburg.

Gordon was to spend most of the next four years with the Kent regiment and completed his basic training in April 1942. During this time he was

promoted to the rank of Lance-Corporal and in October he went to

Toronto for a physical training course. In November he was detached to

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the Essex Scottish Regiment and sent to a training school in England until

April 1943, when he returned to Canada and the Kent Regiment. He had become a Corporal and received the CVSM medal and Clasp. He followed

various small arms courses: rifle and Bren gun (1942-3), mortar, and

grenade (1944).

Gordon was transferred

frequently from one station to another and included periods in

London and Niagara, Ontario, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and New

Westminster and Terrace in British Columbia. He began

working as an instructor in

March 1943 and became an acting Sergeant in June, until in

August 1944, he returned to Camp Debert in Nova Scotia.

Gordon before he left.

Here he was interviewed and said that he liked the army but was eager to go overseas again and get into action; he was willing to revert to the rank

of Private for this. He did not want to be an instructor when he was abroad. His superiors found him pleasant and co-operative. Gordon got his

wish and boarded a ship for England as part of the Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit (CIRU) on 11 October 1944, arriving ten days later.

After three weeks, he was sent across to France and on 21 November was

placed with the Algonquin Regiment that had been fighting its way across northern France since 25 July, when it had landed there. They had taken

part in the battle of the Scheldt, in the Netherlands, which finally ended early in November; the regiment had suffered greatly with a heavy loss of

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life and many wounded. The three winter months they spent in the

Waalwijk/Baardwijk region, some twenty kilometers west of s´Hertogenbosch. Here Gordon joined up with the Algonquin Regiment; it

had been ordered to ´conduct aggressive patrolling´ of the Maas river and

dikes nearby. At the same time, they began to train for a coming operation in February 1945.

On 8 February, large forces of Allied troops had invaded Germany from

the area around Nijmegen in Operation Veritable and slowly advanced between the rivers Rhine and Maas. It had not been easy because of the

strong enemy resistance and atrocious weather conditions. The Algonquins were scheduled to join these forces and take part in Operation Blockbuster

in the last week of February. The city of Xanten was their goal but the forested Hochwald ridge blocked their way. The Hochwald too was heavily

defended. There was a gap in the ridge through which a railway line passed. The plateau between Kalkar and Uedem had been taken and the

Algoquon regiment approached the Hochwald gap.

Progress was difficult, there had been heavy rain and the ground was a

quagmire. Tanks were bogged down and out of action and there was intense enemy artillery fire. It took until 4 March to break enemy

resistance and clear the forest - at times hand to hand fighting was reported. The Allies went on towards Veen and the second phase of the

Blockbuster operation.

On 8 March, a rainy day with poor visibility, the Algonquins were in the neighbourhood of Veen facing ´fanatic´ resistance. The war diary reports:

´all during the day our force was completely pinned down by anti-tank fire, snipers and shelling. Jerry sniping was uncanny…

Our tanks due to bad ground found manoevour(sic) almost impossible.

Soldiers from both sides occupied reinforced houses never more than 100 yards from each other. The Canadians tried unsuccessfully to capture

houses occupied by the enemy´.

Gordon Gilhuly was one of the casualties on 8 March 1945, killed in action.

He was temporarily buried three days later in the Canadian Military

Cemetery, Sonsbeek in Germany.

More than a year later, he was reburied in the Netherlands at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, grave reference V. B. 5.

AWARDS:

- 1939-45 Star - France-Germany Star

- War Medal - CVSM & Clasp

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Life story: Gwyn de Jong, Research Team Faces to Graves.

Acknowledgments:

Photos: Joanne Martin, Gordon was her uncle

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Library and Archives Canada War Diary, Algonquin Regiment Col.C.P. Stacey: The Victory Campaign

Canadian Army – Soldiers Service and Pay Book – Gordon Gilhully

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