During the past couple of years, I have been assembling a list of all the Second World War casualties suffered by the unit I was in action with for some nine months, the South Saskatchewan Regiment. I came to them as a somewhat surprised reinforcement officer from the Seaforths, along with another Seaforth officer, and several Other Ranks. I was of course aware that the unit had suffered a rather high number of casualties, My intention was to prepare a listing which would be as complete and accurate as possible, be computerized in a form that other persons and other units could use, and was as user friendly as possible. In particular, I was aiming to make the computer file and program in a form that would facilitate sorting or filtering as necessary, by name, by date, by place of action or battle, and if feasible, by type of casualty. It should also lend itself to repair if it should become damaged, and to amendment as new information became available. I assumed other military historians would be interested in making comparisons and doing analysis of their own records. I was not particularly happy with the existing documents.

I began this task many years ago, in conjunction with my friend and former fellow officer, Lt. Col. G. B. Buchanan, MBE, former Second in Command of the SSR during the entire time I was with the unit, early September 1944 to mid June 1945, when I was sent to the Canadian Army (Occupation Force). It was our joint intention to expand and augment the regimental history first published by "Buck" Buchanan in 1979. I had available to me certain documents on casualties prepared by the Regiment immediately after hostilities ended in 1945, which I received and kept as a former Lieutenant and Captain in the Regiment. Colonel Buchanan had also shared with me copies of certain documents he had acquired, notably battle de-briefings and casualty figures from the Dieppe Raid, in which Buchanan had participated as an SSR junior officer, having joined the Regiment as a Private in 1939. On Buchanan's death I gave up his thought of rewriting the history, but still wished to prepare some record of the experiences of a rapidly dwindling group of veterans. Part of this was my preparation of the little book "Kamp Westerbork-Transit Camp to Eternity-the Liberation Experience".

More recently, I have been enormously helped by Peter Maulé, a thrice wounded SSR former NCO, who is not only a former President of the South Saskatchewan Regiment Association, but also a military "buff" of great knowledge and a meticulous keeper of documents pertaining to the South Saskatchewans. We have both had excellent co-operation and assistance from Inspector Klaas Niemeijer, of the Dutch National Police, who is also a military buff with special attachment to the South Saskatchewan Regiment.

In assembling this information, we have collectively relied on: 1. "South Saskatchewan Regiment, Official List of Battle Casualties, 24Jul45, Officers Killed in Action - 01", "Wounded - (03)", "Released POWs Wounded (25), II Other Ranks (Note, unless otherwise stated were KIA", "XIV Wounded" (Other Ranks), Missing Personnel" (Other Ranks), "Prisoners of War" (Other Ranks),

2. "Amendment No. 1 to Official List of Casualties Published by CMHQ" (Delete under Officers "Killed ") and (Delete Under ORs "Wounded"),

3. "Amendment No. 2 to Official List of Casualties Published by CMHQ Officers- Add Under "Died of Wounds", "Add under "Wounded"", "ADD on last page of Officer Casualties Missing". Also "Other Ranks Add under Deaths" ....

4. "Amendment No. 3 to Official List of Casualties Published by CMHQ" "Officers" (5 names), "Other Ranks" (12 names). I also have

5. "SSR Members who took part in the Dieppe Raid 19Aug1942", undated, showing KIA, Wounded, POW, and Returned to England. Clearly this refers to the information available to the Regiment at that time. I also have

6. "South Saskatchewan Regiment - Movement and Casualties on the Continent of Europe During World War II", referred to previously, which summarizes each position, move, and action of the Regiment from 8Jul44 to 30May45. This document, prepared by the unit Intelligence Section, followed the custom of the time, mentioning significant officer casualties by name, and usually only numbers of OR casualties for each action.

7. "Highlights of the South Saskatchewan Regiment in Action 2nd War - In the Field- 8May45" and

8. "Highlights of the History of the South Saskatchewan Regiment During the Year 1944" prepared by the "I" Section in January 1945, were also referred to. In addition to this, Peter Maulé has also made available to me:

9. "Courtesy of the Groesbeek Museum 1987, Fatal and MIA Casualties by date of the South Saskatchewan Regiment RCIC", with burial locations. He also provided copies of

10. the Brettville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery Lists,

11. the "Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery List of Fatal Casualties to the South Saskatchewan Regiment", and

12. the "Holten Canadian War Cemetery 370 List of 'The War Graves of Our Liberators'", assembled by the late Dutch military historian Menno Huizinga, "updated March 14th 1998". This latter lists all Canadians buried at Holten, not just the SSR. It is available on the Web. Finally, Peter Maulé has provided

14. "Location of SSR Members Graves-KIA, Died Between 1939-1945". Also

15. "March of the Prairie Men" lists all the SSR fatal casualties of whatever cause.

One would assume that all these lists would be complete and accurate. In fact there are errors and omissions enough, some identified, some still to be. Nor do the lists always agree completely, though Buchanan's published list seems to have been verified. My goal is to ensure consistancy between lists, with absolute accuracy still to come. I have attempted to get the latest figures held by Archives Canada. They rather sadly informed me that they were only allowed to provide "complete: lists of fatal casualties, or of persons I can "prove" have been dead for at least twenty years." This, they say, is due to regulations under the Privacy Act! They will not provide Regimental Numbers for the same reason. This latter provision is not only historically silly, since lists galore were prepared more than 55 years ago at least, but it may even be illegal, since International Law has for generations insisted that all military personnel must be identified by Rank, Name, Initials, and Serial Number, with the addition of Nationality of the Force, and usually Religion of the individual clearly indicated on Identity Discs. These facts were to be given to the enemy, if captured, and so cannot be considered "private". Besides, separating the 44 soldiers named "Smith" who served in the SSR, by initials alone, is a hopeless task.

It is apparent from the beginning that there are problems with the lists. For example, "Movements and Casualties" gives:

These totals were presumably prepared from the Regiment's own recorded lists of casualties recorded after each battle, in fact normally each night. No Dieppe casualties are included in this list as shown by the small number of PW (Note the change from POW, to correspond with revised procedures to meet Allied requirements, principally the American practice. This coincided with the change for British and Commonwealth practice of using red to indicate friendly information (the Thin Red Line!) and the American practice of using Blue for friendly forces, based on the Union winning the Civil War! But up to the end of the war, enemy weapons were still shown on so-called Defence Overprint maps in dark blue.) But the casualty figures above are still staggering for a unit of some 832 (?) all ranks. Even more confusing are the so-called Official figures from CMHQ, which don't match these records at all.

Why the discrepancies? Some casualties recorded by the unit were probably double counted in the flush of battle. But the total casualties had to be matched against reinforcements, and against TO&E (Table of Organization and Equipment) to order rations (and ammunition) for each day, and to replace weapons lost in action. Even though casualties to commanders at all levels in the unit were often extreme, almost complete, and reinforcements were often limited, periodic checks were certainly made to reconcile live soldiers and records, even if only for pay and allowance purposes (only?).

This also leads to questions about rank. The Canadian Army had a somewhat "mean" attitude towards rank, more appropriate to peacetime than war. Promotions were always to acting rank for a minimum three months, when the rank may be confirmed. Casualties usually lost their temporary ranks, which was a bit frustrating when the soldier returned to action. It also leads to confusion over ranks of casualties, especially officers, who did not have Serial Numbers at that time. (Officers promoted from the ranks sometimes carried their former Regimental Numbers on their records.)

The "Official Records" themselves reported three sets (at least) of errors and corrections, and these were not always accurate, only the "official" record. Lt. Col. Buchanan's book reported only fatal casualties, giving 460 battle casualties, which does not match the totals above, but of course includes DOW (Died of Wounds) casualties, and also Dieppe casualties. All of his list are confirmed by other lists, but omissions of course do not show. It is also the case that some reinforcements, especially in early August, and also late August at the Foret de la Londe, and some in October 1944 in the Hoogerheide/Woensdrecht area were killed before they ever reached the unit, sometimes not being recovered by the unit, some not ever recovered, even now. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission people have done a most difficult job, but many factors operated against them. Some bodies were identified to the wrong units because they had not yet changed the badges of their former unit. I personally witnessed some of this, but did not appreciate the significance at the time. It is also true that some reinforcements were not recorded by the companies and platoons to which they were posted, before they and their Officers and NCOs were themselves casualties. The "Official List of Battle Casualties" included Dieppe casualty dates, including POWs and released POWs. But these too, are incomplete.

All the official lists usually give the date of DOW (Died of Wounds) but rarely the date of the actual wound which lead to the death. This confounds battle records. For example, I personally, with the help of two of my men, responded to a puff of black smoke and faint cries to recover L/Sgt H.D. Dorward of "D" Company, who had blundered into a mine field and stepped on a Schu mine. With much careful probing with a bayonet, we reached Dorward, wrapped him in my leather rabbitskin jacket, and piggy-backed him to where the unit M.O. and two stretcher-bearers were approaching. This was 20 or possibly 21 March 45, and is mentioned in "Movements and Casualties". But Dorward is not listed at all as wounded, only as DOW, in Britain, 08Apr45. In fact he was also wounded 07Jul44 at Verriere Ridge, as personally observed by Peter Maulé. Anyone slightly wounded, but not evacuated, such as myself, twice, was very rarely shown as a casualty remaining on duty, and thus is not included in statistics.

There are many outright errors, some of which have been found and corrected, mainly through Peter Maulé's efforts, but many have not. For example, F-60628 Pte McKenzie G. W. is shown in the official records as KIA 16Aug44 with the RHLI. In fact he was t.o.s. (Taken on strength) with the SSR 23Jul44. The "Book of Remembrance - Second World War", page 388 shows McKenzie as RHLI.

Lt. S. D. Jamieson was believed for some years by his family to be "Missing in Action" (MIA) 14Aug44 as reported by the SSR. His body was eventually recovered associated with four ORs with North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment markings, and officially recorded as being with the North Shore Regiment, with whom he had previously been briefly assigned. Peter Maulé was able to retrieve Lt Jamieson's personnel documents (MFM 1), which clearly shows Lt Jamieson to have been t.o.s. the SSR as a reinforcement officer 8Aug44. Despite this he is shown on his documents as KIA the North Shore. Maulé has been able to photograph his memorial stone and advise the next of kin, who had not been able to find his grave. It is not known whether the ORs were actually also SSR reinforcements.

Because of the rather confused times from late July to late October, with very heavy casualties, plus Allied bombing of our own troops, and frantic transfers of reinforcements from Britain, including remustering of artillery, armoured corps, engineers, even service corps and ordnance personnel to the infantry, as well as cross postings where men and even officers were unable to sew on new unit badges, many errors were undoubtedly made. I myself had a large fortress of a house near Dunkirk, which had resisted several days of attack, completely destroyed by a single German shell, causing four dead, four missing (buried completely), and 12 wounded, almost all from my own platoon. I did not yet have a list of any of their names, but I knew by observation that most of them were remustered from other arms and units. I still do not know whether these men of mine are recorded as SSR casualties or not. Often Second Echelon recorded personnel matters w.e.f. (with effect from) dates well after the event itself. The report of the count of these casualties, which I personally sent in, is recorded in the 6th Brigade Ops Log, but not in the SSR War Diary, perhaps because the Coy Commander and the 2 i/c were themselves casualties of that operation on other days. Also the IO and the CO who signed the war diaries for August and September were themselves not yet posted to the SSR for the first six weeks. I know that several of the men mentioned above had either no unit badges, or badges from other arms. I had no opportunity to ensure that the correct badges were sewn on, nor did the men. Just a fact of warfare at that time. Of course the next week I again received almost an entire platoon of new men, mainly also remustered, who immediately went into action, with different but equally unhappy results from tank counter attacks. I don't know these names either, since I was promoted the day after the attack, and immediately began a new role, and a new attack; the fortunes of war in 1944.

My immediate task now, then, is to make a comprehensive compilation of the casualties from all the available lists. The problem of wound dates for those persons DOW, and perhaps the correct dates for some wounded, remain to be discovered, let alone corrected. I will need help in ferreting out these details, and ensuring their accuracy. The attached list is the result of this stage.

After compiling the first draft of this present list, SSRCAS21R.XLS, from the file prepared by K.N., I noted some deficiencies. For example, the large number of DOW (Died of Wounds) who had no wound date recorded, and often were known to have died days and even weeks after the likely date of the wound. Also, released POW were often noted to be wounded, sometimes years before, and usually their date of release, but not the place, was recorded. In my view, to be an accurate representation of the events, these cases should have three distinct entries: 1. Wounded (perhaps using the shorter, old form WIA), 2. POW, and 3. Released, with date and perhaps place of release. DIC (Died in Captivity), produces special problems. There are also cases of wounds and even deaths reported indirectly in the War Diaries, etc., which do not appear as casualty statistics, e.g., Sgt Dorward, and Lt Maxwell, the latter the last official Officer casualty of the S Sask R. Other observed omissions on some occasions but not others were BCI, or Battle Caused Injuries, such as my driver, L/Cpl Emperingham, who had a finger joint ripped off while he was supervising the retrieval of one of our carriers, overturned by enemy rocket fire in the Hochwald. Because we were on notice to move, we were anxious to retrieve our still good, but upside down carrier. My own carrier, a T-16, was used by another driver to tow a cable to turn the carrier upright. A sudden late salvo caused the driver to accelerate, ripping off poor Emperingham's finger. This is not shown in the stats, as far as I can determine.

In this latest draft of the SSR casualty list, dated 24Jan2001, I have shown my suggested additions and corrections in red, so that they can be checked by other people, and the documents either confirmed or rejected. I also did not revise, or add any new sequence numbers to the original sequence, allegedly alphabetical. However, I did discover some out of sequence names which were placed in their proper sequence. This sequence can only be accurately defined in the final draft. It would be ideal if the Archives Canada files could be consulted, but these must include the Regimental numbers for reason given above. These numbers themselves give special clues as to the place of enlistment of the soldiers concerned, and sometimes the unit, where enlistments from 1939 and 40 are concerned. Finally, the opinion of other regimental historians as well as professional military historians should be solicited. I originally intended that my program, with the necessary macros, would be made available to other regimental associations, so that the best possible records can be assembled before all the survivors are dead, or have become incompetent to remember such details.

18Jan2001

C. E. Law,
Former Captain, S.S.R.