In the fall of 1943, a scheme was devised whereby
Canadian Infantry Officers could volunteer to serve with Regiments
of the British Army. This came about due to the many campaigns
fought by the British Army, half way around the world, which
resulted in a shortage of junior officers, while the invasion of
North-West Europe was imminent.
The Canadian Army at this time had a surplus of
officers, due in part to the disbanding of two Home Defence
divisions, and also to the fact that the Canadian Army was fighting
on one front only, in Italy. Officer training continued and it was
discovered that Canada had more officers than could be employed in
active battalions, at this time, with the result that many were
cooling their heels in Reinforcement Units, Depots, and Training
Centres.
The Canadian Government offered to loan junior
officers to the British Army on a voluntary basis, under the code
name "CANLOAN". They were attached for all purposes except pay and
given special serial numbers with the prefix "CDN".
Six hundred and twenty three (623) Infantry
Officers, together with fifty (50) Ordnance Officers, whom the
Royal Army Ordnance Corps were anxious to have, volunteered and
served under the CANLOAN scheme, a total of six hundred and
seventy-three (673) in all. While the majority were Junior
Officers, Captains were included on the basis of one for every
seven Lieutenants. Some officers with higher ranks reverted and
some from other arms of the service transferred to Infantry, in
order that they could get in on this promise of early action.
In the early spring of 1944 all officers who
volunteered were interviewed by a special Selection Board, and on
acceptance were sent to A-34 Special Officers' Training Centre,
Sussex, NB, where they underwent a short refresher course, while
the necessary preparations for overseas service were speedily
completed. During this phase they were under the command of Brig.
Milton F. Gregg VC, MC, who, because of his continued keen interest
in the welfare of all CANLOAN, is regarded as their
Colonel-in-Chief and became Honorary President of the post-war
CANLOAN Army Officers' Association. From Sussex they proceeded
overseas in drafts of from fifty to two hundred, the first draft
arriving on April 7th, 1944 and the remainder following in short
order. They were immediately posted to British regiments, as far as
possible to the British Regiment, if any, to which their Canadian
Regiment was affiliated.
CANLOAN Officers took part in the bitter fighting
in North-West Europe in 1944-45, many landing with the Airborne
Forces on D-1, and with the seaborne assault on the Normandy
beaches, and some surviving through the final battles in Germany. A
few served with British Regiments in Italy, and, although the plan
was for service in North-West Europe and the Mediterranean only, a
number volunteered for other theatres with a few eventually serving
in South-East Asia. Some, after being wounded, were returned to
duty through the reinforcement stream and were posted to new units;
thus many served with two or more regiments and formations. They
received normal wartime (temporary) promotion within their British
units, some becoming Company Commanders and in at least one case,
CO of his battalion. While with the British regiments they wore
normal British unit and formation badges and shoulder patches plus
the "Canada" shoulder flash.
|
CANLOAN Casualties:
| Killed in Action or died of
wounds |
128 (20%) |
| Wounded |
310 (50%) |
| Prisoners of war |
27 (5% ) |
| Total Casualties |
465 (75%) |
CANLOAN Decorations
41 Military Crosses (1 with bar) 1 Silver Star (US) 1
Distinguished Service Cross 4 Croix de Guerre (French) 1 M.B.E. 1
Order of Bronze Lion (Dutch)
An unrecorded number of "Mentions in Dispatches" and C-in-Cs
Commendations.
In addition, CANLOAN volunteers already wore 2 Distinguished
Conduct Medals and 6 Military Medals for previous service in the
ranks of the Canadian Army.
|
The CANLOAN Scroll |
The co-ordinates above are not for
the cache location, but where you will find the
CANLOAN MEMORIAL
MONUMENT.
The cache is located at a distance
of ABC degrees on a
bearing of XYZ
meters from the posted
co-ordinates.
To get the amount of meters you will have to find the
posted junior officers located on the monument and fill in
the blank with the missing number.
CDN.
6(A)1 WILLARD S.
CASELEY
CDN.
17(B) HAROLD W.
MAIN
CDN.
65(C) RICHARD N.
STEWART
ABC = DEGREES
Now for the amount of degrees you will also have to find the
posted junior officers located on the monument and fill in the
blank with the missing number.
CDN.
48(X) JOHN C.
PAPE
CDN.
(Y)29 JOHN P.
BLACKHAM
CDN.
16(Z) WILLIAM G.
HUNT
XYZ = METERS
PLEASE do not include spoilers in your logs. Logs with
spoilers will be deleted immediately. If you believe there are
problems with the cache setup, please advise me privately by e-mail
so that I may fix them if necessary.