Walter John Gale was born in Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan to Harry and Elizabeth Gale. He was brought up and worked on the family farm and had completed most of Grade 10 when he left school. He worked learning carpentry skills with his English born father who was the local maintenance supervisor for the Federal Grain Company. He learned his trade repairing grain elevators and heavy scales in and around his hometown of Ridgedale. Walter enlisted in Saskatoon on 29 August 1941. Walter had three sisters and two, who were old enough, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Based on his trades experience, Walter was assigned to the Royal Canadian Engineers and started training at Number 12 Basic Training Center in Chatham, Ontario. On completion of basic training, he was posted to A5 Engineer Training Centre in Camp Petawawa, Ontario in February 1942. He completed trades school as a carpenter and was soon on his way to the United Kingdom disembarking in Greenock, Scotland on 10 April 1942 and heading south to the Engineer Reinforcement Unit in Hawley, England. He was described in his personnel file as an all-round good soldier, and although a bit young, labeled as ‘good NCO material’ He started receiving trades pay as Carpenter Group ‘B’ in June 1942 and posted to ‘A’ Company, 4th Battalion, RCE. When the 4th Battalion reorganized to form II Corps Troops Engineers in May 1943, Walter’s company was re-designated the 29th Field Company. While initially employed primarily on building and construction tasks in Canada and the United Kingdom, the 4th Battalion had started training for this new role in January 1942. In July 1943, Walter was promoted to the rank of Acting Lance-Corporal. He then completed a course at the Special Driving School and was promoted to Corporal in April 1944.
The 29th Field Company arrived in Normandy in late June 1944 and were employed in a myriad of tasks during the Battle of Normandy, especially in and around Caen, rafting the Orne River and its canals and quais. An especially interesting task was a 150-foot Class 9 single-single Bailey bridge from one quai to another on the Orne Canal. The 23rd Field Company replaced that bridge with a triple-double Class 40 ‘Reynolds’ bridge two weeks later. Walter received a promotion to Lance Sergeant in July 1944 and posted from 1 Platoon to 3 Platoon.
After the Normandy Breakout, the 29th Field Company continued forward with II Corps. They bridged the Somme and the Seine, and built more bridges and cleared routes along the coast and into the Low Countries. In October, they supported the 3rd Division’s amphibious attack into the Breskens Pocket working from the Terneuzen area. They then supported the 52nd (Lowland) Division’s amphibious assault over the Scheldt into South Beveland Island as part of Operation VITALITY.
The assault was launched in the early morning darkness of 26 October. The sappers landed before 0500 hours. Number 1 Platoon landed on Amber Beach and Number 3 Platoon landed to the east on Green Beach and found it needed no immediate work. The LVTs started off-loading men and stores and the infantry moved rapidly inland, outflanking the Beveland Canal defences. The sappers on Amber saw little of the Beveland. For the rest of the month, they lived in holes in the dike and maintained the dike-crossings and beach-tracks, and manhandled engineer stores ashore. Around the corner on Green beach, the story was different. The site was under fire from the start. Lance-Sergeant Gale and Sappers Tolfree and Whillier were killed and six others wounded. While the platoon was working to prepare a ramp for a Terrapin ambulance, two more sappers were wounded. Continued fire made Green beach useless and after 1040 hours it was closed. The sappers were finally evacuated at 1500 hours with the last of the wounded on the last vehicle. The beach was abandoned.
Walter’s mother received a Memorial Pin and a gratuity of $643.98 calculated on the basis of $7.50 for every month served, 25 cents per day for overseas service, and an additional supplement od $129.98 based on his overseas pay of $2.65 per day. Walter had served a total of 1155 days, 931 of them overseas.
He was temporarily buried in Bearland in South Beveland and later treansferred to Bergen Op Zoom Canadian War Cemetery in Holland.
Return to Part 5: Tributes to the Fallen Sappers of the Scheldt