William Charles Davies was born on in 1913 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to English immigrant parents, George and Elizabeth Davies of St. Catharines, Ontario and husband of Jean Elizabeth Cooke of Warren, Manitoba. Bill, as he was known, went to school in Winnipeg, up to Grade 10, leaving Grade 10 in 1929. He had an older brother and five sisters.
In 1932, Bill joined the 38th Field Battery, Canadian Artillery, a Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM) unit in Winnipeg. His record shows that he broke a leg during a riding exercise with the unit a month after he joined. Bill moved to Toronto and joined the Canadian Breweries in Toronto, Ontario, where he worked as a stationary engineer.
On 2 September 1939, the 2nd Field Park Company, an NPAM Royal Canadian Engineers unit in Toronto was ordered to mobilize. The mobilization order required the unit to recruit a divisional field park company with a total strength of 174 officers and men. Almost immediately, the entire NPAM strength of medically fit men unit was attested into the newly authorized Canadian Active Service Force (CASF). By 10 September, the day Canada declared war against the German Reich, the unit was at 79 all ranks and by the next day, a total of 104 had been enrolled. By 30 September, while winter quarters were being prepared at the Colosseum in the Canadian National Exposition grounds, the unit was one man short of its establishment. Bill had enlisted on 14 September 1939, declaring his trade as a 4th Class Stationary Engineer.
The role of a field park company in a division was to provide the heavy equipment, workshop and engineer stores resources for the divisional engineer field companies. Like all other units at the time of mobilization, the company suffered from a lack of basic clothing, equipment and training areas. By far the most critical shortage was trained instructors. The few members who had served in the NPAM version of the unit had some knowledge to pass on, but it was rudimentary and limited. Most men spent their time in very basic recruit training activities focused for a large part on close-order drill and physical fitness. In October, selected officers and men were sent off on courses to learn basic skills to pass on to the company on their return – field works, musketry, gas warfare, map reading, Bren gun, anti-tank weapons, driver-mechanic, and other basic subjects. Recruiting slowed but was able to keep up with discharges due to medical and family reasons.
The first weeks of December focused on the company’s impending move to the United Kingdom. The movement order was issued on 12 December aimed at entraining in Toronto for Halifax on 16 December. Over the first two weeks, one-quarter of the men at a time men were given a three-day leave to tidy their affairs and make their farewells. On 16 December, each man boarded the train with their rifle, respirator, web equipment and a duffle bag. Once loaded, they left Toronto on a ten-car training occupying three cars, the 48th Highlanders occupying the rest. They detrained in Halifax at 1545 on 18 December and within an hour, boarded the Riena Del Pacifico. By the time sleeping spaces were allocated the following day, there were 1477 Canadian soldiers aboard the ship as she slipped the dock and took up position in the seven-ship convoy, plus naval escorts from the Canadian, British and French navies, in Bedford Basin. They set sail on the morning of 22 December and after an uneventful zigzagging course voyage complete with Christmas Dinner, disembarked in Glasgow with most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division on 31 December and immediately boarded trains south to Aldershot. They would be quarters in Gibraltar Barracks with the other units of the 1st Divisional Engineers.
Being older than most soldiers in the Company and having an established trade on enrollment, Bill’s maturity and experience made him an ideal candidate for a leadership position. In January 1940, he was appointed Lance Corporal then Corporal in May 1940 when he was working in the Workshop Platoon. The Workshop Platoon was one of three in the company, the others being Bridging and Stores Platoon. The Workshop held the majority of tradesmen - carpenters, machinists, mechanics, blacksmiths, electricians, plumbers, welders and more. In August, he was promoted to Lance Sergeant. This rank was given to soldiers who were capable of filling the rank of Sergeant but lacked the full qualification. It was common to use this to fill vacancies with high-performing men on a trial basis to test their suitability for promotion. Lance Sergeants were paid as corporals but treated as sergeants. Later that year, Bill completed a three-week course at the School of Military Administration in Ripon, Yorkshire, returning to Aldershot on 28 December. Not only was he a skilled leader, he was also a versatile tradesman. Until August, he had been filling a vacancy as a fitter (motor mechanic), but when a needed vacancy for an electrician arose, he was moved with the same trades pay following.
Training in 1940 focused initially on developing individual sapper skills. Subjects included small arms, demolitions, power tools, drill and tactics, mine warfare, earthworks, obstacles, knots and lashings, water supply and bridging. By far the most important task of the company was supporting the three field companies in the division. For example, while the field companies built the bridges, the field park company carried the necessary bridge sets to the site and returned them afterwards. The bridge sets would be checked for damage or missing parts and made ready for the next time. As the United Kingdom at the time was under threat of a German invasion, training often took second place to the construction of field works and defences as well as the continuous construction of camps and airfields. In these efforts, the role of the company extended beyond supporting the field companies, especially for the tradesmen in Bill's Workshop. These activities continued into 1941 until the threat of invasion passed in June 1941 when Hitler launched his invasion of Russia. In March 1941, Bill qualified as a Physical Fitness Instructor and later attended the Physical Fitness Training School to qualify as the 1st Division’s boxing instructor. Because of his skills, Bill was put in charge of the Workshop, supervising the care and maintenance of centrally held tools and equipment.
For the rest of the year and into the next, the pattern of providing labour for construction work, interspersed with short episodes of engineer training continued. However, that started to change in December 1942 when the focus of the 1st Division’s training started to take on a different flavour and the RCE started to become more intimately involved. It was now obvious that the Allies were preparing to take the fight to the enemy. That month, a small party from the unit visited the Combined Operations Training Centre near Inveraray in Scotland to prepare for exercises that would start in January.
In January 1943, all four companies of the 1st Divisional Engineers were in Scotland. On 24 January 1943, Bill was transferred to the 3rd Field Company and was quickly made an Acting Sergeant. The next six months included amphibious operations, mountain warfare and individual fighting skills. The unit developed a closer affiliation with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade (2 CIB) they would support in any upcoming engagements. No one knew where or when they were going, but they knew they would be among the first in Europe and would be landing by sea. The training was rigorous and covered combined operations, mountain warfare, bridging, mine and booby trap clearance, small arms, route repair and construction, field craft and small arms practice. There was even some rudimentary German language training.
The Company was back in Scotland in June 1943 and had just completed three weeks of mountain warfare when they took part in a large amphibious landing exercise on the west coast of Scotland. They were issued tropical clothing and started to waterproof their vehicles. By this time, the whole division was on edge with tensions rising and rumours spreading about where and when they would see action. Would it be Greece? Crete? Sicily? No sooner was the exercise completed than they were issued tropical clothing and loaded onto ships for a week-long amphibious landing exercise and carried out an assault landing from landing craft. Bill was promoted to the substantive rank of sergeant on 16 June 1943.
The upcoming operation, code-named Operation HUSKY, and although the troops were unaware of the details, they were re-embarked and confined on the same ships when the exercise ended. The total strength of Canadian units embarked for Operation HUSKY was over 26,000 officers and men with tanks, guns and enough supplies to sustain three weeks of fighting.
The 3rd Field Company landed in Sicily on 10 July 1943 at Pachino. Many transport vehicles and items of equipment had been lost by the 1st Division when a ship was torpedoed and sunk on the way to Sicily. Once ashore, the Allied armies (US 7th Army and the British 8th Army), and the formations operated independently during the campaign. The landing of follow-on troops and equipment continued until over the next few days as the sappers moved inland. The division fought a series of battles - Grammichele on 15 July, Piazza Armerina on 16-17 July, Valguarnera from 17 to 19 July and finally, Leonforte on 21-22 July.
During the Battle of Leonforte, 3rd Field Company RCE went to work to bridge the 50-foot gap over the Dittaino. Work progressed through the night and the bridge was in place by 0430 hrs on 22 July. The Engineers were under constant mortar and machine-gun fire. While the job was still in progress, their company commander, Major Kenneth Southern, moved up the road with a party of four infantrymen and two engineers, Sapper Johnston being one of them. On the outskirts of the town they were confronted by a machine-gun covering the only approach and close beside it two enemy tanks and a small force of infantry troops. This was an obvious and potential threat to the sappers toiling in the ravine below that might well have halted their efforts and spelled disaster for the isolated Canadians awaiting reinforcement in the town. Catching the Germans by surprise, a small party discharged their small arms and made such a display of force that the more formidable enemy group was deterred from advancing and resulting in the capture of 20 Germans.
The hilltop town Agira lay ahead and there would be hard fighting on the high ground. The advance began on 26 July. The battle continued for several days until Cemetery Hill, the final objective dominating the northern end of the city was then cleared after hard fighting on 28 July. The approach road to the town had fairly easy gradients and few defiles suitable for defence was opened at 0600 hours after the 3rd Field Company had repaired a crater and cleared away some mines and derelict enemy transport.
Taking no chances, the Canadians arranged for full artillery support to attack Agira. Luckily, they and the sorely tired citizens of the town were spared further casualties when an artillery observation officer discovered that the streets in Agira were filled with friendly people anxious to welcome the Allied forces. The barrage was cancelled and the Canadians entered the town as liberators.
While the crater was being filled, the 3rd Field Company continued with its forward reconnaissance task. The patrol leader, Lieutenant E.T. Galway, GM, MC, meeting little resistance, found himself and his patrol in the middle of the town itself. As they withdrew, they met some resistance. Five German soldiers were killed in the skirmish as well as Sapper Johnston. Sergeant Davies was killed the same night, but the records are not clear as to whether he was with Lieutenant Galway at the time.
Agira had cost the Canadians 438 casualties, the costliest battle of the Sicilian campaign. On the day Agira was liberated, Bill was 30 years old. He is buried in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Sicily. He is buried in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Italy.
* From research completed by Thierry Slama and the CMEA .