James Orr was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He came to Canada with his parents. Thomas and Sarah Orr as an infant. They arrived in Québec City in 1909 and later settled in the Pointe St. Charles neighbourhood of Montreal, Québec. He was their first child, followed by five daughters. Like thousands of other young men growing up during the Great Depression, James did not finish high school. After completing Grade 7 at the age of 14, he started working to help bring in a little money for his family. In 1933, James joined the local Militia unit, the 4th Field Company in Pointe St. Charles.
On the morning of 2 September 1939, even before the war was officially declared, the 4th Field Company received orders to immediately mobilize to a war establishment. Growing from a strength of a few dozen, it started recruiting and in less than two weeks, had nearly 120 officers and men on its rolls. James was working as an automotive mechanic at the Chevrolet plant in Montreal and on 8 September, he volunteered to transfer from the Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM) to the Canadian Active Service Force (CASF).
The first months were challenging for the unit. There was no barrack accommodation and out-of-town recruited slept on the floor of the armoury. Recruits had no subsistence allowance and meals were purchased from a local café. To make up for a complete lack of transport, vehicles were rented. There were few uniforms, but on 13 September, the unit received 80 pairs of boots for the 112 men they had been enrolled. Many boots were too small or too big and were returned, but it was a start.
September and October were very much shakedown months as the unit organized and equipped itself as far as accommodation and stores permitted. Due to shortages in every corner, recruiting was ordered to stop at the end of September. Accommodations were eventually found at the end of October in the Grand Union Hotel (not so ‘Grand’ according to their War Diary). Recruiting was allowed to start again in November and the unit soon reached its war establishment goal. A small group of three officers and five senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were selected and dispatched to England to start training in Engineer Field Works, a four-week course slated to start in mid-December. An advance party also left for England in November to prepare for the arrival of the whole company before the year’s end.
On 22 December, along with the 3rd and 4th Field Companies, the 2nd Field Park Company left Halifax in a seven-ship convoy under naval escort bound for Scotland. On arrival in the Glasgow area on 31 December, the troops were allowed a short leave and then taken to the Victoria-era Malplaque Barracks in Aldershot temporarily while more permanent quarters were found. These early arrivals were the forerunners of over 330,000 Canadian soldiers passed through Aldershot between 1939 and 1946.
Despite a move to the even older Talavera Barracks in February with the rest of the divisional engineers, living conditions did not change. The barracks were unheated and the plumbing, inadequate to begin with, was often frozen. Despite these hardships, the troops carried on and focused on individual military training including demolitions, tactics, map reading, field defenses and of course, small arms including the anti-tank rifle, and of course physical fitness. King George VI had visited and inspected the company in late January.
Throughout 1940, the reality of balancing the need to fortify and defend Britain against invasion against training for war hurt the Engineers more than other arms. As a group, they lagged in developing individual collective war fight skills as their efforts were often diverted towards construction tasks. Some of the sappers with trades were diverted to building accommodations while most of the others were set to the back-breaking construction of field fortifications – tunnels, trenches, bulwarks, tank traps, and more. There was also a paucity of experience among most officers and NCOs. As they received very abbreviated engineer training, normally in British Army Schools with similar shortcomings, they no sooner learned something than they passed it quickly on to others. It was during this time, in May 1940, that James qualified as Driver III.
By the following year, the invasion threat began to ease and time allowed for short periods of field engineer training. In April, the company was introduced to the Small Box Girder and Heavy Box Girder bridges. Officers and NCOs learned as they went and passed the skills to the sappers on hastily organized exercises. As the spring turned to summer, specialist training became more common. Selected sappers trained as drivers while others learned the basics of water supply. James qualified Pioneer ‘C’ in February 1941, earning a slight raise in daily pay.
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. In December, 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. James qualified as a driver in December while in Scotland. James also took a vehicle and equipment waterproofing course in January 1943 and qualified as ‘Driver i/c’ in February while at the Combined Training Center.
The next six months included amphibious operations, mountain warfare and individual fighting skills. The unit developed a closer affiliation with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade (3 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 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.
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 main invasion force would sail in two convoys with the combat units divided between the "Fast Assault Convoy" carrying the actual landing force and the "Slow Assault Convoy" carrying the follow-up troops. The Slow Assault Convoy would sail first and meet the Fast Assault Convoy off Malta on D minus 1. The ‘Slow Assault Convoy’ left in two groups on 19 and 24 June 1943 respectively. Taking different sea routes for reasons of security and safety, they would meet near Algiers. The Slow Assault Convoy carried troops, equipment and supplies not needed for the initial assault.
On 1 June 1943, James and 24 others left the company area and drove a small convoy of vehicles to Dumfries, Scotland. As part of the Slow Assault Convoy, they were loaded on the MV Devis along with detachments from units of 3 CIB and Division HQ, including HQ Divisional Engineers. Once at sea, the troops focused on physical training, washing, eating, fatigues, games and lectures emphasizing first aid, sanitation and the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians. It was not until 1 July 1943, as they neared the Strait of Gibraltar, the men aboard the ships learned they were part of Montgomery’s 8th Army and were headed to Sicily. With the announcement, a sealed bag containing detailed orders, maps, aerial photos, operations orders and intelligence pamphlets was opened on each ship along with a large-scale relief map and officers and men developed a solid vision of the topography upon which they would carry out their mission. This was in strict compliance with General Montgomery’s direction that every soldier would go ashore physically fit and knowing what was required of him.
For the fast assault convoy, the passage was easy, but not so much for the slow convoy. After passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, the slow convoy was attacked by submarines and had three ships torpedoed and sunk. On the night of 4 / 5 July, the MV St. Essylt and the MV City of Venice were torpedoed. The St. Essylt was abandoned in flames and the City of Venice sank while being towed to Algiers. Six Canadian soldiers were lost along with a significant amount of equipment and supplies. The next afternoon, MV Devis was also hit, just aft of amidships and just below the soldiers’ mess deck.
With the ship on fire, the ammunition stores exploded and separated the front from the back of the ship. The fire blocked the escape of anyone below decks. Amazingly, despite the fire, there was little panic and 257 men were able to abandon ship only when the order was given. The ship sank 20 minutes after being hit taking 52 Canadian soldiers and a considerable amount of equipment with it. Those not badly wounded in the attack were able to join their comrades in Sicily about a month later.
Sapper James Orr was not rescued with the rest and was considered missing for a few days until it was presumed he had been killed. His body was not recovered. He is commemorated at the Cassino War Cemetery. He was 35 years old when he died.