Lloyd Alexander Johnston was born in 1918 in Ottawa, Ontario, the son of Allen Weston Johnston and Olive Catherine Johnston. He had completed his early education at Devonshire Public School and had been attending the Technical High School in Ottawa for three years when he enlisted. He had an older brother, Allen, who served in the Army and a sister, Phyllis.
In Oct 1937, Lloyd enlisted in the 3rd Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers in Ottawa, a unit of the Non-Permanent Active Militia, the equivalent of today’s Reserve Force. Lloyd participated in intensive training at annual camps in Petawawa where he followed bridging courses and learned motor mechanics. Even though his schooling was not complete, it was far enough along that Lloyd was able to list his civilian trade as Motor Mechanic Driver when he enlisted.
On 1 September 1939, the 3rd Field Company was ordered to mobilize as part of the Canadian Active Service Force, which later was named the Canadian Army, a term not yet in official use. Following the commanding officer held a brief meeting at the Drill Hall on Grove Avenue, arrangements to attract more recruits were started. As Lloyd was already on strength, he was one of the first to complete his medical examination and had most of his clothing and kit already. This was not the case for the recruits. There were shortages of clothing that would last for months. In that first month of September, the unit received boots, many of which were the wrong size, used clothing and limited training materials.
On 22 December, the unit, along the 4th Field Company and the 2nd Field Park Company left Halifax in a seven-ship convoy under naval escort bound for Scotland left Halifax and after eight uneventful days at sea, landed in Gourock, Scotland on 30 December 1939. On arrival in the Glasgow area, the troops were allowed a short leave and then taken to the Victoria-era Malplaque Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire temporarily while more permanent quarters were found. These early arrivals were the forerunners of over 330,000 Canadian soldiers who passed through Aldershot between 1939 and 1946. Lloyd was hospitalized for a week. He was assigned to Lieutenant Galway’s platoon and would serve there for the duration of his war.
In February 1940, the 3rd Field Company, along with the rest of the divisional engineers, moved to the even older Talavera Barracks. 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 defences and of course, small arms including the anti-tank rifle, and physical fitness training.
Throughout 1940, the reality of balancing the need to fortify and defend Britain against invasion against training for war hurt the Engineers more than the other arms – infantry, armour and artillery. As a group, they lagged in developing the individual and collective warfighting skills they would need. A desperate lack of suitable infrastructure in Britain meant combat engineer training efforts were diverted toward construction tasks. Sappers with trade qualifications built accommodations while others tackled the backbreaking construction of field fortifications – tunnels, trenches, bulwarks, tank traps, and more – all tasks better completed using machines. 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 had to pass it quickly on to others without time to truly master their new skills. Lloyd qualified as Driver Class III in June 1940 and in January 1941, he was sent to the Leicester School of Technology. He returned to his unit in May 1941 as Fitter Class III.
Lloyd’s first adventure came when he was included in Spitzbergen. On 17 August 1941, he boarded a ship bound for Spitzbergen on Operation GAUNTLET, landing on 25 August. The goal of the operation, which had the approval of the Norwegian and Soviet governments, was to evacuate the civilian population and deny Germany the coal, mining and shipping infrastructure, equipment and stores, and suppress any wireless stations on the archipelago to prevent the Germans from receiving weather reports.
Initially, Canada was to contribute a brigade, less an infantry battalion, and supporting divisional troops units including a machine gun company, an anti-aircraft battery, the 3rd Field Squadron, signals and medical support to Force 111. After they trained in Scotland, the scope of the operation was reduced to a smaller battalion, a machine-gun company, 3rd Field Company, the brigade HQ and a small party of Royal Engineers. The operation was successful and executed in such secrecy the Germans could not react or finger. The Canadian engineers set fire to about 450,000 long tons of coal dumped at the mines, burned much of the fuel oil and poured into the sea, removed or sabotaged mining equipment and burned down the main town.
Operation GAUNLET was a success; the Germans had been able to challenge the expedition, the raiders suffered no casualties, the civilians were repatriated, several ships were taken as prizes and a German warship was sunk on the return journey. On 3 September, the 3rd Field Company sailed back for Scotland aboard the Empress of Canada.
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, Lloyd was qualified as Lead Engine Hand and received trades pay of $1.75 per day.
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.
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, there was no master plan to coordinate the activities between 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.
Returning to the bridge site, Sapper Johnston made two trips through heavy fire to transport wounded soldiers to the rear on his motorcycle. For the night’s work, he received the Military Medal for gallant and distinguished service. By nightfall on 22 July, Leonforte was declared secure. The bridging operation marked the first time during the war that a Bailey bridge had been erected under fire. Of the 21 awards for gallantry attributed to gallantry at Leonforte, five were received by Engineers.
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.
Agira had cost the Canadians 438 casualties, the costliest battle of the Sicilian campaign. On the day Agira was liberated, Lloyd was only 23 years old. He is buried in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Sicily.
Note: His brother, Lieutenant Allen Johnston was serving in Shilo MB when he died.
* From research completed by Thierry Slama and the CMEA .