It was of the utmost importance on the night of October 28th, 1944, to bridge the South Beveland Canal so that contact could be made with a hard-pressed British division who had previously made a landing on South Beveland. With all bridges blown it was necessary to force a crossing of the canal and bridging was commenced immediately after a small bridgehead had been established at 2300 hours by the infantry.

Heavy enemy shelling of extreme accuracy made the only possible bridging site almost untenable, but disregarding this, Lance-Sergeant West organized the construction of the far approaches and continued to the completion of his task, although he and his men were driven to cover many times by the shellfire. He repeatedly reorganized his parties in spite of heavy casualties and led them back to their tasks, encouraging his men to greater efforts.

The work accomplished by this Non-Commissioned Officer's party was responsible for the success of his part of the bridging operation. The devotion to duty, outstanding courage and excellent qualities of leadership shown by Lance-Sergeant West while working under extremely hazardous conditions is deserving of the highest praise.

Note: This action is clearly related to that which involved Sergeant N.H. Loiselle.