New Brunswick Hussar: Corporal Harold Jorgen Skaarup, G753, 5Th Armoured Regiment (8Th Princess Louise’S New Brunswick Hussars)

All Rights Reserved © 2001 by Harold Aage Skaarup

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

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Corporal Harold Jorgen Skaarup was one of 22,917 Canadians who went overseas to fight, but did not live to return home at the end of the Second World War to tell his story. He was there, I was not. I pass the information gathered from the events during the time he served as one soldier would tell the story of another soldier. The fog of war will mean that there are gaps in the story. You must choose for yourself what to believe.

ISBN: 0-595-19046-4 (Pbk)

ISBN: 0-595-74768-X (Cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-4809-0 (eBook)

This book is dedicated to those who serve and all those who have ever served in the Armed Forces of Canada, and in particular, to those military men and women whose stories will never be known because they never came back to tell them. For those who continue to serve, grant that what we do serves the cause of peace.

Contents

EPIGRAPH

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

CANADA AT WAR

JOINING UP

TRAINING

TRAINING IN ENGLAND

ON TO ITALY

TO THE FRONT

ONE LAST SALVO

THE HUSSARS MOVE ON

FRANCE AND GERMANY

MEMORIALS

AFTER THE WAR

ANNEX A

ANNEX B

ANNEX C

ANNEX D

ANNEX E

ANNEX F

ANNEX G

ANNEX H

ANNEX I

ANNEX J

APPENDIX A TO ANNEX J

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ENDNOTES

Two New Brunswick Hussars. Harold Skaarup is on the right, his friend Eric Sorensen is on the left. The photo was likely taken in southern Italy during the summer of 1944.

EPIGRAPH

Corporal Harold Jorgen Skaarup had come a long way from the community of Carleton County in New Brunswick to the battlefields of Italy. On the morning of the 31st of August 1944, he was in charge of a Sherman tank named Acorn in A Squadron of the 5th Armoured Regiment of the 8th Princess Louise’s New Brunswick Hussars. He and his tank crew had just fought soldiers of the German Army (possibly the 7th Panzer Grenadiers) who were defending a position known as the Gothic Line from a hill identified as Point 111. That morning, Harold’s tank squadron was in the process of attacking the Germans again, while moving forward towards another hill known as Point 136. A Squadron had already lost ten of their 19 tanks, mostly to German 88mm anti-tank shells. Another tank went for reinforcements and one broke down reducing their numbers to seven. Ten of A Squadron’s men had been killed and six more had already been wounded that morning, although the Squadron had knocked out one German tank, two anti-tank guns and killed 25 German soldiers. Some time between 0915 and 1030 hours, Harold’s tank was hit by a shell fired from a German anti-tank gun. The 88mm shot entered the side of the tank just under the turret Harold was commanding, and tore off both of his feet. He and the three other members of his tank crew baled out of the burning Ironsides and took cover behind it. Shortly after they did this, a salvo of German mortar shells (possibly from a six-barreled Nebelwerfer mortar) landed in the midst of the survivors. Already badly injured, Harold was again hit, this time with shrapnel fragments entering his chest. Although he was evacuated to a field hospital in the rear area, he eventually died from his wounds on the 6th of September 1944. He was 24 years old. Today he lies buried in a Commonwealth War Grave near the village of Montecchio, Italy. He never got home to tell his story. This record is a partial chronicle of his service, by his nephew. We never met, but I do carry his name.

Major Harold Aage Skaarup, Canadian Forces.

Harold Jorgen Skaarup with his dog at his home in Charleston, Carleton County,

New Brunswick before going overseas in 1941.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Two NB Hussars, Harold Skaarup and Eric Sorensen.

2. Harold and his dog, Charleston, New Brunswick, before going overseas in 1941.

3. 8th Princess Louise’s New Brunswick Hussars Cap Badge.

4. Harold in uniform on the far right with three friends in the Hussars.

5. Harold’s mother Anne, his brother Carl, Harold, his brother Fred Jr and his father Fred Skaarup on the family farm in Carleton County, New Brunswick.

6. Harold with a Whippet tank in Camp Borden.

7. Group Photo of the Hussars in the UK

8. M3A1 General Stuart light tank.

9. M3A General Lee tank.

10. Canadian built Ram Mark I tank.

11. Canadian built Ram Mark II tank.

12. King George VI and the Queen visit the 8th Hussars, Aldershot, England, 24 April 1942.

13. Harold’s Mk. V Sherman medium tank, christened Acorn.

14. Map of the battle in Italy, 26-29 August 1944.

15. Map of the battle in Italy, 30 August-3 September 1944.

16. German Panther Mark V tank.

17. Group photo of Harold and his tank crew, somewhere with the Sqn in Italy.

18. Group photo of Harold and his tank crew in camp in Italy.

19. Harold’s grave marker, Montecchio War Cemetery, IT.28, Row III, B.7.

20. Harold wearing the Hussars tropical uniform in Italy, possibly the summer of 1944.

21. A group of the 8th Hussars in the south of Italy, fall 1944.

22. Harold’s name on the War Memorial in Woodstock, New Brunswick.

23. Harold with members of his 8th Hussars Tank Squadron in Italy, fall 1944.

24. Harold with members of his 8th Hussars Tank Squadron in Italy, fall 1944.

25. 11 November 1996 Remembrance Day, Skaarup clan at the Centreville Legion, New Brunswick.

FOREWORD

This story is about Cpl Skaarup who was but one of a number of 8th Hussars to lose his life in the service of his country. He, like most of his brothers in arms, were average men who answered the call to arms for many and varied reasons, but above all he was a good Canadian. Unfortunately, he never came back to tell his story, so we must rely on the official records and the reports of the survivors he served with to understand what really happened to him during that period of the war in Italy. These days, few of the original Hussars are left alive. As time marches on, the living history of the regiment dims with the passing of each veteran. For those who have never served in the armed forces, New Brunswick Hussar outlines the story of one Hussar from a family and historical point of view. For those who are in the military, the story is an all too familiar one—a Canadian soldier serves overseas, trains hard under difficult conditions, is deployed to the front, and is killed in the service of his country. This book serves as a remembrance of Cpl Skaarup and for those 8th NB Hussars who served with him. You should find it an interesting and informative read.

Larry J. Zaporzan

Lieutenant-Colonel

Commanding Officer,

8th Canadian Hussars

Moncton, New Brunswick

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my family for their interest and support in bringing this book to press. My father Aage, his older brother Frederick and his younger brother Carl passed along a great number of stories about their brother Harold, their father Frederik and mother Ann, over the years. My mother Beatrice and her sisters Catherine, Gaynelle and Wilhelmine, as well as her brothers Fred and Bernard added much to the story. My own brothers Dale and Chris conducted a good deal of historical research which helped flesh out the skeleton story. Lieutenant-Colonel Larry Zaporzan, CO of the present 8th CH put me in touch with the Hussars Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Kit Graham who was immensely helpful in tracking down surviving veterans of the unit to add details to the story. For all of the veterans who served, a special thanks. Regi Patriaeque Fidelis.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Badge of the 8th Princess Louise’s New Brunswick Hussars

During the Second World War Canada fielded an army of three infantry divisions and two armoured divisions for service overseas, and raised another three divisions for home defence for a total of eight.1 In the winter of 1941 the Canadian government decided that the 8th Princess Louise’s New Brunswick Hussars should be part of the first two armoured divisions being raised, and therefore directed that the unit be placed in a tank role.2 In April 1941, at the age of 22, Harold Jorgen Skaarup joined the 5th Armoured Regiment of the 8th Hussars in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He participated in roughly three weeks of basic instruction at a training camp near the present day Exhibition Grounds in Fredericton along with a number of other new recruits from New Brunswick. They were then transported by train to Camp Borden, Ontario, for their initial instruction in the use of tanks and other armoured vehicles at the armoured school based there, some 80 km north of Toronto. On completion of this instruction, the tank soldiers of the 8th Hussars went to England by ship to continue their training.3 During their tour of duty in the UK, the 8th Hussars became part of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division.4

730,625 Canadian men and women served in the Armed Forces of Canada during the Second World War, and of these, 22,917 were killed and 52,679 were wounded.5 Harold J. Skaarup was one of the 22,917 Canadians who never came home at the end of the war. Most of those who died with him were young people. They deserve to be remembered, and this record is meant as a tribute to their sacrifice.

CANADA AT WAR

War had been building for some time in Europe when suddenly the armed forces of Germany swept into Poland on the 1st of September 1939. Shortly afterwards, the Russian Army joined the Germans in carving up the Polish nation, driving across the Polish frontier from the East in a surprise attack. Somewhere in the mists of diplomatic maneuvering, the nations of Britain and France had signed agreements that bound them to defend Poland. As a result, on the 4th of September, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Although Canada had not been involved in the formation of