Scarr, Gilbert John Costello - Whitestone

SCARR, GILBERT Service Number: B/68287; Royal Regiment of Canada, R.C.I.C.

Gilbert John Costello Scarr was born August 28, 1922 at Boakview, son of Manville Costello and Christina Blanche (Allen) Scarr.

Gilbert enlisted September 18, 1941 and is understood to have been part of the 1^st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment of Canada, 3^rd Canadian Division.

The 1^st Battalion arrived off the coast of Juno Beach on July 6, 1944 and by July 7 all personnel and equipment had disembarked. “At approx 2130 hrs all ranks witnessed allied aircraft flying over and bombing Caen”[1]

It is understood that Gilbert arrived in France with the 1^st Battalion on July 7, 1944 following the D-Day invasion. He arrived in time for Operation Charnwood in the second week of July 1944, which finally managed to push into the city of Caen itself. The 3rd Canadian Division saw heavy combat to the west of Caen, suffering heavily in their first major advance since the D-Day landings; the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, for example, lost 262 men in Buron during the battle to extricate a battalion of the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment from the village.

The Royals were near the village of St. Germain-la Blanche Herbe (located just West of Caen) on 10 July 1944. It was here that the Regiment began to come under heavy artillery and mortar fire which would last for four days. While moving South on the 11^th towards the village of Verson, they suffered their first major casualty. They went through Verson and then turned East arriving in the village of Etterville on the 12^th where they moved into a defensive position prepared by a departing Regiment. Over a few days we know that there were 82 casualties with 15 deaths, all from artillery air bursts and mortars.[2]

Gilbert Costello Scarr was killed in action on July 14, 1944.