WAGER, GEORGE
George Wager was born February 9, 1913, the son of Wilson and Margaret May (VanVolkenberg) Wager.
It is not clear when George enlisted. It is understood that he was in the Royal Highland Regiment, known as the Black Watch. It is further understood that George was ‘scout’, which appears to be a euphemism for ‘sniper’. While George, like many who saw action rarely spoke of his experiences, it is understood by family members that he had been in Newfoundland and then Dieppe as part of his experiences.
George’s granddaughter Lois Bell recounted “I spoke with my brother and this is what information he has. ‘Grandpa I think was Royal Highlands and I think the 5th (Brigade) - he left from Newfoundland and I think they fought a tough battle in Dieppe in 1942 and a few of them were killed- not sure what happened after that but he always told me he was rifle infantry and did a lot of the scouting for the group.” I believe this group is the Black Watch (that is what he told us). Also his fellow soldiers called him Pop as he was older than them
George Wager
We therefore pick up the story of the Regiment from there.
During the Second World War, the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada travelled to Newfoundland before sailing to the United Kingdom in August 1940. The Regiment first saw action at Dieppe, 19 August 1942.
On that day, they arrived at Puys, just east of Dieppe. A very ambitious task was assigned to this small band of men as they were to support the Royal Regiment of Canada with machine guns and mortars. However, their German enemies were alert and ready for battle upon the arrival of the Canadian regiments at Puys. The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada found themselves pinned down by the enemy with mortar and machine gun fire. The raid did not go as planned on that ill-fated day and the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada suffered four fatal casualties.
In July 1944, the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada moved into North Western Europe where they participated in some 30 battles throughout France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. By the end of the Second World War, members of the Regiment had won more than 200 battle honours and awards.
A sniper from the Black Watch
in ruined building in Gennep, Holland
In addition to Dieppe, there were two other particularly devastating battles for the Black Watch.
One of these was Operation Spring in France’s Verrières Ridge on July 25, 1944. The Battle of Verrières Ridge was a series of engagements fought as part of the Battle of Normandy, in Calvados, during the Second World War. The main combatants were two Canadian infantry divisions—with additional support from the Canadian 2nd Armoured Brigade—against elements of three German SS Panzer divisions. The battle was part of the British and Canadian attempts to break out of Caen, and took place from 19 to 25 July 1944, being part of both Operation Atlantic (18–21 July) and Operation Spring (25–27 July). From the perspective of the Canadian 1st Army, the battle is remembered for its tactical and strategic miscalculations—the most notable being a highly controversial attack by The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada on 25 July, in which 315 of its 325 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured. This attack—the costliest single day for a Canadian battalion since the 1942 Dieppe Raid—has become one of the most contentious and critically analyzed events in Canadian military history. (Wikipedia).
Another criticized event is described in an article by Joseph Mad entitled “The Forgotten Battles of The Scheldt and Woensdrecht on "Black Friday" The 13th.
The Forgotten Battle of the Scheldt and the Woensdrecht, occurred on Friday the 13th, Oct. 1944, in the Netherlands. The Black-Watch had already suffered heavy casualties. During the Battle of Verrières Ridge on July 25,1944, In which 325 men left the start line, astonishingly only 15 made it back to friendly lines, the others being killed or wounded by well entrenched Waffen SS soldiers, machine gun Nests and tanks. And a month prior to the attack on Woensdrecht they had received above average casualties, in the Battle for Spycker from September 12-14. In October the Regiment expected to be fully manned and re-supplied, but that was not to be, as the Regiment laid in shambles.
The Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, was about to meet it’s Waterloo, open field battle with no cover or obstacles to hide behind. The Brigade Commander knowing the Black Watch situation in hand, gave the order for the Black Watch, to attack and take a small town called Woensdrecht which the Germans had fully fortified. This town was vital for communications.
When October 12 came along the Black-Watch where undermanned, only rifles and smoke Bombs, with no support to lay down an attack on the German positions on that Bloody Friday the 13th. This operation, code-named Angus, called for 5th Brigade to employ one battalion to seize the railway embankment with the other two battalions passing through to seal off the route to Walcheren Island. The first phase of the assault would have to be undertaken by the Black Watch. The Maisonneuves were still more than 200 riflemen short and the Calgaries had borne the brunt of the fighting at Hoogerheide. The German’s held the high ground, their positions had been reinforced and had their guns, rifles and machineguns zeroed in, on the Black-Watch.
Like Lambs to the Slaughter house, not know the carnage that was about to unfold in front of their very eyes. As they were about to take heavy casualties, and a proud regiment was about to be decimated. On October 13 1944 on a raised railway embankment they laid, gasping in astonishment and looking up the hill, across 1,200 yards of open beet fields. The orders where given at 11.30 am to attack in plain daylight across flat open hilled fields with no cover, flooded land, driving rain, booby traps and land mines that made the advance excrutiatingly difficult. As the battle waged and the battle field lay litterd with fallen men, the Battle Commander realising it was an impossible attack, the Black-Watch had to withdraw.
When the German rifles, Guns had silenced and the smoke and dust had settled they suffered 145 casualties, including 56 dead, among them all four company commanders, and one company of 90 men was reduced to just four survivors. Twenty-seven were taken prisoner, which devastated the Regiment.
The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, received two battle honours one for “The Scheldt” and for “Woensdrecht”. Personally they should of Received a Victoria Cross. Against all odds, for above and beyond the call of duty for “Black Friday” the 13th!
It is not known how many of the battles George Wager experienced. He rarely talked about it.
The few notes we have come from Jack Crossman who worked with George after the war and listened when George would share thoughts with other war veterans as they ate lunch.
Jack Crossman recalls George saying:
“Five of them were on patrol at night to see where the German positions were. They came across a farm house with lights on. They crawled up to the house and heard them speaking in English inside, so George went to the door and knocked. It was other Canadian soldiers, one of whom was Oliver Barton from Magnetawan who gave George a bear hug. The soldiers had caught a pig and butchered it and were roasting it over a spit in the house. As George recalls, they found the wine cellar and had a great time.”
He recalls another time when they came across a fellow who had had his leg blown off and was bleeding badly. The only thing they could do for him was to make a cast out of clay and apply it to the leg to stop the bleeding and to leave him leaning against a tree for the medics.
Two other things that Jack Crossman recalls George saying were:
“It was very difficult. You weren’t sitting in a remote location sending shells at an unseen enemy. You saw who you were killing – another person just doing their job like me.”
“They spent years training you to kill someone. And then, when the war was over, they just dropped you back on the street as a civilian. Some guys couldn’t cope.”
One further note in closing. Among George’s memorabilia was a cap badge for the Queens Own Rifles. As we learn the complete history, it may be that George was initially in the Queens Own – transferring to the Black Watch in Newfoundland; or in Europe.
