Charles Thomas Sargeson enlisted on 13 July 1942 at the age of 23 at MD 2 (Active Force) with the 2nd/10th Dragoons and was given the service number B41981. Activities from that date, sailing to the UK, or being assigned to the 48th Highlanders as a reinforcement require service records.
On 23 August 1943 he was taken on strength by the 1st Battalion, 48th Highlanders from their X-4 list (Highlanders available for reinforcement) and was with them from 23 to 31 August. At that time the battalion was at rest at Militello in Sicily having completed the Sicilian Campaign. On 2 September he was placed back on the X-4 list and assigned, as a 48th Highlander, to the Rear Party of the 1st Cdn Division for the move across the Straits of Messina to Reggio, Italy the next day.
Pte Sargeson fell ill on 12 December 1944 and was sent to hospital (X-3 List – 48 Highrs). He returned to the battalion in Support Company on 28 December 1944 just as the battalion had been taken out of the line from the Lamone and Senio Rivers area in northern Italy. He remained with the battalion for their time in the Ravenna Marshes. He was then attached to HQ 1st Cdn Infantry Brigade from 24 February to 20 March 1945. The Brigade, the 48th and the entire 1st Canadian Division transferred on 12 March 1945 from Italy, across France to Belgium and Germany to assume the task of completing the liberation of Holland in April. Pte Sargeson, back with the 48th in the Reichswald Forest in March, was engaged in Operation Cannonshot from 12 to 17 April, the liberation of Apeldoorn. He was promoted to L/Corporal on 22 April, just 3 days before the battalion and the 1st Division went out of battle in a truce offered by General Blaskowitz who said that if the Canadians stopped fighting, he would allow food to be brought to the starving Dutch population. His alternative was to flood the country.
The 1st Battalion, after the war ended, spent time in Delft, then The Hague where they became gaolers to the German SS troops in May, then back to Soest near Apeldoorn. On 4 September, the battalion sailed from NWE to the UK on the 4th as they began their way home to Canada, arriving for a final parade in Toronto on 01 October.
Our records are not clear as to whether he was with the 1st Battalion or assigned to the Brigade or Division for the period from 2 September 1943 to December 1944. Through that period the 48th and the brigade were engaged in the advance to Campobasso, the Hitler Line, the Gothic Line, the Rimini Line and the Lamone River crossing. His service records are needed to bring clarity.
NOK: mother, Mrs. Mary Sargeson at 2455 Munroe Street, Niagara Falls Ontario.