Intelligence Officer (IO) 1st Battalion, 48th Highlanders  1943 – 44

Brigade IO 1 Canadian Infantry Brigade – 1944

GSO 2  1 Canadian Corps – 1944 – 45

Lt. J. M. E. (Johnny) Clarkson joined the 2nd Battalion, 48th Highlanders in Toronto and is shown in a 1940 newspaper article as one of the 52 officers of the 2nd Battalion who were training for service in the Second World War. Following training he sailed to England to join the 1st Battalion, 48th Highlanders of Canada.

Lt JME Clarkson was appointed as Battalion Intelligence Officer (IO) at Stonegate in April 1943 and landed at Pachino, Sicily as part of Operation HUSKY on 10 July 1943.  He remained IO though the battles for Sicily. At the end of the Sicily campaign he was accompanying LCol Johnston on a recce forward of Regaubuto when the jeep in which they were travelling took a turn down the wrong road and ran into a German patrol that ordered them to halt an opened fire with Spandau’s. The jeep not only halted; as it tried to complete a violent turn-about, all seven occupants of the crowded little vehicle were thrown out and managed to escape in several directions under fire from the Germans.  They managed to get clear and were rescued by a carrier of the 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards.  When Lt Clarkson got back to BHQ he found a Spandau bullet in the heel of his boot.  Although later wounded did at Torella, that run of luck carried him to the end of the war. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for his actions in leading a troop of tanks to link up with the Battalion during the actions at “Cemetery Hill” during the battles for ORTONA.  Later having served as IO 1 CIB, Major Johnnie Clarkson joined LCol Trum Warren on the staff of Field Marshal Montgomery’s Headquarters 21 Army Group.  At the end of the war he was serving as GSO 2 (Intelligence) of 1 Canadian Corps.