Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion 48th Highlanders of Canada, 1944 – 1945.

By Lieutenant Colonel T.D. Wentzell

Donald Alexander Mackenzie was born on July 9, 1914 in Kincardine, Ontario to Kenneth and Marguerette Mackenzie. Kenneth died when Donald was only seven years old. Marguerette moved back to her hometown of Owen Sound where she raised Donald and his younger brother, Robert Kenneth. The family had a long military tradition and both boys would serve as officers during the Second World War. After his studies at Bishop Ridley College and the Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute, Mackenzie moved to Toronto where he worked as a clerk at the Canadian Bank of Commerce. He joined the 48th Highlanders in 1935.

Mackenzie volunteered for the Canadian Active Service Force at the very beginning of the Second World War. He was the Transport Officer (TO) when the 48th set out for England in December 1939. In June 1940, he commanded the 48th Highlanders’ trucks during their brief expedition into France. The trucks were destroyed to prevent them from falling into German hands. While in England, he married his girlfriend, Louise Oxley, at St. Andrew’s Garrison Church in Aldershot and served as Field Marshall Montgomery’s aide-de-camp. He returned to Canada for staff officer training. During his time in Canada, Louise gave birth to their daughter: Jaffray Louise.

Mackenzie returned to the 48th in January 1944 after briefly teaching at the Imperial War College. The 48th Highlanders had been in operations in Sicily and Italy since July 1943. He briefly served as the commander of Able Company before serving as the battalion’s second-in-command under Lieutenant Colonel Ian Johnston. When Johnston was promoted and appointed as the commander of the 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade in the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, Mackenzie became the commanding officer. He was only thirty years old at the time. Mackenzie commanded the 48th during the operations on the Gothic Line and the Lamone River. He received the Distinguished Service Order for his courage at the Lamone River.

During the winter of 1944-45, the 1st and 5th Divisions were transferred from Italy to Northwestern Europe. They would all fight for the Liberation of the Netherlands. The 48th Highlanders were part of Operation CANNONSHOT in April, an operation to cross the Ijssel River and liberate city of Apeldoorn. Due to difficulties in rafting the Sherman tanks across the river, the breakout started much later than Mackenzie wanted. When Able and Baker Companies faced resistance near Wilp, Mackenzie went forward on a personal reconnaissance. The events are described on page 747 of Dileas, the regimental history:

Just at 3:00 o’clock it happened. A shell shrieked: it smashed into the earth close to the two. Lt. Pickering was wounded and shaken, but as he reached on his hands and knees he saw the Colonel was motionless. He crawled to him. As bit of earth were still pattering back to earth from the explosion, he heard him say painfully: ‘See where I’m hit, Jack.” … and instantaneously death came to the 30 year old Colonel. The battle, now under command of the Second in Command Major Jim Counsell, carried on to its goal of Twello, on time and on objective.

Mackenzie received a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross from the United States Army for his conduct during Operation CANNONSHOT.

Mackenzie was buried in a dyke near Wilp, alongside 17 other Highlanders killed in the battle. They were subsequently reinterred at the Holten Canadian War Cemetery. A street in Wilp is named the Mackenzieplaats in his honor. His widow subsequently married Lieutenant Commander Campbell Martin MacLachlan, the brother of Lieutenant Edward Martin MacLachlan, the first member of the 48th Highlanders killed in the Second World War.

Article describing the death of LCol Mackenzie and including a map showing the exact location off his death.