B74059 Pte Cass, C. H. L. joined the 48th Highlanders in Toronto and was sent for training at No. 2 Cdn Inf (Rifle) Training Centre (48th Highlanders). He received an order to proceed overseas w.e.f. 14 July 1940.  In England he was assigned to 1 C.I.H.U. (Cdn Infantry Holding Unit) then transferred to the 1st Battalion, 48th Highlanders of 11 June 1941. With the battalion he had 3 minor forfeitures of pay, 2 for a couple of hours AWOL on 21 June and 6 July and one on on 17 July for losing equipment on exercise. On 18 August he was transferred from B Coy to HQ Coy. In December he attended and passed a D&M course (driver mechanic) at I Cdn Ord RU. His qualification was raised to Group “C” on 29 April 42, retroactive to 1941. In an order received in July 1942, he and the members of the entire battalion were charged 1 shilling for barrack damages at Corunna Barracks. The original proposed charge was much higher but the battalion resisted and successfully proved that the barracks had been damaged by the unit that had proceeded them.

From 11 to 18 June 1943 he was in hospital at 4CCS. At this time the battalion was practicing assault landings at the steep shelving beaches at Gourock, Scotland, preparing to embark on 28 June on the Troopship Derbyshire for the landing at Pachino, Sicily on 9 July. As a result, Pte Cass sailed on the “slow convoy” arriving in Sicily on the 15th, and caught up with the battalion a few days later. On 2 September, the day before the battalion and the 1st Canadian Division sailed from Sicily to Reggio, Italy e was placed on the X-4 list – Rear party. He rejoined the battalion on 3 October as the battalion began its advance through the Abruzzi Hills to Volturara, then on to Campobasso on 13 October. He was made A/Cpl on 14 December.

Pte Cass remained with the battalion through the remainder of the Italian campaign, and the transfer, with the battalion and the 1st Cdn Division on 12 March 1945 to France then Belgium. While in Belgium he was promoted Corporal  and A/Sgt on 15 March and granted 9 days leave to the U.K. from 23 March 1945 to 2 April. The battalion began Operation Cannonshot, the liberation of Apeldoorn on 10 April, with the crossing of the Ijssel River near the town of Wilp.

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