Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 55 John Gascoigne was born in Coventry, England, in 1915 and died in Charlottetown in 2004. He was a member of Branch 49 Mahone Bay N.S. for 15 years. In the early 1990s, when asked about his service during WW II, he remarked “I may have been one of those nuts that liked hardship. But there was war on. I was glad to be part of it.” Here is some of his story. John’s military service started in 1939 when he joined the local Home Guard. Surprisingly, it was during this time that he would suffer his only war wound. One night while on a home guard night patrol, with rifles and bayonets ‘fixed’, the soldier in front of John suddenly turned around. The soldier’s bayonet struck, and gashed, John’s nose. John enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1940 and trained as a radioman (operator/mechanic) and coder. By 1942 he was a member of the Royal Naval Commandos, also known as RN Beachhead Commandos, which were part of the Combined Operations Group. These commando groups conducted numerous small clandestine operations along the coast of Europe prior to the spring of 1943. On 10 July 1943 John went ashore in Sicily as part of the Beach Signals Section Number 9. John and his fellow commandos landed on the beaches of Sicily 30 minutes before the army assault troops came ashore. Their job was to establish shore-to-ship communications, mark out the landing sites, and guide the assault craft onto the beaches. On 9 September John’s unit was part of Operation Avalanche - the Allied landings near the port of Salerno, Italy. Again, his unit landed ahead of the assault troops. Chief Petty Officer John James Gascoigne, RNR Story: Gary Silliker and John Cunningham continued ...
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