"On December 4th, Retired Major-General Bert Hoffmeister, Commanding 5th Armoured Division in WW 2 passed away in Vancouver at the age of 92. In his passing, Canada lost one of the best, most admired and successful General Officers of that war, a man who knew not only how to command, but also how to gain the respect and confidence of his men. And by this, I mean he got it from the pinnacle of command right down to the private in the infantry and the trooper in the tank.

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Let me quote here briefly what Ian Bailey of the Vancouver Sun had to say about this inspiring man, "He was hailed as one of Canada's greatest soldiers for a style that included sharing the risks of war with his men." He most certainly was no 'Dug-out Charlie'. He was not the kind of General the ordinary soldier rarely, if ever, saw from up close, the kind that made himself known only on inspections or reviews. He was forever appearing right up front to cheer up his men, and not at any time when under fire was seen to flinch. These visits up at the so-called 'sharp edge' did not always go well with his staff, for it sometimes left them to fight the battle while he was off risking life and limb in what they and common logic would say was not the right way to run the show. But that was his way.

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To those who may not know Hoffmeister's progress through the ranks, let me enlighten you in a small way, but only in regards to his war service. After working his way through the ranks and several postings, Bert returned to his home Regiment, the Seaforth High-landers on Oct. 11, 1943 to take over command. He led the Regiment with distinction throughout the Sicilian Campaign and well into Italy where 1st Div. Commander Chris Vokes gave him command of 2nd Infantry Brigade as it arrived on the very doorstep of Ortona.

Despite Chris Vokes' questionable and even faulty manner in conducting the overall battles on the approaches to Ortona and the subsequent week-long street fight for Ortona, Hoffmeister's 2nd Brigade did an exceptional job under the circumstances. The street by street, house by house, room by room vicious struggle for the town, according to the world press, became known as Little Stalingrad, a battle in which the Canadians bested the best of the German elite divisions, the 1st Parachute Division, many of them veterans ofthe Eastern Front, Crete, North Africa and Sicily.

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The Brigadier's reward for capturing Ortona was his promotion to Major-General Commanding 5th Armoured Div. His introduction to higher command, however, had not been the way he wanted things to go, since mistakes had been made above him, and gross deficiencies in planning became obvious as his Mighty Maroon Machine fought its way down the length of Liri and Sacco valleys on its way to Rome where it was brought up short, for the reason, as some claim, to allow the Americans and British to gain the limelight in the world press as its liberators.

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His crowning achievement, however, was the performance of 5th Armoured Division in the battle of the Gothic Line. After the Perth Regiment had pried open the door using WW 1 tactics of a bayonet charge against machine-gun positions on the heights overlooking the wide, mine-infested flats, Sherman tanks of the British Columbia Dragoons went barging through the opening like gang-busters, blasting away at everything, infantry, anti-tank guns, vehicles, tanks and every suspected strongpoint in its path with their 75 mms and their ball-mounted MGs. Although they lost heavily in tanks and men, including their CO, Lt.Col. F.A. Vokes, who was killed outside his command tank, (brother of Chris Vokes), inside a day and a half, along with the infantry and their squadron brothers, the 8th New Brunswick Hussars and the Lord Strathcona Horse, they had the Germans back-pedalling furiously all the way back to Coriano Ridge some 20 miles to the north. Not long after the battle, 8th Army Commander Gen. Oliver Leese sent a message to Montgomery saying that 5th Armoured Division had fought with the same terrific dash that the famous British 7th Armoured Desert Rats had shown in North Africa. Further praise came from a British General known to be highly critical of the Canadians' training methods and operations, when he said that the Gothic Line battle as fought by 5th Div. may have been the finest by any Canadian formation in the war.

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This then tells the reader something about this man and his personality (charisma may be a better way of putting it), his leadership, skill in command, and above all, the confidence and the respect he gained from those above him in command and those beneath him.

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"We will remember him."

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by Stan Scislowski, former member Perth Regt., 11th Inf. BDE, 5CAD.