Valour in the Victory Campaign:
The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division Gallantry Decorations, 1945

	(Photo Credit: Veterans Affairs; Crown Copyright)

H/Captain John MacMorran Anderson,
MC and Bar

Honorary Captain John MacMorran Anderson was the padre attached to the Highland Light Infantry of Canada in the Campaign in Northwest Europe. In March, 1945, the regiment launched an attack from the Balberger Wald, in the closing stages of Operation BLOCKBUSTER to clear the Rhineland. On March 5, two companies of the battalion were pinned down by heavy enemy machine-gun and small arms fire, and suffered over 30 casualties who required evacuation across the open ground under enemy fire. Tanks were sent across the start line to go to the assistance of these companies, but they were knocked out by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns on the forward slope before reaching the Canadian infantry.

H/Captain Anderson, hearing of the casualties, proceeded forward on foot across the bullet-swept ground to the infantry. Finding many casualties who required immediate attention, he returned to the battalion headquarters area near the start line and organized two available jeeps and a party of volunteer stretcher bearers to return to the scene of the battle. Though warned that tanks had been knocked out a few minutes before on this route, H/Captain Anderson led the jeep party back and forth across the open ground until all casualties were evacuated.
(Photo Credit: National Archives of Canada, PA-177595)

During the day, a carrier and a tank had been knocked out by mines on the route to the Regimental Aid Post. The enemy positioned a self-propelled gun and machine-guns to cover the defile, preventing the use of the route by vehicles and infantry. H/Captain Anderson, knowing this, ignored the enemy fire and led his jeeps along the route. Although the enemy fired on the jeeps and destroyed one of them, H/Captain successfully evacuated over 30 stretcher cases and thus saved the lives of men of these men.

For his complete disregard of his own safety, and for his outstanding courage and initiative under heavy enemy fire, H/Captain John MacMorran Anderson was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross.