Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds, was a senior Canadian Army officer who served with distinction during World War II. Acknowledged by many military historians and senior commanders, among them Sir Max Hastings and Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, as one of the best Canadian generals of the war, Simonds, after serving the first few years of the Second World War mainly as a staff officer, commanded the 1st Canadian Infantry Division with distinction in Sicily and Italy from July 1943 until January 1944, and later II Canadian Corps during the Battle of Normandy from June−August 1944 and throughout the subsequent campaign in Western Europe from 1944, towards the end of which he temporarily commanded the First Canadian Army during the Battle of the Scheldt, until victory in Europe Day in May 1945. The historian J. L. Granatstein states the following about Simonds: "No Canadian commander rose higher and faster in the Second World War, and none did as well in action. Simonds owed his success wholly to his own abilities and efforts—and those of the men who served under him."
Guy Simonds
Major-General Guy Simonds, GOC of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, coming ashore on Sicily, July 1943.
Major-General Simonds, pictured here in Italy, 1943.
General Sir Bernard Montgomery (eighth from left) talking with Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds (ninth from left) and other senior officers of II Canadian Corps at Corps Headquarters in the Normandy bridgehead, France, 20 July 1944.
The 1st Canadian Division is a joint operational command and control formation based at CFB Kingston, and falls under Canadian Joint Operations Command. It is a high-readiness unit, able to move on very short notice, and is staffed and equipped to meet Canada’s military objectives to counter any potential threat.
Canadian field comforts commission insert found in "With the First Canadian Contingent", Canadian Government publication from 1915.
Infantry and Bren gun carriers of The West Nova Scotia Regiment in training at Aldershot, Hampshire, England, 29 February 1940.
Canadian troops of The Carleton and York Regiment move inland from the beaches after landing in Sicily, 13 July 1943.
Infantrymen of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and tanks from the Three Rivers Regiment during the Battle for Ortona, December 1943.