Roland William Thoms

Other Events:

• Military: WW2
• Name: R. W. Thoms
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-157114P
• Residence: 1921, St. Jacobs, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran

Notes:

PRIVATE ROLAND WILLIAM THOMS

In the early morning hours of 10 July 1943 Canadian troops landed on the southwest shore of the Pachino peninsula in the southeastern corner of Sicily. The assault troops of 1 Canadian Infantry Division were assigned several key missions that day, beyond getting ashore and clearing the beach defences. First, they were to capture Italian coastal defence artillery batteries within range of the landing beach to protect the invasion fleet. Royal Navy warships bombarded and temporarily suppressed enemy heavy guns during the assault, but it was up to the infantry to capture or and destroy those gun batteries. The second task was to secure enemy airfields in the invasion area to deny their use to the enemy and free them for Allied aircraft. Finally, the assault troops needed to consolidate their positions ashore in order to meet expected Axis counterattacks. The thin screen of Italian coastal defence units the Canadians met on D-Day were meant to delay and disorganize the invasion force as it came ashore and warn counterattack forces of the landing location. The Canadians accomplished their D-Day mission at a cost of seven killed and twentyfive wounded. One of the first men killed was Private Roland William Thoms. Thoms was one of three members of the Royal Canadian Regiment killed during their attack on a pair of Italian shore batteries and Pachino airfield. The airfield was surrounded by a defensive pillbox and bunker network. Private Roland William Thoms was killed when the Royal Canadian Regiment mopped up pillboxes on the high ground beyond the airfield. Roland hailed from a family of seven. He left behind two brothers, one of whom also served overseas, two sisters and his mother and father, Alvin and Elizabeth Thoms. The family hailed from St. Jacobs, Ontario. Roland was also survived by his wife, Mrs. Edith Thoms, who he married only three days prior to enlisting. Roland was born in 1915, and by 1940, he had established himself as a shoemaker in St. Jacobs. He practiced this profession for just over a decade before enlisting on 2 July 1940 in Kitchener, Ontario. Private Thoms completed infantry training at Camp Borden, and proceeded overseas to join the RCR in the fall of 1941. He embarked for Sicily with the Royal Canadian Regiment in mid-June 1943 and lays there still.

https://www.operationhusky2013.ca/the-mission/the-names-of-the-fallen/private-roland-william-thoms/ 2014

Roland married Edith 1940. Edith was born Abt 1918. [Group Sheet]