Military service
Burial/memorial information
Baptized Joseph Benoit Gagnon. Son of Léon (aka Paul) Gagnon and Amanda Beaulieu of Rimouski, Québec. Brother of Private Léonard Gagnon who served in this conflict and survived the war.
Enlisted in the Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent at Camp Valcartier north of Quebec City, Quebec, he was temporarily assigned to the 58th Medium Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery as an artilleryman from May 6, 1942, to May 11. On September 8, 1942, he was assigned to territorial defense and sent to Mulgrave, Gaspésie, Quebec, until December 18. On the 19th, he returned to the Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent and remained in Mulgrave. On February 15, 1943, he was assigned to the Voltigeurs de Québec and sent to Sussex, New Brunswick. On May 24, he was in Aldershot, Nova Scotia. On July 21, he embarked for Great Britain and landed in Greenock, Scotland, on the 28th. Placed under the authority of the 6th Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit on August 25, on September 13, he was transferred to the 4th Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment and to Force M. He left for the Mediterranean and arrived in Italy on the 24th. He was killed in action on December 18, 1943, during a patrol east of Cubo, near Casa Berardi, Chieti. He was buried there on the 21st. Around February 13, 1945, his body was exhumed and reburied in the Moro River Cemetery, near Ortona, Italy.
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 161 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY Italy
By the winter of 1943, the German armies in Italy were defending a line stretching from the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Naples, to the Adriatic Sea south of Ortona. The Allies prepared to break through this line to capture Rome. For its part, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division was to cross the Moro River and take Ortona. In January 1944 the Canadian Corps selected this site, intending that it would contain the graves of those who died during the Ortona battle and in the fighting in the weeks before and after it. Today, there are 1,615 graves in the cemetery, of which over 50 are unidentified and 1,375 are Canadian.
The Moro River Canadian War Cemetery lies in the locality of San Donato in the Commune of Ortona, Province of Chieti, and is sited on high ground near the sea just east of the main Adriatic coast road (SS16). The cemetery can be reached from Rome on the autostrada A25 (Rome-Pescara) by branching on the autostrada A14 and leaving it at Ortona. The approach road to the cemetery from the main road passes under an arch forming part of the little church of San Donato. The cemetery is permanently open and may be visited anytime.
For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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