Valor Friday

Millard (Tex) Allison was an American who fought for Canada in the Second World War. The U.S. Army considered him a deserter after the conflict. (Michael Johnston for CBC)

In the days before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the US was solidly staying out of the Second World War. For many young men who longed for glory and to fight fascism, the American reticence to join the war was too much. They ran off and joined the Canadian or British military. About 9,000 Americans served in the British or Commonwealth forces prior to American entry in the war. While most are listed as civilian volunteers, and indeed the majority were, some of them had run away from their American military service commitments to get into the war sooner.

One such example is Lew Millet, who left his enlistment with the US Army to join Canada. He returned to the US Army once we joined the war effort under a policy that brought Americans in Allied militaries to serve in our armed forces. While he owned up to his earlier desertion, the Army eventually court martialed him for it, but he got a battlefield commission shortly thereafter for his repeated heroism.

Today’s post is about a man like Millet who ran to Canada to fight, leaving behind the American Army. Also like Millet, our subject Millard “Tex” Allison was a badass who fought harder than any one man has any expectation to. Millet’s combat bravery would see him rewarded with a Medal of Honor during the Korean War. Similarly, Tex Allison was also recommended for the Commonwealth’s highest honor, the Victoria Cross. According to historians, he would have gotten it too if he hadn’t been a deserter from the US Army.

CBC has the story;

How an American ‘deserter’ fought for Canada in WW II — and Canadians fought for him

In a cemetery in rural Norman, Okla., about 30 kilometres outside the state’s capital, a man some call a hero of the Canadian Army lies buried.

But nothing about the grave of Millard (Tex) Allison — marked only by a simple plaque — hints at his actions recorded on the battlefields of Europe in the Second World War.

Those actions led to Allison being nominated for the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour for a Canadian fighter.

But the award was not granted to the dismay of Allison’s living family.

“I feel as a veteran myself that veterans deserve more than they oftentimes get,” Allison’s daughter, Paula, who served in the U.S. Air Force, said in an interview with CBC News from her home in St. Joseph, Mo. “That’s why I was upset.”

William Whalen, a historian for Allison’s old unit, the British Columbia Regiment, believes anyone who fought like Allison in the face of the enemy would have been awarded a Victoria Cross.

Whalen and Allison’s family believe he was refused because of who he legally was: a deserter of the U.S. Army.

“If he goes before the king, there’s going to be media and press and it’s probably going to come up pretty quickly that this person is missing from the United States Army,” Whalen explained of his impression of Canadian brass thinking, who sought “to avoid any embarrassing situations with our allies.”

Allison joined the Canadian Army in 1941 as the U.S. had yet to enter the war.

But despite fighting with Canada as part of the Allied effort, Allison was court martialed by the U.S. for desertion after the war.

Veterans in Canada and the U.S. came to his defence but he still officially left American service with a general discharge under honourable conditions, not an honourable discharge.

Allison died in 1976. His family is now appealing to authorities to upgrade his award to a Victoria Cross and grant him an honourable discharge from the U.S Army.

“It’s just amazing what he did during the war,” said Allison’s grandson, Marc Bishop, himself a U.S. Army veteran.

“I always felt kind of when I was in combat that he was my guardian angel. I wasn’t worried about dying because, I mean, if he could do what he did and make it back, I could go through what I had to go through.”

‘That’s the way my dad was’

Allison was a sergeant in Fort Lewis, Wash., in the summer of 1941, according to his family.

The U.S. was still officially neutral at the time and Allison read about the conflict in Europe with frustration.

“That’s the way my dad was,” Paula Allison said. “He felt the world needed to resolve this issue and the United States was just sitting back and not doing anything, so he joined Canada to do it.”

After crossing the border and enlisting in the Canadian Army, Allison was assigned to the British Columbia Regiment, a.k.a. the 28th Canadian Armoured Regiment. In April 1945, the unit crossed the Küsten Canal in western Germany.

According to his Victoria Cross nomination, written by his commander, Lt.-Col. John Toogood, Allison’s tank drove over a railway bridge, drawing heavy fire. He couldn’t drive off the rails because his 30-tonne Sherman tank would sink into the soft, swampy ground.

Instead, he used his tank to push a railway car along as cover.

“The plan was completely successful,” the nomination read. “The enemy, being disturbed by the erratic progress of the car, turned all guns upon it. He was enabled to liquidate the enemy posts methodically as he advanced.”

He pushed forward about two kilometres until German infantry charged at him with anti-tank weapons — too close for the tank’s weapons to shoot back.

He popped out of his hatch, “exposed to the most merciless small arms fire,” and with a revolver and hand grenades, fought back the Germans.

Then Allison saw that his commander’s tank, well behind him, had been hit and was in flames.

“Without a moment’s hesitation, he scrambled out of his tank and worked his way back through the hellish automatic fire,” the nomination read.

He grabbed his commander, Capt. Dave Bell, from the burning tank and ran him to cover.

Then he rescued another survivor from the burning Sherman and ran him to safety as well.

Allison then dashed back to his own tank, despite being burned badly, and for two days fought off repeated counterattacks.

He was credited with destroying an armoured infantry vehicle and two self-propelled guns — tanks designed to destroy other tanks — as well as killing 50 enemy soldiers.

“His initiative, devotion of duty, and absolute disregard for his personal safety was an inspiration to all,” the nomination read. “Largely owing to the stark courage of this single [non-commissioned officer], the … force maintained pressure and the enemy was compelled to regroup.”

Allison was nominated for a Victoria Cross, but was not awarded one, instead receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

A rare award

Whalen believes Allison’s technical desertion explains the Victoria Cross refusal, but admits that’s not formally spelled out in documents.

“Very, very seldom you will see any written reason,” Whalen said. “[Generals] don’t want any kind of redress later on after the war.”

The awarding of a Victoria Cross under any circumstances is incredibly rare. No Canadian has won one since 1945.

Veterans Affairs Canada says about 100 Canadians have been awarded one, including 16 in the Second World War.

It says 2,132 Canadians have been awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal, including 162 in the Second World War.

David O’Keefe, a professor of history at Marianopolis College in Westmount, Que., believes the deserter issue may have been a factor, but there could be other factors as well.

Politics and pride between army units, he suggested, or the desire for some in the Canadian Army to discourage reckless behaviour from troops thought to be “medal-hunting.”

“What they’re a little bit worried about would be honouring somebody with the highest award for fear that somebody would try to emulate it later on, but in a reckless fashion,” O’Keefe said.

But he agrees Allison’s actions are worthy of a Victoria Cross.

‘Canada would be lucky to get him’

Allison and his Canadian wife and daughter — Bishop’s mother, born while Allison was overseas — left Canada after the war for a Fort Worth, Texas, trailer park where he worked in a factory.

That’s where, in 1948, he was arrested by the FBI and charged with desertion. But helping defence in the court martial were his former comrades in Canada.

Toogood, his old commander, lobbied American counterparts for Allison’s release, newspapers reported at the time, telling his lawyers about his war exploits.

Veterans in Vancouver — including Capt. Bell, who Allison saved — filed a protest with the U.S. government, a Texas newspaper reported.

“Maybe he’ll come back to us,” Bell was quoted as saying. “Canada would be lucky to get him.”

Ultimately, the court martial convicted him of desertion in December 1948.

He was sentenced to six months of hard labour — remitted, so he did not serve the time — and had his rank reduced from sergeant to private. He left the U.S. Army with a discharge under honourable conditions.

“It’s a wonderful Christmas present,” the paper quoted Allison as saying.

But Allison’s family feels he wasn’t treated properly.

Bishop is appealing to a local congressman to get his grandfather an honourable discharge. He’s written to the Canadian government and even King Charles III to consider upgrading the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

In Vancouver, Whalen says the regiment is fundraising to have a proper Canadian veteran headstone made for Allison’s grave in Oklahoma.

“It’s a point of honour for us in the regiment,” Whalen said. “He deserves the recognition of that headstone but the downgrade of the V.C., well, that just puts an extra edge on it.”

Allison’s story — an American coming north to Canada and then Canadians coming to his defence — could be an illustration of the close ties the two countries’ peoples have traditionally shared.

The newfound strain on the relationship today is not lost on those who know Allison’s story.

“We each share a border. If something happened to Canada tomorrow, wouldn’t I want the United States to defend them? If something happened to us, wouldn’t we want Canada to help defend us?” Paula Allison said.

“So I’m telling you, we need as countries to resolve these issues that we are having right now, today.”

Award upgrades of this nature are very rare in the Canadian and British awards system. Far more rare than it is here in the States. So I don’t expect this to come to anything. The story of Jess Larochelle has gotten a lot more traction, and upgrading his Star of Military Valour to a VC shows zero signs of movement.

The Distinguished Conduct Medal that Allison received was the second-level award for those below commissioned rank. It ranked just below the VC, and is equivalent to an American Distinguished Service Cross. In the Canadian awards system it was replaced by the Star of Military Valour in the 90s.

Category: Army, Canada, Historical, UK and Commonwealth Awards, Valor, We Remember