Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Acting Lieutenant-Colonel

Unit:

The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Canadian Army

Awarded on:

May 26th, 1945

Recommendation:
The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment was ordered to attack and take the town of Keppeln on 26 February 1945. The attack got under way as scheduled but was held up many hundred yards from the town by heavy mortar and shell fire, and many casualties were suffered. Ten enemy dug-in tanks in the area of the church and machine-gun fire made further advances not only prohibitive in cost of lives but impossible.
Lieutenant-colonel John William Horsley Rowley, commanding the North Shore Regiment, re-organized the attack. Under extremely heavy enemy shell and machine-gun fire, he personally led the first wave of the attack over 1800 yards of flat open country, calmly moving directly across country toward the objective.
Lieutenant-colonel Rowley’s gallant action, the apparent lack of fear, and calm determination, inspired his men and was instrumental in the complete success of the battalion and the brigade plan.