Originally a member of the Royal Highland Regiment of Montreal in 1939, he later joined the Royal Canadian Dragoons and landed at Sicily on 8 November 1943, then the mainland on 5 January 1944 and advanced up as a leader of an armoured car squadron. His regiment was part of the 1st Canadian Corps, until being transferred to the 1st Canadian Infantry Division as the divisional armoured car regiment on 14 July 1944. In March of 1945, he and the 1st Canadian Corps were transferred to the Netherlands, where they would fight through Dutch villages and towns in Operation Goldflake, free the City of Leeuwarden in April, and battle German defenses in Northwest Europe until May of that year.