Samuel Moses “Moe” Hurwitz was born on January 28, 1919, just two months after the end of the First World War. He was the eighth child of thirteen born to Bella and Chaim (Hiram aka Harry) Hurwitz, of Montreal. Moe’s parents were Jewish immigrants who had each arrived in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Hurwitz family lived in the borough of Lachine, a heavily industrialized area west of downtown Montreal. A tiny Jewish community established itself in Lachine before the First World War. They worked as tradesmen, labourer, and shop keepers. They were nearly all immigrants who had come to Canada to escape anti-Semitic pogroms in Tsarist Russia. They were vastly outnumbered by the majority French-Canadian and British neighbours.
Moe’s father Hyman started his own business, a hauling company, first using horses and carts to make the deliveries. One of his clients was the CN Railroad. Before the invention of refrigerators, Moe’s father would also haul ice to be used in kitchen iceboxes. He went down to the shore of the St. Lawrence River and chopped ice blocks out of the frozen river.
By 1936, many of Lachine’s Jewish residents had already moved away, preferring to live amongst their own people in the densely populated three-storey walk-up apartments along Montreal’s St. Lawrence Boulevard, known as “The Main”. That’s where the majority of the city’s Jewish residents lived in the interwar years. The part of the city at the eastern base of Mount Royal boasted nearly fifty synagogues, Jewish schools, bagel bakeries and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association community centre on Mount Royal Boulevard. The Y would become a big part of the life of Moe and his siblings.
The Hurwitz`s would soon move to “The Main”, where they would feel more “at home”. The move became more urgent when life for Jews became more uncomfortable in Lachine. As Moe’s sisters were old enough to start going out on dates, anti-Semitic bullies chased the girls off the local tennis courts. Moe’s father was himself arrested and charged for assaulting a man who had made pro-Hitler remarks. The judge sided with Hurwitz, but fined him $2.
Although Moe’s summers were spent competing for a local rowing club in Lachine, once he settled into their new home on Park Avenue, the teen spent the winters playing hockey. For two seasons, 1936-1938, Moe played right wing and defence for the Montefiore Red Wings, an all-Jewish team in the Mount Royal Intermediate League. His brothers George, Archie and Max played with him, as did a cousin. The Red Wings played at the Mount Royal Arena, which at one time was home to the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League.
Moe was now working for Distillers Corporation in Lachine, but at night and on weekends, his hockey career saw the Hurwitz name being regularly featured in the sports pages of the Montreal Gazette newspaper. Now playing centre for Villeray, Moe made headlines again in one game where he scored four goals and had one assist. He soon came to the attention of the coach of the city’s Lachine Rapides, a men’s team in the Quebec Provincial Senior Hockey League. The coach was an executive at the Dominion Bridge Company, another major employer in Lachine.
He offered Moe a job there as a labourer, with a nice raise in salary, to $27 a week. In return, Moe got a spot as an alternate on the Rapides hockey team. He had caught the eye of the scouts for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. There was an offer for the rugged young athlete to come to Boston for a tryout. This was a huge opportunity, and more so for a Jewish athlete, as there were fewer than a handful of Jewish players in the NHL.
But Moe’s attention was on the war in Europe. In May 1940, Hitler’s army captured Holland. The British had pulled off the stunning evacuation of hundreds of thousands of troops across the English Channel from Dunkirk as Germany captured France. In June, Canada announced a national registration of everyone between the ages of 16 to 60 for possible war service.
Moe turned the Boston team offer down, saying he was going to enlist. “There’s no time to play hockey when millions of my brothers are getting killed in Europe,” he is reported to have told his family.
Two days after the government of France surrendered, on June 24, 1940, Moe left his family’s Jeanne-Mance Street apartment (they had moved yet again) and made the twenty-minute walk south to 4171 Esplanade Avenue. The red-bricked Armoury was (and still is) home to the Canadian Grenadier Guards infantry regiment.
The Guards had just mobilized for active service in late May, which meant volunteers knew there was a strong chance they would be sent overseas. That suited Moe fine
At his medical evaluation, Moe weighed in at 5’ 7” and ¾ inches, and 156 pounds (70 kilos). He told the doctors he had an old injury on his right wrist, but it wasn’t going to prevent him from passing the exam. He told the Guards that he wanted to join up because of patriotism.
Just after the Jewish New Year in September 1942, Moe shipped out for England, arriving on October 7 as a full sergeant with the newly named 22nd Canadian Armoured Regiment (Canadian Grenadier Guards).
Moe and his men spent the next 18 months training with their tanks and on manoeuvres in the forests and plains of southern England. He went to tank school in Bovington in 1943, near Dorset, where he qualified with distinction as a crew commander. His superiors wrote that he was “indefatigable and energetic to a surprising degree”. Upon his return to the Canadian camp at Crowborough, Moe was kidded about his success. He deflected the praise. “While the English lads were reading the task system to see how it should be done, I went over and did the job,” writes Major Ian Phelan of the same regiment in a pamphlet dedicated to Moe and published after the war.
Six weeks before D-Day in April 1944, Moe’s brother Harry (birth name Hirsch but like his father always called Harry) was manning a forward gun on the Canadian navy’s destroyer HMCS Athabaskan when a German vessel torpedoed her off the French coast near Brittany. Harry survived the sinking by clinging first to a piece of the ship’s mast for four hours in the oily water and then climbing into a life raft . He was taken prisoner and sent to a German POW camp, Marlag and Milag North, near Bremen. When the news reached Moe in England, it made him more determined than ever to get into combat, and save Harry
Moe made his long-awaited combat debut on August 8 1944, in Operation Totalize – the largest operation yet undertaken by the Canadian Army in the European war. The Grenadier Guards' role was straightforward but far from simple. All three squadrons of Sherman tanks would take part in the breakthrough of the heavily defended German line south of Verrières Ridge, near a dominating height known as the Cramesnil Spur that overlooked the hotly contested road to Falaise.
Operation Totalize was an offensive launched by Allied troops in the First Canadian Army during the later stages of Operation Overlord, from 8 to 9 August 1944. The intention was to break through the German defences south of Caen on the eastern flank of the Allied positions in Normandy and exploit success by driving south, to capture the high ground north of the city of Falaise.
The two-stage battle plan called for a concentrated frontal assault, spearheaded by the Second Canadian Corps, deep into the heart of Nazi-held territory. It was a new audacious strategy which would see tanks being used at night. In the lead was Second Canadian Armoured Brigade and 33rd British Armoured Brigade and they would be covered on the flanks by Second Canadian Infantry and the British 51st Infantry Division. Over 85,000 men would make the push on the road to Falaise.
The Canadians having smashed through the German anti-tank screen and advancing several kilometres south were now stalled at Cintheaux while Allied bombers pummeled the next series of enemy targets. Here the 22nd Canadian Armoured Regiment as part of 4th Armoured Division would face there first large scale operation in the battlefields of Normandy.
Moving in the darkness, shrouded with the smoke of burning German vehicles and clouds of dust churned up by the advance of thousands of Allied vehicles, the going for Moe in his tank, christened "Geraldine", proved slow and arduous. By the time the lead elements reached the town of Cintheaux near dawn, stiffening German resistance had threatened to crush any momentum in the Canadian advance built up during the night. With any thoughts of bypassing the town now out of the question, the Guards received orders to pounce just before first light with one squadron attacking from the east of the German position, which ended in frustration and heavy casualties. A second attack from the same flank later that afternoon also took a heavy beating from the ever-thickening German anti-tank screen comprised primarily of deadly 88mm anti-tank guns, supported by anti-aircraft guns and German tank-hunting teams.
By 16:00 hours, fears within Canadian high command that Totalize might sputter and stall turned to desperation. With the success of the advance hanging in the balance, Moe's Troop of tanks (under the command of then- Lt. Ivan Phelan) received orders to launch an attack – this time from the west - and to do so "at all costs."
Moving in diamond formation with Moe on the right flank, the troop of Sherman tanks launched its assault by slipping out into no man's land through the positions of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada tasked with providing covering fire for the attack. The skilled German gunners waited until the tanks had moved out into the open field before letting loose with armour-piercing shot from their panzer and anti-tank guns. With only one option – to charge ahead – Moe’s troop returned fire with machine-guns and high explosive rounds from their main guns. In this miraculously “brief, brilliant and decisive action,” which Phelan coined the “fast dash,” the Guards penetrated the German position knocking out eleven tank destroyers and anti-tank guns in the process without suffering a casualty.
Now came a most awkward and pregnant pause, as the Guards found themselves amongst the enemy position without infantry support. Immediately, Phelan noticed upwards of thirty German infantrymen shaking off the initial shock and bewilderment of the audacious attack and frantically contemplating their next move
"Like a flash," Phelan recalled, Moe "leapt out of his tank, Sten (submachine-gun) in hand, and with a mighty shout" dashed "up and down the hedge rooting prisoners out of their slit trenches." But before he could finish, the ammunition tucked inside a burning German tank destroyer ignited. In the "terrible explosion" that followed, one Guardsman fell - killed outright - with five others wounded, including Moe.
Pinned under a fallen tree branch and suffering light burns to his legs, Moe feared the Germans would use the twist in fate to turn the tables on his men. Working his way from under the weighty bough he rose, still "dazed by shock,” his “hair and moustache singed” and "one arm numb from the impact of the tree,” grabbed his Sten, and continued the round-up of his German quarry.
The heroic acts of Moe and the rest of his troop played no small role in the capture of the town of Cintheaux and served as the first example of his "vital leadership" and "offensive spirit" that the Guards would come to know over the next few months.
In recognition of their actions on August 8, Phelan received the Military Cross while Moe was promoted to Troop leader and given command of a Troop of four Sherman tanks, and awarded the Military Medal for “acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire."
As Major Phelan describes in the commemoration "Some Never Die": The next few days saw the Regiment advance onto the memorable point "195". By dint of mechanical breakdown and enemy action the Sgt. is in and out of three tanks before he finally bulls her through to the top. The Sgt. is on the right flank when Armageddon breaks loose. Just as we were about to advance to the next objective, point "206" near Potigny, the counter-attack strikes us. Amid the smoke of fires and burning tanks and screaming shells comes the voice of the Sgt. over the air-"Got me one down here about 300 yds everything looks OK here" No excitement there - only icy deliberation that spelled ill for the advancing Germans.
After a hectic few hours there is a chance for a snatch of conversation. Said the Sgt. "I didn't know what was going on a while back but if we were going over the top then I would have been there too. They can't pour that stuff at us and get away with it!
In the long day and night and day that followed when men were exhausted and with the ceaseless strain of being on watch for an unseen enemy that surrounded us on all sides except for a single track back to the main force of the Div., the Sgt. never tired. Hour after endless hour he sat in the turret (it was suicide to remain long on the ground outside because "Moanin' Minnie" wailed a crescendo for us in those days) with his head out, ceaselessly scanning the countryside for danger, for gunflashes, for movement, shell-reps made, bearings taken, teas brewed for weary crews.
That night as he and Major Phelan prepared to doze off for a few hours, he said, "Well now that we know what they had over there I guess if we had gone over the top, we'd never have made it, but those dirty Jerries would have known they were in a fight anyway!" Again the Major who worked a lot with him in those days when a troop consisted of one or two tanks, "As I lay there, I thought back to the spring schemes on Ashdown and the South Downs and how he had said he would never be taken prisoner. And before I fell asleep I knew he was right. It was a fateful thought".
Over the next six weeks, more hard-driving combat followed as the Canadian Army pushed up the “long left flank” of the Allied drive towards Hitler’s Third Reich after the German Army had collapsed in Normandy at the end of August.
By late September 1944, the Grenadier Guards found themselves embroiled in a series of battles in the Scheldt, an unforgiving slice of Dutch soil that controlled the approaches to the massive port of Antwerp much needed to support the Allied armies in Europe.
Despite an unprecedented string of Allied victories, stress and strain of constant combat had begun to take its toll on the men. But as Lt. Phelan recorded, Moe had stood out as "the powerhouse he always was in the dirty fighting"; a trait that continued when they reached the Dutch town of Philippine in the Zeeland area of the Scheldt. It was here, according to his fomer Troop Commader where Moe “outdid himself.”
On September 20, Moe’s troop received orders to escort the Crusader tanks of the Guards reconnaissance unit (commanded by Lt. R.B. Verner) and B company of the Algonquin Regiment in their capture of the train station on the outskirts of Philippine, just over the Dutch-Belgian border. A quick look at the intelligence overprint that laid out suspected enemy locations, showed a sizeable German “hedgehog” position centred around a small clump of houses, slit trenches and hedges. This position would require attention before Moe’s tiny battlegroup could reach the town.
The advance kicked off late in the afternoon with Verner’s Crusader tanks in the vanguard followed by the infantry with Moe’s four Shermans bringing up the rear. The advance encountered few problems until the column slammed headlong into the “hedgehog” near last light. At that point, machine-guns concealed in the distance open up, forcing the infantry to dismount in the soaked fields on each side of the column. Instantly, accurate fire from a machine-gun concealed in one of the houses less than two hundred yards away opens up and pins the infantry down. Verner, hoping to push on with his tanks at the head of the column, discovers that the going is much more challenging than first imagined, forcing him to halt in an exposed and precarious position leaving, as he put it, his “hands tied.”
Clearly understanding the potentially fatal nature of the unfolding scenario, Moe ordered his Shermans up to a position where they could bring down direct fire on the Germans. The treacherous terrain and vehicle congestion along the only route forward quashed that plan instantly. As he had done earlier in Normandy, Moe yet again seized the moment and ordered his men to dismount and fight it out on foot. As Verner reported, Moe “jumped off his tank” armed only with his Sten gun, followed by two other crew members. The remainder, still in the tank, provided covering fire with tank’s machine-guns.
For 150 yards, the tiny band crawled through the mire, along the ditches and hedges towards the enemy, all the while subjected to waves of German fire. Closing on their target, they worked their way to the first house and with a “great shout,” Moe jump up, kicked in the door, and sprayed the interior with his Sten, killing three Germans and forcing the rest to surrender. From there, the trio continued on, clearing two more buildings and pair of elaborate trench systems before Moe decided to charge two German machine-gun positions alone. After killing or capturing their crews and turning his prisoners over to the Algonquins, he climbed back aboard his tank and resumed the advance.
No sooner had Moe reounted than all Hell broke loose. In the previous melee a German tank destroyer, sporting a deadly 88mm gun, had snuck into position and proceeded to pick off Verner’s Crusaders one by one. In a flash, Verner found himself in the watery ditch that straddled the road across the way from his friend, a fellow troop leader Lt. T.W. Birss, writhing in pain and in need of immediate medical attention. On its last shot, the panzer found “Geraldine,” forcing Hurwitz and his crew to escape before the tank “brewed up.”
Now, armed only with a pistol and suffering his second set of burns in just six weeks, Moe set out on foot yet again to settle the score. Commandeering a surviving Sherman and directing its fire, he drove the German armoured fighting vehicle undercover but failed to land the knockout blow. Dissatisfied, the determined Guards sergeant took to the wireless and called in artillery support to finish off the beast.
In the meantime, the German infantry, which had grown more aggressive with their tank hunting teams, and when two Canadian carriers behind Hurwitz went up in flames, the victims of German bazookas, it became clear they planned to close in for the kill. Without hesitation, Moe jumped back into the ditch and proceeded to crawl the 50-yard stretch to Lt. T.W. Birss, dragging him back to safety while under German fire. Upon hearing that one of the young lieutenant’s crew remained trapped in his smouldering tank, Moe returned yet again down the ditch, braving enemy fire to drag the man out and back to safety before the Crusader exploded.
Once again, Moe’s unparalleled courage and bravery earned yet another recommendation for a gallantry award. At face value, many suspected his actions at Philippine would garner the Victoria Cross - the highest award for gallantry available in the Canadian army. In the end, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his “determined and gallant action.” Moe likely knew about his write-up for another commendation, but would never learn of its sanction, for a month later, the legendary luck of the Guards’ sergeant ran out.
By late October, the Battle for the Scheldt had entered its closing phase, with the 4th Canadian Armoured Division pushing towards Bergen Op Zoom, attempting to open the road from Antwerp to Bergen and cut off the remaining retreat route for the enemy. Blocking this drive was the tiny Dutch hamlet of Wouwesche Plantage held by elements of the elite and fanatical German 6th Parachute Regiment supported by a collection of assault guns, tank destroyers and anti-tank guns. Stubborn resistance over the previous few days had led Canadian intelligence to admit “that there is little doubt the enemy’s best troops are in this sector.”
The plan was to execute a fast run up the road leading to the town, taking the Germans by surprise. The ruse worked for the most part as many startled Germans were rounded up and taken prisoner during the advance. At 0515 hours, not long after the attack began, Moe, moving in the lead tank, reported back to Hale that he had reached his objective in the town “but did not know what had happened to the tanks supposedly following". He reported small arms and bazooka fire as "quite intense.” Unable to see from his position nearly half a mile behind, Hale was shocked at the speed of Moe’s progress, for he had received conflicting reports that the movement of the rest of the battlegroup had stopped for some unknown reason about 300 yards short of the objective.
Further enquiries revealed that the second tank, commanded by Moe’s friend Sgt R.W. McAuley, had fallen victim to a German bazooka. It now sat abandoned, blocking the road with the crew falling into German hands. With the ground on each side too soft for vehicles, the column ground to a halt with Moe’s tank cut off on the other side. Realizing he was a sitting duck, Moe ordered his tank to resume the advance top speed towards the objective, radioing back that “I seem to be in a bit of a spot. I am going forward. Follow me when you can.”
Every wireless set in the regiment then kept a keen eye out for any message from Moe. At 0520 hours, just five minutes after sending his message that he reached the objective, Hale tried to raise Moe on the wireless to issue new instructions but noted with despair, “a reply was not received.”
The next day, the Guards overran the town but could not locate Moe’s tank, nor did they find signs of casualties in the immediate vicinity. Hale immediately began to question German prisoners and Dutch civilians who now packed the streets to welcome their liberators. The prisoners revealed that they had indeed captured a tank but reported it had been either driven or towed away. They also revealed that roughly nine Canadians had fallen into German hands, but that remained unconfirmed. A short time later, a German wireless broadcast mentioned three of Moe’s crew by name – Guardsman J. McLeod, R.C. Sanderson his gunner Ernest Therrien – as having fallen into their hands but did not mention Moe’s name or that of Corporal C.J. Copping. The evidence was both scanty and circumstantial. As Moe’s friend, the Guards Quarter-Master Sergeant Art McCormack confided in his diary that night: “Sgt. Moe Hurwitz, his crew and tank reported missing today. I hope to goodness they find him because he would be a serious loss to this unit, not to mention how awful I feel.”
Listed officially as “Missing” and without official word from the Germans for months, rumours swirled, fueled in large part by the discovery of his paybook ten miles from Wouwesche Plantage and Moe’s steadfast refusal to have his religion expunged from all forms of identification which only increased speculation of his ultimate fate and treatment in the hands of the Nazis. However, it wasn’t until March 19th, 1945 confirmation came through German channels that Moe had “died of wounds” while in their hands on October 26th, two days after he disappeared. Only when the war ended and those captured on that night came home was the mystery solved.
When Moe was still considered “missing” in January 1945, the Canadian army gathered up his personal effects to send them to his family. Among the inventory list were 17 handkerchiefs. It isn’t known why there were so many.
Perhaps they came inside the monthly care parcels sent by Canada’s Jewish community to the men and women of Jewish faith who were serving overseas. Nearly 17,000 Canadian Jews served in the Second World War, and Moe is one of nearly 450 who didn’t come home. Perhaps he had bought them as souvenirs, intending to send them home as gifts.
After Moe’s brother Harry Hurwitz was liberated from the German POW prison camp in the spring of 1945, he made his way to England. That’s where he ran into some men who had known Moe. He learned then that his brother was dead. Harry was devastated, but not surprised. Moe had told his brothers that he knew he would not be returning from the war.
“Don’t worry, Harry, I won’t be back. You look after yourself,” Harry recalled.
It would be October before investigators could inform the family that Moe’s grave had been discovered in a communal cemetery near where he had been treated in the German hospital in Dordrecht, Holland. The grave was located in Field N, Row A1, Grave 10. The army also noted Moe was Jewish, and that he had been buried with “religious rites”. Moe’s remains were eventually transferred to a permanent resting place in the Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian Military Cemetery in Holland.
Unlike the heroes who survived the war, Hurwitz would never experience the celebrity of being summoned to Buckingham Palace to receive his gallantry awards. Moe’s father Chaim travelled to Ottawa to receive them from the Governor General.
The legacy and the challenge of Moe Hurwitz’s life were also passed on to new generations of Canadian military personnel through Hurwitz’s regiment, the Canadian Grenadier Guards. The 'Hurwitz Cup' is awarded each August to the army cadet with the highest score in marksmanship at the Connaught Ranges, near Ottawa. The Guards Museum in Montreal also displays Moe’s medals, and the Silver Cross that his mother Bella received from the government, after his death. A ten-page commemorative booklet pays homage to their “most purposeful and persistent soldier”.
This story map was written by Ellin Bessner, David O’Keefe and the Project ’44 team. The story map was sponsored by the Canadian Grenadier Guards Foundation. Source documents were provided by the Hurwitz Family, Library and Archives Canada and the Canadian Jewish Archives
To read more on the life of Sgt Moe Hurwitz, you can read the two part blog written by authours David O'Keefe and Ellin Bessner. Part 1: 17 Handkerchiefs and Part 2: Some Never Die.