Guy Simonds

Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds, was a senior Canadian Army officer who served with distinction during World War II. Acknowledged by many military historians and senior commanders, among them Sir Max Hastings and Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, as one of the best Canadian generals of the war, Simonds, after serving the first few years of the Second World War mainly as a staff officer, commanded the 1st Canadian Infantry Division with distinction in Sicily and Italy from July 1943 until January 1944, and later II Canadian Corps during the Battle of Normandy from June−August 1944 and throughout the subsequent campaign in Western Europe from 1944, towards the end of which he temporarily commanded the First Canadian Army during the Battle of the Scheldt, until victory in Europe Day in May 1945. The historian J. L. Granatstein states the following about Simonds: "No Canadian commander rose higher and faster in the Second World War, and none did as well in action. Simonds owed his success wholly to his own abilities and efforts—and those of the men who served under him."

23 April 1903

Born on the same birth day (23 April): Bobby Rosengarden • Eric Yarrow • Gianandrea Noseda • Halston • Ivo Lola Ribar • Jim Fixx • John Hannah (actor) • Lee Majors • Leon Andreasen • Michael Copps • Michael Kadosh • Serge Thériault • Uli Herzner

Born in the same month (April 1903): Andrey Kolmogorov • Clare Turlay Newberry • Doc Edgerton • Edwin T. Layton • Eliot Ness • Gregor Piatigorsky • Henry Corbin • John Williams (actor) • Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay • Luis Saslavsky • Marion Aye • Misuzu Kaneko • Morgan Taylor • Paul Waner • Ruth Svedberg