Ernest Adolphe Côté (12 June 1913 – 25 February 2015), was a Canadian soldier, diplomat and civil servant.
Youth Côté was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to French-Canadian parents. His parents were Senator Jean Côté and Cécile Côté (née Gagnon). Côté's father was a government land surveyor from Quebec who went west in 1903 to determine the frontier between Alaska and the Yukon, and he subsequently became active as a mining engineer in Alberta, enjoying much success in his field, and then entered politics. Côté's mother came from a wealthy Quebec City family, and she used her wealth to become a great patron of music, having help found the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club of Quebec City (now the ) and the Ladies’ Musical Club of Edmonton (now the Edmonton Musical Club).
Côté was educated at Edmonton's Jesuit College and one friend recalled: "His French was impeccable — just as one would expect of someone who studied with the Jesuits". Côté was born and grew up in Alberta, but his Jesuit education was very typical of the education of the Québécois at the time. The education put a strong emphasis on French, Latin, Greek, the classics, rhetoric, the letters, philosophy, math, European history and Catholic theology. Côté was raised in a French-speaking household and educated in French, but as he grew up in a mostly English-speaking city, he was fluently bilingual. In September 1924, his father died, forcing several of his older brothers to drop out of school to take jobs in order to support their younger siblings.
In 1931, he was awarded a Bachelor of Science at . After graduation, Côté worked as a civil servant for the Alberta government and became involved in the that campaigned to preserve French in Alberta. Côté also worked as a radio announcer for Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission and served as the bilingual host on a radio show that played classical music every week. Starting in 1935, he attended the University of Alberta where he was awarded a LL.B. in 1938 and in 1939 joined the Law Society of Alberta. Côté was always proud to be both a westerner and a French-Canadian. As a member of a minority, Côté defined his sense of Canadian nationalism in civic terms instead of ethnic terms. Côté chose as his motto: "" ("do what must be done").
Second World War In 1939, he joined the Royal 22e Régiment, better known as the Van Doos, as a lieutenant. On 8 December 1939, he sailed as a part of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division that left Quebec City for Great Britain. Côté's first duty in Britain was to prepare the lavish Christmas feast for the Van Doos, who wanted to feel as if they were still at home. In early 1940, Marshal Maurice Gamelin, the commander of the French Army, visited Britain and he wanted to see the famous Royal 22e Régiment, which as the 22nd Battalion had won more decorations for valour in the First World War than any other battalion in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Côté was assigned as his guide, and afterwards Gamelin recommended him as a promising young officer. Gamelin's recommendation brought Côté to the attention of his superiors.
He was promoted to warrant officer in March 1940 and then promoted to staff officer in July 1940 with the Anglo-Canadian VII Corps that had the responsibility of guarding the south-east coast of England against a German invasion. Côté was assigned to the VII Corps because of Gamelin's recommendation made six months earlier. A protégé of General Andrew McNaughton, the general officer commanding the VII Corps and then of the First Canadian Army, Côté rose rapidly up the ranks. Côté was impressed to see Guy Simonds, a rising officer who is generally regarded as the most able of Canada's Second World War generals, create the curriculum for a Canadian Junior War Staff Course, single-handed. Côté described Andrew McNaughton as a highly intelligent and charismatic soldier-scientist who was forever coming up with some new scientific idea and who was very popular with the men who served under him. However, Côté expressed much concern about whatever McNaughton, who had spent all of the First World War as a "gunner" (artilleryman) was actually qualified to be a field commander, noting that McNaughton had an obsessive personality for whom no detail was too small. In the summer of 1940, Côté was astonished to see McNaughton call up Colonel James Ralston, the Minister of National Defence, to complain about the appearance of Canadian Army trucks on aesthetic grounds, saying he wanted Ralston to send more aesthetically pleasing trucks. The outcome of the Battle of Britain was far from certain in the summer of 1940, and Côté expected to be facing a German invasion of Britain anytime that summer, which made the question of the appearance of Canadian Army lorries quite secondary. In common with many other officers who served under McNaughton, Côté expressed much admiration for him as a man while also feeling that McNaughton's inability to delegate disqualified him from his chosen profession of field commander.
McNaughton gave Côté's career a major boost by sending him to study at a British Army staff course in September 1940. After graduating from the staff course in Minley Manor, in 1941 he was appointed deputy assistant adjutant general of the 1st Division and then as chief of staff of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade. From May 1941 onward, Côté was assigned to the staff of Major-General George Pearkes, a highly decorated First World War veteran who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917, and was now commanding the 1st Division. Côté was the only French-Canadian on Pearkes's staff, and found himself missing the cozy and French-speaking atmosphere of the Royal 22e Régiment. To drive home the point, other staff officers sometimes told Côté to "speak white" when he tried to converse with them in French. Côté found Pearkes to be warm, sympathetic and very brave, but also found that Pearkes was intellectually outclassed by Simonds. In April 1942, Côté voted in the referendum on overseas conscription, believing the current policy of sending only volunteers overseas was the best way of preserving national unity. In August 1942, Côté was promoted to deputy adjutant general for the I Canadian Corps commanded by Harry Crerar. In this capacity, he was marginally involved in the planning for the Dieppe Raid staged by the 2nd Division on 19 August 1942. Côté recalled that the expectation was that the raid was going to be a great success and that he together with the other officers were shocked with the raid ending in a debacle.
Later in 1942, he was promoted to assistant adjutant general of the First Canadian Army. Much to his own surprise, Côté was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). In 1942, he visited Buckingham Palace to be presented with the MBE insignia by King George VI. In 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and appointed assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, making him responsible for supplying the 15,000 men of the division with all their needs, an extremely important if unglamorous job. Côté wrote in his 2006 memoirs : “I believe we realized pretty quickly that I would be more useful in an administrative role than being in charge of operations, given my lack of experience in the field.” Côté described the 3rd Division as being better run and more honestly run than the 2nd Division. Côté stated that in the 2nd Division if ten jeeps were lost, the division's officers would ask for fifteen replacements whereas the 3rd Division never engaged in this sort of administrative corruption, always reporting its losses truthfully.
In January 1944, Côté was of the few Canadian officers informed of the details of Operation Overlord and was told that the 3rd Division would be landing at a place code-named Juno Beach just beside the French village of Courseulles-sur-Mer in Normandy sometime in the spring of 1944. Côté recalled about the preparations for Overlord in : "For example, we had to plan our routes in advance, even where no paths existed; we had to bring road signs with us to indicate which way soldiers should go and to identify reinforcement gathering places and the supply stations for water, gasoline, diesel and ammunition, and we had to locate the premises of the first small field hospitals and finally predetermine the location of a cemetery." The historian Serge Durflinger who later interviewed Côté recalled that he was intensely concerned as: "He was always hoping he would measure up. Had life prepared him for this? Was he up to that task? The sense of obligation to the men and to success, the details, the care and the sense of sophistication — these are things you don’t get from reading a book about D-Day." By May 1944, Côté reported that his preparations for Overlord were complete and he felt confident that he and his staff were capable of supplying the 3rd Division when it landed in France with all its needs. In March 1944, one of Côté's old friends from the 'Van Doos', Captain Paul Triquet, won the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of Casa Berardi in Italy in December 1943. Côté wrote to his friend upon hearing the news on 8 March 1944: "" ("There is no one I know whose temper was better forged for battle and prepared for the VC than yourself").
During the planning for Operation Overlord, Côté soon realized that General Rod Keller, the GOC of the 3rd Division, had a drinking problem and was not interested in operational details. Keller's chief of staff, Donald Mingay, set up his office in Côté's office and the two largely by-passed Keller in planning the landing at Juno Beach. Côté called Keller a "conventional tactician" who was "very much a spit and polish officer who cut quite a figure in his battledress. We always cut a spare uniform for him, ironed and ready to go just in case. He cared for the division and was sensitive to any slight on its reputation. He was a very proud man and on top of the division's training.". As part of the preparations for D-Day, Côté insisted that the Catholic and Protestant chaplains attached to the 3rd Division all learn each other's prayers for the dead to ensure the prompt burial of those slain in battle. To prevent corruption, he also ensured that the paymasters in the 3rd Division all serve as assistant adjutants in action, thereby ensuring the paymasters would know exactly how men had been killed in action and prevent officers from claiming the wages of any "ghost soldiers".
On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Côté landed with the 3rd Division on Juno Beach at about 11 am, four hours after the first landing. Côté remembered in a 2009 interview: "I met the British beach group. They were having elevenses. Morning tea. I asked them to have the dead bodies removed from the beach. Not a good sight for morale. I’d been told by Corps headquarters that we had to take a lot of wooden crosses over (on the landing craft). I told them to stuff it." Côté had a low opinion of Keller, observing that the responsibilities of command seemed to be too much for him, and that he was indecisive on D-Day. By contrast, Côté had a high opinion of Robert Wyman, the GOC of 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade whose "tough, no-nonsense" style and determination to move inland at once was a refreshing contrast to Keller's chronic indecisiveness. Côté helped establish the Canadian headquarters in the French village of Bény-sur-Mer. Côté later stated that Wyman "gave Keller much guidance which Keller appreciated". Côté commented that Keller was a weak leader, but he and the rest of the staff sought "to serve him as best we could". Côté stated that Keller's lack of leadership did not matter on D-Day because of the "division's brigadiers rock solid competent individuals" while the "performance of the brigades during and right after the landing was marvelous".