Macdonald landed on Juno Beach in July 1944 with the 4th Division. They took heavy casualties near Caen. He was with the 101 Battery of the 8th LAA as they moved through the Falaise Gap, and later with the 5th Anti-tank Regiment as they advanced through the Somme.
After France, the 5th went on to Antwerp, the Leopold Canal, Tilburg, and Bergen Op Zoom,They were the first troops to take Bergen Op Zoom. The liberation of the inland port of Antwerp was crucial to the allied victory.
As they advanced, MacDonald became a machine gunner until the end of the war. They reverted to Infantry and took over patrol duty along the Maas River from Lith to Wild, patrolling at night, usually short-handed.
Patrols were supposed to have five men, but Bill Rutledge and MacDonald would volunteer to go out alone. This worked best anyway, Cliff says, as with just the two of them they were able to get close enough to hear the Germans talking.They would then slip back to their lines with information about location and numbers.
In 1945 they took Cleve, Even, and then Lousendorf through the Hoch Wald Forest, Wught. They ended up at Driebergen, near Oldenberg, Germany when the ceasefire came through.