63 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca EKMAN, August J. “Gus” WWII August was born on a farm near Lipton, Saskatchewan in 1914. He enlisted in the Army in March of 1943 and arrived in England on September 1st of that year. Gus served with the Canadian Scottish Regiment in England and in Normandy during World War II. He was killed in action on Juno Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944 and is buried at the Beny-Sur-Mer Cemetery. ESPEY, William Harvey WWII Harvey was born in Cardale, Manitoba in 1923. He joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in 1942, training at Shilo and Portage. Harvey served eleven months in North Africa and Italy. In Italy, he fought in the Liri Valley and in the battle of Ortona, fighting the Hitler Youth Line. He was wounded twice, once in May of 1944 and again in September of 1944. He was then sent to England to recuperate, but due to his last injury was given a medical discharge in July of 1945. After his return, he farmed in the Oak River district, married Mabel Pratley and raised a family of two. He was a member of the Oak River Legion Branch 150 for 41 years. Harvey passed away in 1994 at the age of seventy. FALLOON, Maurice E. WWII Maurice was born in 1916 to Sam and Fanny Falloon on the farm near Foxwarren, Manitoba. Maurice was accepted to air crew in the Royal Canadian Air Force in November of 1942. He graduated as a pilot officer and was chosen to serve for Canadian Transport Squadron 436 flying Dakota Air craft dropping supplies to the British 14th Army in Burma. In December of 1944, he was stationed in the Imphal Valley where he flew over fifteen thousand foot high mountains. In the spring of 1945, Maurice was moved to Akyab, a small island off the Arakan coast of Burma. In the summer of 1945, he flew out of Ramree Island. Maurice finished his tour of 700 operational flying hours the day before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. General Slim and the British 14th Army took Rangoon from the Japanese soon after. He was a member of the Legion Branch 152 for more than sixty years before he passed away in 2009.
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