119 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca LARENCE, Harold Percy WWII Harold enlisted in the Army at No. 10 District Depot on November 19, 1942. He remained in Winnipeg, taking his basic training in Fort Garry, Manitoba for about five months then went on to Camp Shilo where he took advance training. From there he went to Woodstock, Ontario to take a course in mechanics. The next spring, he returned to Camp Shilo. In early 1944, he was posted overseas. He travelled on the ship Andes, landing at Liverpool, England. Harold was in England for a short time then was sent to France and there he joined the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. His first front line action was at the Battle of Leopold Canal in October 1944. They also fought atWalcheren Island.When this was over their unit spent the winter in Nijmegen, Holland where they prepared for more fighting in the spring. At the Battle of the Siegfried Line, they had to use Buffaloes (a vehicle that could go on land or water) to cross from Nijmegen to the Siegfried Line as the Germans had blown up the dikes and flooded the troops out.They ended up going back to Nijmegen because the water was so deep. It was so high the tracks of the buffaloes were getting caught in the telephone wires and had to be maneuvered back and forth to get free. From the Siegfried Line, they moved on to Cleve, Germany. They were trying to take Dusseldorf. Here, they were moved by kangaroos, which were tanks with the turret taken off. When they moved into the Moyland Woods, they were pinned down but the support company with the flame throwers came in to help them. They took the woods. It was there, Harold again saw Jimmy Long, as he was with the flame throwers unit that came to help them.There was fierce fighting and many casualties. Harold was wounded in the shoulder this time but was in the hospital for only a short time when he returned to ‘C’ Company. One night just at dark he was standing ready to go out to battle.They were waiting for their orders to move out, standing at parade rest.He could see four or five men approaching carrying rifles.He did not think anything of it, so did not say anything. A fewminutes later, the corporal turned and saw them. He ordered the approaching men to halt.They halted, dropped their rifles and surrendered. They were German soldiers coming in to surrender. There was more fighting, then they had a rest in the Reichswald Forest before they went to cross the Rhine River. While they were at rest, they did target practice. One of Harold’s buddies, Joe Houle, ran to check the target and stepped on a land mine that had been planted there by the Germans. It blew off his foot.When they went to cross the Rhine, the Regina Rifles were the spearhead of that attack, so they took the worst of the fighting.When Harold got there, they had a bridge made and a smoke screen – their first engagement was at Emmerich. From there to Apeldoorn, they had the Germans on the run. One night when Harold was a runner delivering messages from headquarters to the Company, he was going down the street where there had been heavy shelling. There were a lot of bodies, with no clothes on, lying on the street. His hair stood on end but had to keep going.The next day Harold went down the same street and found that the bodies were store dummies that had fallen out of the store window due to the bombing. If he had not gone down that same street the next day, he would have been telling this story with a different ending. Another night, while delivering messages, Harold ran past a house and was told later on that eight Germans had been captured in the basement of that house later that day. Their regiment had a parrot as a mascot. It travelled in the kitchen truck. The driver of the truck was a French fellow from St. Laurent and the parrot must have been picked up in France because any words the parrot spoke were in French.When the parrot was left out of the cage, it would not fly away - it travelled with them all the way. On April 5, Harold was wounded again this time in the right leg. He was in hospital in Nijmegen.When he was released, he went to Ghent. Harold met Rosario Guimond and Fred Raymond in Ghent. The army needed drivers for trucks, so they flew him to Marseilles, and he drove the trucks back to Ghent. After returning to his unit, he had a few more battles and the war was over. They all celebrated this. They were taken to Utrecht and here they were looking for volunteers to go to the Far East. Harold and his buddy joined. He was shipped home and arrived in Winnipeg in the middle of July. He had thirty days of leave. During this time, the war with Japan was over. They sent them to MacDonald, gave them harvest leave and returned to Fort Osborne Barracks where Harold was discharged. He received the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp and the War Medal 1939-1945. He joined The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 158 in 1957 and received Life Membership. He was Sergeant of Arms for many years. Harold resided in Fisher Branch with his wife, Lillian.
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