125 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca MacLEOD, John A. WWI John was born in Valleyfield, PEI, in 1896. He joined the 108th Overseas Battalion CEF Regiment on October 15, 1915 and served in England. He returned to Canada on June 21, 1919, and after moving to Carberry in 1943, he also served as chaplain for the RAF forces that were stationed there. John passed away in 1985. MALENCHAK, Frank WWII Frank enlisted in Portage la Prairie in February 1942. He took basic training there, then his advance training at Fort Garry, Winnipeg. While in Winnipeg we also took further training at the Old Ford Plant- some of the training was driver training and motor mechanics. He was transferred to Shilo, Manitoba where he was a driver instructor for a short time. He went back to Winnipeg for about three months and attended the technical school. He took fitter gun (MV) training at Kingston, Ontario and from here he was on draft for overseas. In May 1943, he went overseas on the Queen Mary. There were approximately twenty thousand soldiers aboard. They docked in Scotland then went straight on the train to Borden, England. Further training followed and he signed up to go to the theatre of war. His first posting was to Italy. He was attached to the Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ). On the way there, just a half day past Gibraltar, their ship, which was part of a convoy of twenty to thirty ships, was torpedoed. They spent roughly six hours in the waters of the Mediterranean hanging on to lifeboats and half the time not hanging on. Another ship picked them up and they were taken to Algiers. About two weeks later they went to Naples, Italy. As he was connected with headquarters, and a driver, he had to drive the senior officers to the front lines, deliver messages and do anything he was needed for. They even had to go ahead as the regiment was moving up to look for buildings to set up headquarters in. At this time, they found out Frank was a gun fitter, motor mechanic and machinist so he had to look after headquarters’ vehicles. He continued to do this as they progressed to Casino, Rome and Florence. While in Florence, the war ended. They were shipped back to England. He had to wait in Farnsborough for a ship to take them home to Canada. Frank landed back in Canada in January 1946 and was discharged in March 1946 having served as Craftsman with the Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers. He then resided in Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, with his wife Mina.
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