95 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca uniforms and on the third day they got mail. Walter was reading a letter when he heard planes. He looked up and saw they were American planes and he proceeded to read his letter. Then someone yelled “Look out, bombs!”Walter looked and sure enough two bombs were coming right at them. They used all the signals they could to tell them they were allies but they kept on bombing. The next morning, they were on the move again. They backtracked a little towards Falaise, circling to their right. They marched all day and all night. Early in the morning they came to Bayeux. They went through that city and walked all day again. They came to their destination at dark. They cut off the hole they called the Falaise Gap causing many German divisions to surrender as they were surrounded. They stayed overnight and were on their way again. They kept up town after town until they got to the Seine River. At this point, Walter regretted that he had to leave the front lines because of battle fatigue, that’s what it was called, he called it shell shock or a nervous breakdown. From then on, he was posted to 19 Special Employment Company in Ghent, Belgium. He went to #9 mobile laundry in Syse, Belgium then back to 19 Special Employment. He also went to 6 CCS Hospital 10 Nijmegen, Holland where he was cook’s helper for the officers. He was also assigned to the burying detail, who buried the unfortunate who could not be saved at the hospital. He saw Harold Slater again. He had seen him once in battle but did not think he would make it. Harold thought the same about him, but they met in the Canada Club. They were moved to Almelo, Holland at 6 CCS hospital. In Almelo, they now were attached there from 19 Special Employment and washed windows, scrubbed floors and did other such jobs. Walter met his wife Anne just after they got to Almelo and asked her to marry him not long after that. In the last part of July 1945, he got a medical inspection and they told him they were sending him to the hospital the next day. He had lots of trouble with tonsillitis. Every time it would occur the doctor would say, “Your tonsils will have to be taken out, but we have to wait till the infection goes away.” Also, he had been told he had T.B. and something was wrong with his chest, bronchitis or something. He thought he was going in with regards to these; he never thought about the battle fatigue, although he had not received treatment at any time for this. The morning after he was admitted to the hospital in Ghent, Belgium, a doctor, with the rank of Major and a nurse came to his bed. He asked Walter what he was in for, and he said, “I’m sorry, Sir, I was told I had to go into the hospital and I didn’t ask what for.” He continued that it must be on his papers as to why he was there. That doctor just tore into him and called him every dirty thing he could. He said Walter should be shot for slinging the lead and that he was going to discharge him. Immediately, Walter said, “No, you’re not. I want my tonsils out.” The doctor said he would have to see a specialist and then went left. About ten minutes later, the same nurse returned and said, “Mr. Imlah, if you want to lay a charge against that doctor, I’ll help you, and I’ll be a witness because he had no right saying those things to you.” Walter told her, “It’s okay, forget it”. But it was true he had not asked why they were sending him to the hospital. She said, “I believe you,” and she said she would see that a throat specialist looked at his throat. He wished that he had laid a charge against that doctor. He could be the reason why there does not seem to be any records re-battle fatigue. Walter saw the throat specialist who was also a Major in the American Army. He was sent to No. 1 Canadian hospital in France where he had his tonsils removed. Walter went back to 19 Special where he was with the Regimental Police until they returned to Canada. He put in for permission to get married. He had to go to different camps in order to stay in Holland until he got married. Walter mostly worked as a fireman, on steam boilers, in different Canadian Camps. He got married on December 20, 1945 and soon was on his way back to Canada. He returned in February 1946 and was discharged on May 6, 1946. He retired back to Fisherton with his wife Anna. He received the following medals: the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence of England Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp and War Medal 1939-1945. IMLAH, Walter R. (continued)
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