39 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca BIRCH, Ronald Francis WWII Ronald was born in Brandon, Manitoba in 1922. After finishing school in Roseneath, south of Minnedosa, his parents, Edwin and Annie Birch bought a farm and moved east of Minnedosa. He helped there until he joined the Army. In 1940, he joined the Manitoba Dragoons in Minnedosa and trained two nights a week with instructor Ernie Delmage. On December 4, 1942, he joined the P.P.C.L.I. for active service, #103795, at Fort Osborne Barracks in Winnipeg. He was 18 years old. His basic training was at Portage la Prairie and advanced training at Shilo. He left Camp Shilo by train to Halifax on his way to Liverpool, England, on the Andes, arriving on June 24, 1943, and was stationed at Aldershot. From Aldershot he was sent to Phillipville, North Africa which took sixteen days on the water in convoy. The temperature on arrival was 114 degrees. The men were issued pup tents, two men to a tent, for sleeping quarters. At night it often rained so hard the sand would wash away from the tent pegs and the tents would collapse. He trained there for two or three weeks. Seventeen men and Ronald were sent to Bizerte, North Africa by train taking three days and three nights and Ronald could swear the wheels on that train were square! They caught the landing barges at Bizerte to meet the First Division in the toe of Italy after the fall of Sicily. He fought in the front lines and was wounded in the Hitler Line on May 23, 1944. They were bogged down in Ortona for three months because of rain and mud. Tanks and equipment were unable to move. While in Italy he was hospitalized with typhoid fever and malaria. After recovery he rejoined his regiment and was sent back into action and was wounded again on February 12, 1945, in the Gustaff Line, convalesced in Italy and was sent in hospital ship to Camp Borden, England. While he was there the war ended. He volunteered for occupational duty in Germany and Holland and was stationed at Hanglow with the Lake Superior Regiment and did guard duty at Cologne and Frankfurt, Germany, guarding army equipment and handing out rations to the hungry civilians. When he went back to England he boarded the Queen Elizabethship in Southampton, arriving in New York, U.S.A. at the end of February 1946. He took the train to Winnipeg and had thirty days leave, reporting back to #10 District Depot, Fort Osborne, and was discharged April 4, 1946. When he arrived home, rural hydro was being installed and he worked for the hydro in 1946 and 1947. He was married in St. Marks Anglican Church, Newdale, on September 4, 1946, to Irene Hampton. They had two children, a son Elvin, and a daughter, Beverley. In 1948, Irene and Ronald farmed a quarter section where Lenwood Robinson lived and was owned at that time by Bill Dubiski. At night he drove a gravel truck for Gordon Watchorn as #16 Highway was being built from Neepawa to Minnedosa. In the winter of 1948, he started an ice business and cut and hauled ice from Minnedosa Lake to residences in Minnedosa with a team of horses and sleigh. Harvey Greenaway rented his section of land at Newdale to Ronald, so he and Irene moved from the Dubiski farm to Newdale and they were there from 1949 to 1954. In 1954, they bought a half section at Basswood from Austin Gamey through V.L.A. They also bought a quarter from Jack Miscow at Newdale and a quarter from Allan Proven at Basswood. They farmed in the area from 1954 to 1989. They sold their home quarter with the buildings to Mark and Mary Ida Donahoe, from Brandon, and they moved into their new home at 153 - 8th Ave., southwest Minnedosa. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, Defence of Britain Medal, France and Germany Star, Italy Star, 1939-1945 Star and War Medal 1939-1945. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 138 for ten years. Ronald passed away in 2014.
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