191 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca McAREE, Arthur Allen “Jock” WWII Arthur, born in 1923, enlisted on May 25, 1942, at the Osborne Barracks in Winnipeg, at the age of nineteen. That summer and fall were spent learning to be a soldier, the fundamentals of artillery guns and related jobs. That fall, he moved to Vancouver for advanced training and coastal duty. In midDecember, the 19th Field Artillery Regiment trained in Petawawa, Ontario in the 55th Field Battery, on a new Idea Field Gun (an open tank mounted with 25 lb. field guns). They were called the “five-mile snipers”. Arthur became an Artillery Surveyor with the advance party, laying out gun positions. He ended up in Limpsfield (Ostend) in Surrey, England, on July 27, 1943. The trip from Halifax to Greenock, Scotland took 96 hours on the Queen Elizabeth. A surprise and pleasant meeting took place in October 1943 when his cousins Ross Campbell, Jim Murphy and Clayton McAree gathered for a weekend in Brighton, England. Part of the training in England was coming ashore with guns ablaze and firing on stationary targets from moving ships. He was part of a group testing motion sickness pills. He was not a pill taker but did not get seasick either. Arthur went ashore on D-Day, at H Hour, with the advance party for North Nova Scotia Regiment. He was part of a load on a Landing Craft Personnel which held 33 people in three rows, packed tight.This ride was only two or three miles, and things were somewhat explosive, so the discomfort was never noticed. They were held up for some time as some German boys were using them for machine gun targets. The move from England to France was a fairytale story. Arthur had to march with the infantry unit for about 22 miles to dockage. There marchers were in very good shape. On the end of a Southampton dock was a lone sailor who turned out to be his brother, Dave. They had a few minutes together, and Arthur then ran for thirty minutes to get back in place with the infantry. After embarking, they moved out to sea to their allotted place, and, as far as could be seen, there were ships of all shapes and sizes. In the morning, at landing time, the skies were full of aircraft. They landed at Aubin-sur-Mer. His unit, the 19th Field Regiment R.C.A., was involved in every major battle on the Canadian front to the end of hostilities on May 6, 1945. At the end, their position was north of Oldenburg but south of Wilhelmshaven, Germany. A chance meeting with Bill Alexander and Jim Holden, member of the Manitoba Dragoons, took place in Belgium. At the Battle of Falaise Gap, after Caen was taken on August 12, 1944, the unit took many German prisoners.The Americans were squeezing from the south, and the Canadians were at bottleneck area taking prisoners by the thousands. The Infantry was given the task of recapturing Dieppe, and not a shot was fired. Arthur was on motorcycle duty at that time. One time, at a convoy stop in Belgium, young girls were sent over to the group with fresh eggs. The Germans had left the day before, and the Infantry was trying to catch up with them. The Germans shot their own horses so they wouldn’t fall into the hands of the Infantry or the hands of the French of Belgians. Holland was quite a place for the Canadian troops. Most of the units wintered in Wahl River, Holland, where the weather was very cold. There was only sporadic shooting activity with the Germans. The observation post personnel would call on the telephone when it was necessary to fire on a German target, and then the unit would fire. At Nijmegen, Holland, at the Wahl River, the bridge was secured without being damaged. Once the Germans were gone, the unit could drive across. When the unit advanced on the Rhine River, the engineers built a floating bridge across the river which was not very wide. Only one vehicle could pass at a time. Ray ‘Mike’ Creaser from Minnedosa was one of the engineers. At the end of hostilities, the Infantry waited in England for embarkation home. They arrived in Winnipeg on December 22, 1945. Arthur rejoined the Canadian Civilian Society on January 29, 1946, at the age of 23. He married Carol Lamb on November 16, 1948, and they had a family of three boys and two girls. He received the Canadia Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, 1939-1945 Star, Defence Medal, France and Germany Star, and War Medal 1939-1945.
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