351 www.on.legion.ca TALES, James Albert James was born in Galt, Ontario on March 22, 1920, to William and Florence Tales along with three siblings, Albert, Lawrence, and Grace. He attended Manchester Public School and Galt Collegiate Institute. Prior to World War II, he was employed at Stauffer-Dobbie Ltd. James enlisted in the Army (Regular Force) in Galt on June 24, 1940, with the Highland Light Infantry. After basic training was finished on July 7, 1941, he married Isabelle Tavener in Paris, Ontario. On July 20, 1941, he left Halifax, Nova Scotia on his way overseas, and disembarked in Gourock, Scotland. He served as a jeep driver while in the UK. He fought in D-Day and continued on into France. He was wounded the second time on March 5, 1945, was sent to a hospital in England and then to London, Ontario for better medical aid. He was discharged on August 17, 1945, on a rehabilitation discharge and returned to his former employer. Within four months, he became ill with severe headaches. He had a brain abscess from shrapnel and spent months in the hospital until he passed away on September 19, 1946, of war wounds. James is buried at Mount View Cemetery in Galt and is commemorated on page 590 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. TASSE, George Edward George was born on July 28, 1915, in the small, rugged community of Cutler, Ontario, the ninth child in a large and hardworking family. His parents, Joseph and Laura, raised their children on the land where survival depended more on effort than opportunity. George had no formal education, telling the recruiter it was “too far to go to school”. He was quite intuitive at fixing things and he relaxed playing the guitar, violin, and banjo. From the age of fifteen, when not working on the farm, he worked on road construction and as a woodsman. In 1939, he and his brother Robert moved to Sault Ste. Marie to work at Dominion Bridge Steel. Enlisting in the Army (Regular Force) on May 9, 1942 in Sault Ste. Marie, he did his basic training in North Bay and Simcoe, Ontario. He assigned $20, and later $23, of his pay monthly to his mother as he was her sole support. As a gunner, he received $1.50 a day. While in North Bay, he had his tonsils removed. He was posted to the Royal Canadian Artillery, 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment, “F” Battery, in late March 1943, later being re-posted to “G” Battery. The unit arrived in the United Kingdom on Christmas Eve. On July 7, 1944, the Regiment landed in Normandy. War did not ease him into its reality. The regiment was immediately engaged in the fighting north of Caen. Soon, they pushed south, into one of the most bitterly contested battles of the campaign, the struggle for Verrières Ridge. There, “G” Battery supported the Calgary Highlanders, firing in defense of advancing infantry. It was a fight measured in yards and paid for in lives. George was killed in action on July 20, 1944. He was first buried along the St. Martin de Fontenay Road, in the very ground he had helped to liberate. In 1946, he was laid to rest again at the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery. There, he was placed near his brother Robert, who had fallen on the same day, in the same battle, serving in the same regiment. Back in Canada, their 74-year-old mother received the news no parent should ever face. Two letters arrived. Two sons lost. Both lost to the cauldron of war. We Will Remember Them Ontario Command
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