LEST WE FORGET 167 At Coventry, Harry was added to the reinforcement force of Canadians being built up for the 2nd Division which had been badly disabled by the Dieppe Raid. These Dieppe Raid Canadian boys in the 2nd Division were being held in Britain for a suitable occasion to invade and attack Germany’s war machine. They were complaining and getting into a lot of trouble that they were not going to see any war. To pacify them the Dieppe Raid was arranged. In the Dieppe Raid, in those 6 hours from 5 o’clock a.m. to 6 hours later - 11 o’clock a.m., they saw and experienced enough war to do them for a lifetime. There were 4,963 Canadians of the 2nd Division in the Raid; 913 were killed; 1,946 were taken prisoner and the remaining 2,000 escaped under fire back to Britain, where five hospitals worked steadily two days and nights to patch up the wounded. The 2nd Division was being built up to assist the 3rd Division, which headed the Normandy Invasion on June 5, 1944. In the invasion, a number of Canadians from the Maple Creek area were killed and wounded. After the Invasion was a success and France was liberated, Canadians from the British side were sent through France to be stationed around Gent, Belgium. In November 1944, the Americans had liberated and were stationed in Belgium. On December 16, 1944, Hitler with a desperation supreme “show no mercy force” that drove a wedge or bulge (Battle of the Bulge) in the American lines to almost reach the City of Bastogne where roads led to a main sea port to the Atlantic Ocean before the Americans were able to stop them. In a village near Gent, where they were stationed, the Germans shot all the elders, then because the children were crying, shot all the children. In another town a group of American prisoners were being held beside a road. When the German S.S. youths came through, they laughingly shot all the prisoners, then walked around kicking them in the groin. If they moved, got another shot. Three managed to play dead and got back to American lines. The night of December 16, they were up all night dressed, guns loaded ready for action, but they did not bother the Canadians as they passed. By December 28, the Americans had become organized, the Germans were stopped and beaten and retreating back home in cold snow, miserable winter weather, pursued, bombed, shelled, sick and cold, sorry looking lot. Some did not make it home. During the winter of 1945, all Canadians from the British and the Italian side were being assembled in one Canadian Army around the Nijmegen Holland area, which was held by the Canadians. By March 1945, the Hollanders in that area that had been held by the Germans were in a desperate situation. Germany had taken most of their land tillage equipment and food supply back to Germany. Many were starving to death on a diet such as beet roots and grass. For the dead, an identification tag tied to a finger or a toe and a bed sheet for a coffin was all they had. Had this situation lasted two months longer many Hollanders would have starved to death. During the latter part of winter and early spring of 1945, they were stationed on the west Holland side of a valley between Holland and Germany. Some evenings the Germans would fly over with small low flying planes that could fly below the range of their aircraft guns and drop flares to mark bombing targets for night bombing. Their demolition crew would then be busy destroying those flares before dark. The first of April 1945, Harry was sent to Nijmegen towing a damaged 25 pounder heavy artillery gun and its 4-man gun crew (a gun crew go with the gun) into Nijmegen. When he returned his regiment had vanished. In their area there was only one road across the valley to the German side. During the latter half of March, the Germans had been flooding that valley - to flood that road to prevent crossing into Germany. That road was now flooding, and Harry’s regiment had to cross while still able to see the road. The liberation of Holland had begun. When Harry crossed the road, he had to line up bare spots still showing on the road surface to get across and it was getting dark. He was the last one to cross on that road. The next morning, under water you could not see any of the road. In the dark you did not use any lights. He was trying to find his regiment; he was trying to follow a wagon trail. Harry came to a bunch of trees where a Canadian guard stopped him. He told him that Germans were camped on the other side of the valley. Had that guard not stopped him, he would have driven into the German lines in the dark and been shot. That guard saved his life. Harry went back and camped with some English soldiers in a small, deserted town at this end of that flooded road for the night, who filled him up on hard tac and bully beef. The next morning in daylight he found his regiment’s camp. There they were shelled and bombed steadily for two days and nights. Another gunman and Harry found a large deserted deep old basement where the flying shrapnel flew over top of them FORBES, Harry (continued) (continued)
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