LEST WE FORGET 205 JEBSON, George William Stanley WWII George was born on March 3, 1921, in Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, to Stanley and Ethel Jebson, the second child of six children. He grew up on his father’s farm and after the war, George bought land and farmed all his life. He hunted and trapped for food and money. In 1941, he enlisted in the Canadian Army to fight overseas in World War II. He was in the 9th Field Royal Canadian Engineers and his main duty was to blow up bridges and build new ones at the front lines. He landed at Juno Beach on D-Day and from there they worked their way through France and near the Leopold Canal in Belgium. He was seriously wounded by a piece of shrapnel from a mortar shell that struck him through the left shoulder blade through his lung and rested against his heart. He was transported to London, England for medical care and recovery. He returned to Europe and was in the first boats to cross the Rhine River. He ended up in Emden, Germany where six of them blew up several large guns that had been shelling them for three days. Before he was wounded in 1943, he entered into the army sports three-mile race. He had previously run a ten-mile race coming in twelfth out of one hundred. They trained for the three-mile race and worked himself up to coming in third of the 4th Division, second for the 2nd Corps, and finally third in the big one, the Canadian Army Overseas finals. During his recovery, he was sent on a secret mission where he oversaw a civilian contractor build the first Fog lifting equipment so aircraft could land during fog conditions which was often. While still in London, he was out with some buddies for a walk-in town when two lovely ladies came riding up on their bikes. They stopped, met them, and one of them, Joyce Margret Polley from Chadwell Heath, Essex, eventually became his wife. After the war, he returned to Shellbrook and bought some farmland and built a small house for them to live in. They raised cattle, chickens, pigs, and horses and he worked on a thrashing crew until he had his own tractor and combine. They had four children, Rosemary, Roy, Gary, and Allan. George passed away on November 19, 2001. JOHNSON, Byron WWII Byron enlisted on June 27, 1941 and trained as aircrew in Canada and proceeded to the UK and flew his first tour of operation with mixed Royal Canadian Air Force - RAF Crew in England and North Africa as a tail gunner. He returned to England as an instructor at RAF gunnery school and then returned to Canada as his tour expired in January 1944. He went back to England to start his second tour in Lancaster as mid upper gunner with an all-Canadian crew. He flew back to Canada in the spring of 1945 to start training on Lincoln Bombers for the far east service. He was discharged on September 8, 1945. Byron died suddenly of cancer on December 10, 1990. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, Defence Medal, Italy Star, 1939-1945 Star, France and Germany Star, Aircraft Europe Star, War Medal 1939-1945 and the Canadian Forces Decoration.
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