commemorating the 70th anniversary of d-day
Normandy ‘in shambles’ on june 7 when local landed with tank unit by Chris Daponte FERGUS - It may have been 70 years ago, but Griff Jackson remembers landing at a corner of Juno Beach on D-Day plus one like it was yesterday. “Some of those memories are like it just happened,” said Jackson, now 89 and living at the Highland Manor in Fergus. Landing in Normandy in the afternoon on June 7, 1944, Jackson was not part of the initial D-Day attack, but he certainly witnessed the carnage left behind by the largest amphibious invasion of all time. “The place was all shot up to hell,” he said. “There were people lying all around dead - mostly Germans ... the whole place was kind of in shambles.” Born and raised in the Fergus area, Jackson completed basic training in Listowel, before joining a tank corps for more training in Borden and then in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He was one of about 25 Canadian soldiers who arrived in France on June 7 as part of a British regiment aboard a ship carrying nine tanks. “They told us we had two jobs,” he said, explaining his group was tasked primarily with delivering tanks to wherever they
the task. “You could be killed just as easily (while delivering) supplies,” Fisher points out. A few weeks later Jackson witnessed firsthand the dangers of war, as he was reassigned to the Canadian Grenadier Guards’ 4th Armoured Brigade, where he stayed for the remainder of the war.
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“It was tough slugging,” Jackson said, explaining his tank was hit three times. Luckily, all five of his tank’s crew members got out alive. His crew advanced over several months, fighting in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, where fighting was fierce, notably in the Hochwald forest in February and March
if you came home, you were lucky
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- VETERAN GRIFF JACKSON, ON SERVING IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
GRIFF JACKSON
were needed for battle on the frontline. The second task, of course, was to engage any enemy forces standing in the way of job number one. Jackson said he saw minimal “action” during his estimated two-week stint deliver-
ing tanks with the British unit. “It was a job, somebody had to do it,” he said matterof-factly. Fellow veteran Mervin Fisher of Belwood said Jackson “sells himself short” by downplaying the importance of
“My unit lost 135 Sherman tanks,” Jackson said, noting he estimates that an average of 2.5 men were killed in each tank casualty. He recalled with remarkable detail one tank his crew lost on Aug. 14, 1944 during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket, often regarded as a decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy because it destroyed the bulk of Germany’s forces west of the Seine River and opened the way to Paris and eventually Germany.
of 1945. “There were some mean fire fights in there ... It was kind of touchy sometimes,” Jackson recalled, noting his crew also lost a tank during battles in the Hochwald area. In another close call during the war, Jackson was reading a book in a trench during a break in fighting, when all of a sudden a bullet whizzed by, just missing his shoulder. “I slid down that trench pretty fast,” he recalled with a laugh. Jackson’s crew was in the village of Varel, Germany on
May 5, 1945 the day German forces in northwest Europe surrendered. Victory in Europe (VE) Day was celebrated three days later, and after several months Jackson finally returned home. Despite everything he saw and experienced, he says he doesn’t spend too much time thinking about the tough times or heartbreaking aspects of the war. “I don’t dwell on it at all,” he said, though he acknowledged, “If you came home, you were lucky.” Yet like countless other WWII veterans, Jackson doesn’t regret for a moment his decision to join the army. “As soon as I turned 18 I volunteered. I told my mother I wouldn’t consider it until I was 18,” he said, of signing up in January, 1943. “It was something I wanted to do ... You saw your friends were joining up and you wanted to get in there.” Jackson, who retired in 1990, seems to enjoy telling stories with fellow veterans like Fisher, but sadly, the opportunities for those exchanges are getting more and more sporadic. For years Jackson met regularly for coffee with several veterans from the area. “They’re all gone now but me,” he said. “There’s so very few guys left.”
to be captured on d some of the first German prisoners Costly success - Canadian soldiers guar background. the in for d care are iers while injured sold the Normandy beachhead on D-Day, . 1944 carnage left behind on June 6, RIGHT: Soldiers survey some of the ives of Canada photos nt of National Defence/National Arch Departme
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the advertiser is proud to commemorate the 70th anniversary of d-day. it is an honour to relay stories about our veterans AND THOSE WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR OUR COUNTRY.
THE WELLINGTON ADVERTISER
FREE PRESS ~ NEWS WEEKLY
commemorating the 70th anniversary of
D-DAY
Canadian soldiers played VITAL role in D-Day invasion 70 years ago by Chris Daponte WELLINGTON CTY. June 6 marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the largest single-day amphibious military invasion of all time. About 155,000 soldiers, 5,000 ships, 50,000 vehicles and 11,000 planes participated in the Second World War Nor mandy landings on June 6, 1944. The D-Day invasion took place along an 80-kilometre stretch of the coast of the occupied French region, with Allied forces divided between five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The Allied landings in Normandy, also known as Op eration Overlord, remain one of the most significant events in Canadian military history. About 15,000 Canadian soldiers landed on the morning of June 6, as part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division or the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, which were assigned the task of
taking Juno beach. Another 450 Canadians drop ped behind enemy lines by parachute or glider while it was still dark. The Royal Canadian Navy supplied ships and about 10,000 sailors, and the Royal Canadian Air Force also supported the invasion with Lan caster bombers and Spitfire fighter planes. Preparing for battle The Canadian failure at Dieppe two years earlier no doubt helped shape and influence Allied plans for the Nor mandy invasion. Regardless, months of planning went into the June 6 operation, which had the objective of securing the city of Caen, from which Allied forces could launch a second front in western Europe - long regarded by Soviet leader Josef Stalin as the key to the ultimate downfall of Nazi Germany. The sheer logistics of such a large-scale, simultaneous attack using the forces of three nations
- Canada, the United States and Britain - required in-depth training exercises and equipment mobilization on a scale likely never before seen. The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade alone completed almost a year of special assault and combined operations training just for D-Day. And the training exercises themselves were not without risks. On April 28, 1944, on the English coast, 638 American soldiers and sailors were killed when German forces surprised one of the landing exercises. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies also tried to mislead the Germans regarding the date and place of the invasion. Some of the more unusual Allied preparations included the adaptation of armoured vehicles specially for the D-Day assault. Those included tanks that specialized in “swimming,” bridge
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Area Legions continuE to serve veterans and their families
laying, flame throwing, road laying, mine clearing, and destroying concrete emplacements. The invasion Despite the activity and even several Allied “leaks,” the Normandy invasion, which began at around 6am on June 6, 1944, largely caught the entrenched German forces by surprise. The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach had to overcome a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach, as well as bombardment from 155mm and 75mm guns, and machineguns. It’s estimated the first wave of Canadians suffered 50% casu alties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads. Yet the Canadians advanced rapidly and within hours had cleared the beach and began their advance inland. In fact, Canadian units advanced farther inland than any other Allied troops and were the only ones to complete all their D-Day objectives, although many ultimately fell back to strengthen defensive positions. Canadian casualties on June 6 at Juno Beach included 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner. During the first six days of the Normandy campaign, 1,017 Canadians died. Canadians went on to play an important role in the subsequent fighting in Normandy, with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division coming ashore in July and the 4th Canadian Armour ed Division in August. By the end of the Nor mandy campaign, which lasted two and a half months, about 5,020 Canadians had been killed (5,400 Canadians are buried in Normandy).
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Brave men Juno Beach The 9th canadian infantry Bri o n D-Day. gade lands included 3 40 killed an Canadian casualties on June 6, on d 574 wou nded. 1944
prepare on Calm before the storm - Canadian paratroopers e. Franc in on invasi D-Day the June 5 for
Canadian casualties totalled more than 18,000, while Allied casualties totalled 210,000 and German casualties were 450,000. The Normandy campaign was a crucial moment for the Allies in WWII, as it solidified for them a foothold in Europe and stretched out German defences. The Allies were already making important advances elsewhere, but D-Day undoubtedly helped expedite Germ any’s surrender, which came on May 8, 1945. The Canadian successes -
first at June Beach and then farther inland in subsequent months - solidified their al ready impressive reputation as excellent soldiers. The D-Day success also helped boost morale both within the military and at home. In 2003 the Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-surMer was officially opened to help recognize the sacrifice of the Canadians who fought in Normandy and the surrounding area during WWII. With files from the Depart ment of National Defence web site (www.forces.gc.ca).
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the normandy INVASION june 6, 1944
Soldier: scene at Juno Beach ON d-day ‘the worst thing I ever saw’ Ken Waters recounts ‘hellish’ experience on June 6, 1944 by Chris Daponte WELLINGTON NORTH In the summer of 1941, Ken Waters left military training in Nova Scotia and was shipped to England. A communications officer with the Highland Light Infantry of the Canadian army, Waters trained there for almost three years, including months of rigorous landing exercises. His unit was often taken out on a barge and the men, weighed down by their full gear, were told to jump off. “You (sank) about 18 feet, then you had to come up and swim to shore, which was a good 150 yards,” said Waters, who had “no idea” the drills were training for the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944. But nothing could have prepared him for what he saw when he landed on Juno Beach on D-Day, over an hour after the beaches were to be secured. “They weren’t too secure,” he said with a wry smile. “It was chaos. There were so many shells coming in, we had to keep digging holes.” Compounding the situation, Waters said, was the very narrow area of beach on which his unit had to advance. He estimates his group advanced about 100 metres at a time, digging holes along the way to shield themselves from the German barrage. “We knew we had to go inland because we didn’t want to go the other way,” Waters recalled recently from the kitchen table of his home north of Arthur. Now 93, Waters is still troubled by the human casualties he witnessed that day. “It was the worst thing I ever saw,” he said quietly, describing one particularly disturbing scene of shot-up Canadian soldiers hanging out of a tank that was disabled during the invasion. Waters’ own landing was not without danger, as his
unit’s craft hit a mine on its way into the shore, blowing a hole in the ship’s landing door. “That put us in water up to here,” he said motioning to his chin. For those not as tall, the water was over their heads and Waters recalls helping at least one of his comrades ashore. “It was hellish,” he said, describing the entire scene. Waters thinks his immediate unit lost about six men on D-Day, but it eventually
In fact, newspaper reports in Kitchener, where Waters’ future wife Rhoda lived at the time, stated the Highland Light Infantry (HLI) was “wiped out” in the battle. That was not the case, Waters noted, but the HLI did suffer heavy casualties in the battle (“bloody Buron,” as many HLI veterans call it), with the majority of the beds in a local hospital occupied by the regiment’s soldiers. Some estimate the regiment
Home sweet home - After the war, Ken Waters returned to his family’s farm property north of Arthur, where he still resides with his wife and daughter. photo by Chris Daponte
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it was chaos. there were
so many shells coming in,
we had to keep digging holes - WWII VETERAN KEN WATERS
reached its objective, the village of Les-Buissons, where it stayed for what Waters estimates was several weeks. “We had to man the trenches every night,” he said. Before long the unit was on the move again, with its next target being Buron, a village located about six kilometres northwest of Caen, which was a key objective of the Normandy invasion. The fighting was intense in and around Buron, Waters said.
Arthur Legion Branch 226 281 George Street Arthur 519.848.5052
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suffered 262 casualties in the July, 1944 battle - about half of its assaulting force - with 200 wounded and 62 killed. Among the wounded was Waters, who narrowly escaped death when a grenade exploded just steps away while he was walking alongside his corporal. “It definitely killed him - he was a hell of a nice guy ... all I got was shrapnel,” said Waters. (It took three years to remove the largest pieces of shrapnel, which hit Waters
in seven spots. He had surgery to remove another piece about six decades after the war ended, though he suspects all the pieces were never entirely removed.) After recovering for several weeks in an English hospital, Waters made arrangements to visit his twin brother Mervin, who had also left home to volunteer for the war effort. “It took me all day,” Waters said, noting he walked long distances and also hitched rides for a portion of the trek. “When I got there I asked someone about him and they said they were all dead,” Waters said emotionally. But like so many others who received such horrible news, Waters quickly rejoined his comrades in battle. The regiment saw action during major battles in the Hochwald forest area in February and March, 1945, where Waters was shot in the groin. Once healed, he again rejoined his unit, which crossed the Rhine River in “water buffalo” landing crafts into the Netherlands. “All I can say is the people there were starving,” Waters said of the Dutch population that was liberated by Canadian soldiers in early May, 1945. “Our regimental unit put on a special dinner for the kids in a small village.” While proud to have played a role in the Liberation of the Netherlands, Waters said he didn’t get to savour the moment like others did, because he had to perform communications duty and his unit quickly pushed through the area. “When (the Allies and Germany) signed the peace agreement our unit was 20 miles into Germany,” he said. Waters remembers vividly his colonel telling him to send out the “cease fire” message once the Germans surrendered. “He was the first colonel I had ever hit,” Waters said
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Harriston Legion Ladies Auxiliary celebrating 65 years! Harriston Legion Branch 296
KEN WATERS
with a chuckle, recounting how he slapped his superior on the back in celebration when he heard the good news. But it took several days for things to completely settle down. “The damn Germans were still firing,” Waters said of the confusion surrounding Victory in Europe (VE) Day, which is officially celebrated on May 8. Waters was out of Germany in June or July and back to Ontario in the fall. “I didn’t do anything for a while - except eat,” he said with a grin. He worked for a year at J.M. Schneider in Kitchener before returning for good to the family farm in Wellington North. He married Rhoda in 1947 (they both still live on the property) and they had three kids: John, Patricia and Mervin. Waters bred holsteins for decades before selling the farm in the 1970s. Looking back on a lifetime full of relationships and achievements, he says, “I know I couldn’t have done it without a family.”
He counts himself lucky for making it through the war, but he still deals with painful memories and flashbacks that have haunted him for the last 70 years. “I have trouble going through the bad times - especially at night,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to think of some of those guys that are gone before you, mainly because you knew them so well and had to bury them.” He has returned twice to some of the WWII battle scenes, as well as various grave sites, which was difficult for him. Yet through it all, he doesn’t regret his role in the war. “I enlisted at 17 ... I think it ran in the family,” he said. In the Great War his uncle Milton Sr. died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and his father Alfred was wounded in the Battle of the Somme. So Waters and his twin brother Mervin felt they should also do their part. “It was just something we did,” he said.
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