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Every now and again, a request will come to The War Amps office that presents a bit of a challenge.  In 2008, we got just such a request from Mr. Ken Paynter, a veteran of the Second World War. 

He contacted us in the hope that we could help him reunite an American Second World War blanket with an American veteran who took part in the Battle of Anzio.  The story of how Mr. Paynter acquired the blanket is an interesting one.

During the battle, in late May 1944, Mr. Paynter, along with other members of his platoon, were positioned along a railway embankment leading into Anzio, Italy.  At first daylight, an American handcar came along the track and stopped by the Canadians.  Without hesitation, a U.S. soldier grabbed a blanket that was covering a dead body and tossed it to Paynter saying, “Sergeant, you look like you need this more than he does.” Then, they took off again.

He kept the blanket all these years and thought often of the American soldier who gave it to him.  Then, one day, he decided that it needed to be returned to U.S. soil, preferably to the family of a veteran from the Battle of Anzio.  That’s when he contacted The War Amps with his request.

It took some doing but, after many phone calls and e-mails, we were able to connect Mr. Paynter with Marion Chard of Alger, Michigan, whose late father served with the 540th American Combat Engineers at Anzio.

Ms Chard, who lost her father when she was 12 years old, was delighted to have the blanket, and has it displayed in a prominent spot in her office. 

Steven Madely of CFRA Radio in Ottawa interviewed both Mr. Paynter and Ms Chard about this fascinating story.  The transcript of the interview can be read here.

This week marks the 68th anniversary of the raid on Dieppe, the French seaside port across the channel from England.

The raid on Dieppe has been the subject of many books and films. Most of them have labeled the assault, carried out primarily by the Canadian 2nd Division, as a monumental failure. In the minds of many Canadians, Dieppe was a major political blunder and a result of flawed generalship.

One prominent commander in the fray, Denis Whitaker of Hamilton (who was with The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry – himself a wounded veteran from Dieppe), reinforced the theory in his book Dieppe: Tragedy to Triumph that it was a success. He stated there had been many lessons from Dieppe which prevented casualties in the D-Day invasion of June 1944.

I was commanding troops in the D-Day landing. In a documentary produced for The War Amps Military Heritage Series called DIEPPE: Don’t Call It a Failure. I described a number of improvements in landing technique which presumably made the 1944 invasion easier. For example: air cover; preliminary bombarding from artillery and rockets; floating tanks; to say nothing of a well-trained infantry division – the Canadian 3rd.

The raid lasted only nine hours, but among the nearly 5,000 Canadian soldiers involved, more than 900 were killed and 1,874 taken prisoner.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dollard Menard was one of only a few commanding officers who landed at Dieppe and returned to Britain. All others had either been killed or captured.

Menard led the Fusiliers Mont-Royal into a hail of enemy mortar and machine-gun fire in an attempt to test the Nazi defences of occupied France. Wounded five times, he continued to lead his men until fellow officers forced him back to a landing craft.

For his bravery, Lt.-Col. Menard was awarded the Distinguished Service Order medal.  This medal signifies not only a gallantry award, but has added importance in that it represents the entire contribution of French troops in the Canadian Forces during the Second World War.

In 2005, Menard’s DSO, as well as his other medals, were auctioned off in Montreal.  Thanks in part to a Quebec philanthropist, they were purchased and donated to the regimental museum of the Fusiliers Mont-Royal, where they remain on display.

This Sunday, August 15^th, marks the 65^th anniversary of Victory in Japan (VJ) Day.

More than 10,000 Canadians served in Hong Kong, Burma and other Far East theatres, which proved to be the longest campaign of the Second World War. Many Canadians were taken as prisoners of war in the Far East and spent several horrific years living in deplorable conditions.

Lieutenant Kay Christie was one of only two Canadian Nursing Sisters in Hong Kong.

Shortly after Christmas in 1941, the British Military Hospital where she was on duty was declared a Prisoner of War camp by the Japanese. Barbed wire fences and electric wires went up around the hospital as a means of ensuring that no one escaped.

After eight months of being witness to horrors beyond imagination and learning to cope with hunger, deprivation and overcrowding, Kay, along with 2,400 men, women and children, was moved to a civilian internment camp on Stanley Peninsula on the South side of the island. Privacy and basic comforts were conspicuous by their absence and “scrounging” to make do became a way of life.

Rations were very small and often not fit to eat. There was no refrigeration, so whatever was received had to be made into a stew so that there was enough to go around. Any leftover was turned into a thin soup for the next day. There was a baker in Kay’s block who was able to take the small rations of flour and turn them into bread. The “unknowns” in the flour were accepted as extra protein.

Life continued like this until the middle of 1943 when they learned that the Canadian Government had negotiated to have all Canadian civilian internees repatriated along with the group of American civilians remaining in other parts of the Far East.

They left Stanley Camp on September 23, 1943 and began their journey home. The first four weeks were on a dreadful Japanese ship where the conditions were even worse than at the internment camp. The ship was built to hold 400 passengers; however, there were 1,530 people on board.

After arriving in Goa, the civilians were exchanged for 1,530 Japanese internees from the U.S. Several days later, they boarded the American ship which was like a touch of heaven for them. It was clean and loaded with food.

During the next six weeks of her trip home, Kay gained back 20 of the pounds she had lost in captivity and started to enjoy life again.

Exactly ten weeks after leaving Hong Kong, Kay and the other civilian internees disembarked in New York and the Canadians were taken to a train for an overnight trip to Montreal. She was finally back in Canada where she belonged and had a brand new appreciation for a way of life that many had previously taken for granted.

After her repatriation to Canada, Kay worked hard and long for the betterment of those brave Canadian Hong Kong veterans.

Her dedication to this group is legendary, but, as she often said, no one knew better than her, the terrible ordeal they had gone through; hence, it was little enough to devote her life to trying to make things a little easier for these very fine men.

Kay did not, however, confine her efforts to her beloved Hong Kong veterans. She was a prominent member of the Nursing Sisters’ Association and represented her fellow Nursing Sisters on the National Council of Veteran Associations.

She served a term as the Chair of the National Council, during which she took part in several commemorative trips overseas.

Her presence on these trips always resulted in a strong relationship with the Minister and his departmental staff as well as the other veterans taking part who represented other organizations.

Kay was struck down with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1992 and passed away peacefully in Toronto on February 7, 1994.

Kay Christie is one of 1,975 names that appear on the Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall, which stands as a fitting tribute to the Canadian men and women sent to assist the British in defending Hong Kong against the Japanese invasion in the Second World War. The wall stands at the corner of Sussex Drive and King Edward Street in Ottawa and was unveiled one year ago on the anniversary of VJ Day.

On July 27, 1953, exactly 57 years ago this week, the armistice agreement that ended the three-year long Korean War was signed by both sides.  It was the first time in history that an international organization, like the UN, had intervened with a multinational force to stop a war. 

Casualties from this conflict were great, with the UN Forces suffering 450,000 casualties, including 516 Canadian soldiers, and another half million wounded.  It is estimated that 1.5 million Chinese and North Korean soldiers were killed and many more wounded. 

The Korean War also saw some of Canada’s best soldiers from the Second World War re-enlist to serve their country.

Thomas George “Tommy” Prince was among them and is known as one of Canada’s most decorated First Nations soldiers.

Born in Manitoba, he was the grandson of the Ojibwa Nation’s Indian Chief, Peguis.  While growing up, Tommy became an excellent marksman with incredible tracking skills learned from days spent hunting in the wilderness around the Aboriginal reserve. 

At the beginning of the Second World War, Tommy volunteered for the Army but was turned down several times before finally being accepted mid-1940.  Originally a member of the Royal Canadian Engineers, he transferred to the 1st Special Service Force (SSF) where he was promoted to Sergeant by September 1942.  In November 1943, while serving with the SSF in Italy, Tommy earned the Military Medal.  His citation read (in part) “Sergeant Prince’s courage and utter disregard for personal safety were an inspiration to his fellows and a marked credit to his unit.”

In September 1944, as part of the 1st Airborne Task Force, pushing eastward towards the Franco-Italian border, Prince’s actions once again earned him a medal, this time the Silver Star.  His citation read (in part): “So accurate was the report rendered by the patrol that Sergeant Prince’s regiment moved forward on 5 September 1944, occupied new heights and successfully wiped out the enemy bivouac area. The keen sense of responsibility and devotion to duty displayed by Sergeant Prince is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the Allied Nations.”

In all, in the Second World War, Tommy was decorated nine times.

After the war, he returned home to Brokenhead reserve in Manitoba. 

In August 1950, Tommy re-enlisted in the Canadian Army to fight in the Korean War.  He was re-instated in his previous rank of Sergeant and became a member of the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (2 PPCLI).

On April 24 and 25, 1951, Prince’s regiment held a defensive position at Hill 677 so that a South Korean division could withdraw during an attack.  Regardless of the battalion being completely surrounded at one point, the resupply of ammunition and emergency rations was accomplished by air and the 2 PPCLI held its ground. They lost 10 members and another 23 were wounded during the two-day battle. The 2 PPCLI, along with the 3rd Royal Australian Regiment, were awarded the United States Presidential Unit Citation for distinguished service in this battle.

In March 1952, Prince volunteered for a second tour of duty in the Far East and sailed to Korea that October with the 3rd Battalion PPCLI.

In November 1952, the 3rd PPCLI was ordered to help defend “the Hook,” a key position west of the Sami-chon River, when a Chinese battalion gained a foothold on the forward positions of another UN unit.  By dawn the next day, the UN unit, with assistance from the Patricias, had recaptured the post.  Five were killed and nine were wounded - one of whom was Prince.  He recovered but remained plagued with knee issues and the armistice was signed before he could return to battle.

For his part in the Korean War, Prince received the Korea Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and the United Nations Service Medal. 

He remained in the army as an instructor of new recruits until his discharge in October 1953.

Civilian life was not easy for Prince and alcoholism overtook him in his final years.  He died in Winnipeg in 1977 and is buried at the Brookside Cemetery.