Memories of brother who fought in WW2

My brother Joe, a farm boy from Saskatchewan, was only 18 years of age when he joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, in Hamilton, Ont., to prepare to fight for his country and king. He spent a year in training, and in 1939 travelled to England where he was stationed before joining his fellow comrades.

He took the naval ship across the English Channel to Dieppe, France where they took a U-boat to the shores. The sky had darkened, numerous Lancaster bombers and parachutes filled the sky.

“The Nazi troops shot at us everywhere we looked. We hid in the trenches filled with rain water from the night before. We never ate or slept properly and we were afraid as the sky turned black, and red. We were in WWII and fought hard to survive. Some of the soldiers never seen light and were left there to die.”

Joe said he was the lucky one who kept his pace and obeyed his commanding officer on how to survive during the Aug 19, 1942 raid on Dieppe. There were 5,000 troops who embedded for the operation; only 2,210 returned to England and there were 3,367 casualties, including 1,946 POWs and 916 lost their lives. The successful D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, saving countless lives in that momentous offensive, Joe was fortunate to become a tailor and made uniforms for the army.

Joe lived until he was 88 years of age; his health deteriorated and when he died he was given the best funeral sendoff by the Princess Patricia Infantry and the bugler sounded the last call. The RCMP at Gimli, Man. escorted the funeral procession to the cemetery and his place of rest.

Paul Jones

Coaldale