Peterborough soldier’s story not forgotten
Glenn Price was an 18-year-old linotype operator when he enlisted in the army
The son of a local Peterborough man who fought in Europe during the Second World War is remembering his father and the stories he pieced together over years from his father’s days during the war.
Grant Price, 72, who used to work at General Electric, recalls his father, Glenn Price, was private about the facts and his experiences surrounding his time in Europe during the Second World War.
His father was just 18 years old and worked as a linotype operator at the Peterborough Examiner when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Armed Forces to go overseas and fight Germany and the rise of the Third Reich invading Europe.
His father literally signed up after graduating high school, Price said, leaving the school and walking to the armoury across the block from the school.
“He finished Grade 12 and walked right across to the armoury and signed up,” he said. “He was underage, he was only 18 and you had to be 18 1/2 to go into the service, so he lied.”
Once his father had completed basic training, Price said, he was deployed to the Netherlands to liberate Holland and its
people.
Glenn Price, who died in 2013 at the age of 87, said in a Memory Project recording acquired by The Examiner, that they landed in Nijmegen, a city in the Netherlands close to the German border, and from there they were sent into Holland as reinforcements.
“We landed in Nijmegen and we were sent up to the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiments
as replacements,” he said. “They were having heavy casualties just then in fighting the Germans in Holland and they needed replacements.”
Grant said when his father arrived in Holland, the Germans surrendered due to the deplorable state the war had left them in, leaving them starving and just skin and bones.
“He went to the Netherlands to liberate Holland and most of
the German soldiers walked out into the streets with their hands up because they were starving to death and so were the Dutch people,” he said.
Price said he isn’t sure how long his father was on that job for, but he recalls him spending time as a motorcycle dispatch driver carrying orders from one city to another.
“My dad was a motorcycle dispatch, driving from one city to another city with order from the powers that be,” he said. “These men didn’t last very long because snipers in the woods would shoot them and steal the orders, then the Germans would know what they were doing, so my dad didn’t like that job.”
Price said he once asked his father if he was scared during his time in the war and Glenn replied that he cried himself to sleep every night.
“Scared,” said Grant. “He cried himself to sleep every night in a foxhole, no one had any idea what war was until they got there.”
When the war ended, Glenn said, they washed and painted the vehicles for a parade. He oversaw the painting of the wheel nuts, each wheel had 10 nuts and he had to paint them all red.
“They had the parade in Holland a few days after the official end of the war,” he said.
“And of course, throngs of Dutch people on the street and they had supplied us with boxes and boxes of chocolate bars, and we were throwing chocolate bars out to the kids. And just a hell of a big celebration. Brings tears to my eyes to even think about it. We were some happy.”
Grant said when his father returned, he got his old job back as the linotype operator at the Examiner. “He did that five days a week and on Saturdays he worked for the Peterborough Review.” he said.