John Patterson enlisted with the Royal Canadian Engineers training first at Camp Borden in Ontario and then traveled to Canadian Forces Station Debert (CFS Debert) in Nova Scotia. Jack sailed from Nova Scotia to Scotland in February of 1944 on the Ile de France, which he called “quite an experience” with approximately 10,000 people on board. It had been recognized by the government that there were too many engineers and that there needed to be more men with the infantry. He joined the infantry with the Algonquin Regiment, as his girlfriend was from Parry Sound, home to the Algonquins.
His first time in action was on his 20th birthday, 29th of July 1944. "I recall very clearly that we were supposed to sort of back up the Cameron Highlanders, they were a machine gun regiment, we were to sit in behind them just to be orientated with the battle action, The first thing we were just getting in place and some shells came down and three of our guys were killed right there – you know, that was something because it really gave us a shock – we saw the real thing."
Unfortunately, these would not be the only deaths that he would witnessed. He was a part of the Battle of Normandy and involved in Operation Totalize, which went horribly wrong.
"I can very clearly remember, on August the 8 we started out towards Falaise and went sailing up into the great unknown to somewhere we weren’t supposed to be,” he recalled. “Our regiment, well-known, it was called Hill 140, and it was not where we were supposed to be. We got there and it turns out that we were directly in front of a German tank harbor, one of my horrible experiences was to see the tanks blowing up and on fire and the guys jumping out burning and everything." Jack was one of the few men to survive Hill 140 with a total loss of approximately 120 to 130 men, and only approximately 60 survivors.
He was then taken prisoner by the Germans, having to walk out carrying a young German soldier who had broken his leg. The young man was hollering for his mother and was then taken away on a truck – Patterson never knowing whether he lived or died.
While in captivity, he was interrogated by a German intelligence officer, who he described as "a very nice man" from Chicago and who spoke better English than he did.
He spent the remainder of the war at Stalag VII-A, Germany’s largest prisoner-of-war camp located just north of Mooseburg in southern Bavaria. The prisoners were malnourished and plagued by lice, bedbugs, and various diseases. Patterson fell ill while in captivity, contracting mumps, and spent time away from the camp receiving a seven-day no-work order.
"Rations included some tea in the morning, and most guys just used that for shaving and washing because it was hot, and for lunch we'd get a couple of boiled potatoes and maybe a little piece of meat, and a piece of bread and as we progressed through the winter that got smaller and smaller. Prisoners began to receive Red Cross parcels in November, which included cigarettes, powdered milk, butter, soap and tinned meat."
On 29th of April 1945, an armoured division of the United States Army freed Jack, along with the thousands of other prisoners. Patterson was flown to Liège in Belgium, then to England and was kept in a hospital for a few days then given leave to go visit family members in Scotland. On 1st of July he boarded a ship back to Canada
