Dad, Ralph Landry went to enlist as a medical officer very soon after Canada declared war on Germany. As a family physician, he felt he should contribute to the Allies' War Effort, and besides, the war would be over by Christmas!
Surprisingly, he failed the Army enrolment medical test because his blood pressure reading was too high. He coaxed the medical examiner into falsifying the reading by inscribing a normal BP reading instead, and he was accepted into the Canadian Army.
He sailed from Halifax on the refitted troop ship Queen Elizabeth.
The crossing was very rough for a number of days with sea sickness severe.
Dad said it was so bad that after 3 days of sea sickness, he thought he would die, but on the 4th day, he was afraid he wasn't going to! He'd have to live through that misery.
He did survive the sea sickness and the balance of the crossing then spent 4 years in England, awaiting The Liberation Landing. During that time, he enhanced his practical medical training by studying radiology at London University. He did some further army training and also had time to travel into Scotland and Ireland. He spoke about eating out in England, and how unappetizing the food was. Dessert was always stewed rhubarb!
After the landing, he was very busy with the medical care of Allied and enemy soldiers brought to the field ambulance. Dad was in France somewhere in early to mid-Sep .1944 when he received a telegram from his wife announcing that his young brother-in-law Mark Corbett had been killed near Caen when his jeep ran over a landmine. It was a very sad shock. He had 2 brothers-in-law in the army, and Mark was the baby of his wife's family.
Dad said little about his medical experiences but spoke about his strong map reading skills which proved life-saving for the entire field ambulance unit, he twice confronted his CO to correct the direction being travelled which otherwise would have led them all straight to the Germans. They would have been captured or worse.
Once they reached Holland, he was horrified at the level of starvation of the populace. The Canadians shared the rations they had and gave candy to the children. He said they'd try teasingly to make the Dutch children say that the German were bad soldiers but the children insisted, "Nien, gut soldat!". The German soldiers had also shared treats with those children. Dad told us kids, "The Germans were homesick too, missing their own families and children, and showed kindness to the little ones."
In one town being liberated, shop keepers threw open their doors and insisted the Canadian help themselves to a souvenir. The Canadians at first refused, seeing how much these people had suffered. But the Canadians soon realized how important it was for the Dutch to show their thanks in this manner and that it would be insulting to continue to refuse, so each took a small item. I still have the small darling brass windmill bell with a turning windmill, which Dad took. It is always front and center on our mantle. Every Nov. 11th my children all know its story, and with time, my grandchildren will too.
As children, we never went camping on summer holidays. Dad said he had camped for 5 years, meaning during his 5 years of service, and that being in a tent was no holiday to him. So we stayed in motels til we reached family around Canada and New England.
Dad spoke of the horrors of war, strongly stating that there was nothing glorious about it. To demonstrate this, he refused to send for his medals so they are still in Ottawa, unclaimed. Dad was a very principled man.
