The Citizen, 1993-11-10, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1993.
War bride shares her memories of a new life
By Bonnie Gropp
Some memories of war are per-
haps best left forgotten, yet amidst
the tragedy and trials, are stories of
life and new beginnings.
At 80, Kitty Rutledge of Brussels
has the same spark and warmth that
she brought with her to this country
as a young bride almost 50 years
ago. When war broke out Kathleen
Roberts was a young woman in
Yorkshire, England. She and her
mother had rented a pub right in the
middle of "Six Group Bomber
command" says Kitty. "I have seen
the Germans dropping flares.
Mother and I would stay outside
and watch sometimes instead of
being in the basement."
The pub was located in a small
village on the river. Kitty said they
catered to fishing parties, though
during the war it was sometimes
difficult to get liquor to serve. The
black outs, Kitty says, was some-
thing people today really have no
idea about. "You couldn't even
show a light through a parted cur-
tain or the police would come," she
said. "Someone even told me that
when they were marching prisoners
from one place to another they
weren't allowed to smoke in case
the Germans saw the light."
Before the Canadians "took over
Six Group", Kitty said the men
were mostly from Australia and
New Zealand. "I dated an Aus-
tralian for a time. He was one of
the boys killed."
Falling in love was "part of the
war," she said.
Kitty and her mother found the
Canadians an affable lot and "got
along" with them quite well. "On
Mother's Day Mom landed a beau-
tiful gift from them," she said. "Not
a damn thing for Kitty, though,"
she adds laughing.
She had caught the attention of
one handsome visitor, however.
Hartley Rutledge was a cook with
the RCAF which was in active
combat with the area. "He used to
come with his friends for a drink.
He had a guitar and he'd sit in the
back room and play it. English peo-
ple loved that country and western
music," Kitty said.
In late 1945 Kitty and Hartley
were married in a small ceremony.
Shortly after Hartley returned to
Canada to help his father on the
farm, leaving his bride to follow.
Knowing that she was giving up
her homeland to travel thousands of
miles to live with strangers didn't
phase Kitty in the least. "I liked my
husband and saw how good he was
with my mother and figured he'd be
good to me," she said. Following
the marriage Kitty's mother gave up
the pub and moved into a house.
Then almost a year later Kitty took
her ocean voyage to her new hus-
band and home. Kitty says "I'd
nearly forgotten what he looked
like."
Upon her arrival Kitty was
embraced whole-heartedly by her
in-laws. "They were wonderful to
me," she says, the affection and
gratitude she felt for them still evi-
dent in her voice.
Though she became a member of
the family immediately, there was
some transition. Her first winter
was one of the typical Huron Coun-
ty blasts that left her holed up in the
country for days at a time. The
cold, too, she says is different here
than in England. "It's a dry cold.
Our damp colds were something
that I think a lot of the soldiers
couldn't quite get used to."
Also farm life was a new experi-
ence. "I'd never milked a cow,
cleaned an egg or seen so many
chickens or peaches in my life," she
says of her time on the family
farm— a time that eventually grew
on her. "I should have married a
farmer," she says, with a smile.
She and her husband eventually
moved to their own home in town
where he worked as a carpenter.
"You would not believe the talent,
the things that man could make,"
she says.
In 1949 the Rutledges had twin
boys and when they were three
years old, Kitty returned home for
her first and only visit. "It was
lovely to see Mom, but we'd both
changed. It was different," she
says.
According to the Canadian Ency-
clopedia, by the end of 1946,
47,783 wives with 21,950 children
had come to Canada. The vast
majority (44,886) were from Great
Britain, with much smaller num-
bers coming from Holland, Bel-
gium, France and elsewhere.
Some 80 percent married sol-
diers, whereas 18 percent married
men in the RCAF and the remain-
der married men in the navy.
Many war brides were unpre-
pared for the conditions they found
in Canada, but most stayed and
adjusted to a new way of life.
Memories
For Brussels resident Kitty Rutledge the war brought not
just memories but a new home. As a young woman, Kitty
left her home in England after her marriage to Hartley
Rutledge. Their pictures are on the table.
Area veteran recalls the invasion of Sicily
BILL ELSTON (circa 1945)
Coming home
By Janice Becker
It was January 1942 and World
War II was on when Bill Elston and
some "chums" from Wingham
decided to enlist with the 99th Bat-
tery Reserve division of the militia
in London. The decision was made
to enlist because all of their peers
were doing so.
By September of '42, the youths
were called into active duty and
began their many months of train-
ing to prepare for combat.
After training sessions in London
and Listowel, they were shipped to
Halifax.
In the spring of '43, 23,000
troops boarded the Queen Elizabeth
and headed for Glasgow, Scotland.
After a three and a half day jour-
ney, Bill Elston says he disem-
barked on his 19th birthday.
Throughout the next few months,
Mr. Elston and his friends received
further training and became mem-
bers of the 2nd Artillery Regiment,
1st Division. The regiment was
made up of the 5th Battery from
Verdun, Quebec, 54th Battery from
Brantford and the 2nd Battery from
Yorkton, Sask.
As a young man in the army, Mr.
Elston received $1.50 per day as a
wage and the men were expected to
send $30 a month back home to
their families. They were left with
enough to buy a few cigarettes and
enjoy a little pleasure.
In June, the regiment got the call
to invade Sicily. By mid July, the
invasion troops had landed in Sicily
and advanced to Pachino.
Mr. Elston says the landing went
very well because the Italians were
not there. It gave the regiment a
day or two to adjust to the sur-
roundings and familiarize them-
selves with the area. "We were not
hit immediately upon landing like
they were in Normandy."
After a trip to a hospital in South
Africa to recover from an illness,
Mr. Elston returned to the lines in
southern Italy.
The trip back from South Africa
was a good time, he says. After
many years of war in Africa, there
were few means of transportation
left to take him north again. He,
along with two men from the 48th
Highlanders were put in a boxcar
on a freight train heading to Alger,
Algeria.
Mr. Elston says he will never for-
get the names of those two Scots,
Conners and McFadden, who trav-
elled the four or five day trip with
him. With no money in their pock-
ets, they found inventive ways to
get cigarettes and other needs.
Through the following months,
his regiment advanced from the
southern tip, through Potenza, Ban,
Campobasso and had reached
Ortona on the Adriatic coast. They
spent the winter of 1943-44 in the
lines.
Mr. Elston says life on the lines
was very lonesome and scary. Each
evening about 5 p.m. a new pass-
word would come from headquar-
ters for the troops. Some nights it
had to be changed again by 8 p.m.
because they feared the Italians had
intercepted the code.
Guard duty was scary because of
the constant shelling. A call for
fire would come down to cover
wrecking that was going on behind
the lines. The wrecking crews
needed protection from the Italian
shelling.
In those months on the front
lines, you rarely had your clothes
`On the front
lines you
rarely had
time to shower'
off, says Mr. Elston, and you rarely
had a shower. You had to be
trucked to the back and that
depended on how heavy the action
was.
The battle at Ortona lasted from
November to May and it was .the
longest battle Mr. Elston saw. The
relief which was to come in could-
n't get through so his regiment had
to stay in and fight.
In May of 1944, the 2nd Artillery
saw the most intense fighting of
their war. They had moved north to
Casina. Mr. Elston's troop went in
with 54 men and were left with
only 16 or 17. Of the 10 men on his
gun, Mr. Elston says there were
only three left. "We were hit hard
and we lost a lot of friends."
With so few men remaining, the
troop was dismantled and the men
dispersed. Mr. Elston had been
wounded and was sent to hospital
for three months.
Upon his return, Mr. Elston was
assigned to headquarters and was
no longer fighting on the front
lines.
While stationed in Italy, Mr.
Elston was chosen to have an audi-
ence with Pope Pius XII. From his
visit to the Vatican, he still has the
beads he bought.
The winter of 1944-45 was spent
in Rimini, Italy.
In March of '45, the men sailed to
Marseille, France, then had a two
day trip to Belgium. It was in
Appledorn where Mr. Elston was
stationed when the war ended in
June. Mr. Elston says, "One of the
things I remember most about the
end was the turning of the guns.
All the guns had to be turned back-
wards to face our own lines. This
way, if there was an accidental fir-
ing, the guns would be aimed at our
own troops and it would not break
the ceasefire."
For his service, Mr. Elston
received five medals; the Germany-
France Star, the Italy Star, the Vol-
untary Service Medal, the Clasp
and the 1939-45 Star.
In 1980, Mr. Elston and his wife
Isabelle, whom he met the week he
returned from the war, joined many
other men who had fought in Italy,
for a return visit.
The 24 day trip began in Amster-
dam, with the Dutch people billet-
ing them in their homes. The men
and families then travelled to Ban,
Italy and followed the route which
the men had taken some 35 years
before.
"We passed cemeteries filled
with comrades and it brought back
a lot of memories," Mr. Elston
says. "Isabelle really enjoyed the
trip because she is now able to
associate a place with the stories
told by myself and visitors to our
home."
Mr. Elston receives a newsletter
from his regiment annually and
says it is good to hear about the
men from his troop. "There are so
few left to tell the story."
Lest we Forget
Remember to
wear your poppy
on
Remembrance
Day