The Lucknow Sentinel, 2013-11-06, Page 13Wednesday, November 6, 2013 • Lucknow Sentinel 13
Brothers reunited after Victory in Europe
Steven Goetz
Kincardine News
Melvin Hart, 91, was only 18 when
war broke out in Europe - too young to
enlist. Like many young men of the
time, he lied.
The son of a Saskatchewan home-
steader, Hart was travelling around
working as a farmhand when war
broke out.
He went to London, Ont. to enlist
with the Royal Canadian Regiment.
"I told them I was 19," says Hart,
"and they said you have to go get your
birth certificate."
"I went back in the afternoon and
told them I was 21 and they took me,"
he says.
"I aged pretty fast:'
Two weeks later his older brother
Morris Hart enlisted. By good fortune
they were both allowed to transfer into
the same regiment - the famous
Queen's Own Rifles.
The brothers were sent to Camp
Borden for basic training.
The Queen's Own was posted to
England in July 1941, as part of the 8th
Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 3rd
Canadian Division.
Hart remembers arriving in Sussex,
New Brunswick where the 3rd, 4th and
5th division were preparing to send
off.
There were boats in every direction,
"ships as far as you could see and
planes flying overhead."
No one knew where they were
headed.
"We had nothing to say about it,"
says Hart.
It took two weeks before they arrived
in Scotland and were shipped to
Aldershot, England, where they slept
in old WWI barracks.
After more training, which caused
STEVEN GOETZ KINCARDINE NEWS
Local veteran Melvin Hart, 91, served in World War II with the Queen's Own
Rifles. He was part of the Signal Corps. stationed in England, delivering
messages between military commanders by motorcycle in the dead of night.
damage to his hearing, Hart was
assigned to the Signal Corps as a dis-
patch rider.
His job was to ride a motorcycle at
night, with messages hidden on his
person or the bike, delivering to differ-
ent command posts.
"You never put the message in the
same place so no one could take it
from you if you fell," said Hart.
On one high-speed ride, Hart
crashed and blacked out. His message
was never recovered.
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"They said that just because
we're in England, don't think
the Germans aren't here too,"
he says.
"They had the notion the
Germans had something to do
about it."
Two weeks later, his com-
manding officer told him to
pack his bags because he was
shipping out.
Hart asked where he was
being sent.
"You know better than that,"
was the officer's response.
No questions. A soldier never
knows where he'll be next.
Hart was being reassigned
and sent back to Canada due to
his injuries sustained in the
crash.
He returned in Oct. 1943,
leaving his brother and the reg-
iment behind.
The Queen's Own was in the
leading wave of the D -Day inva-
sion and fought through Nor-
mandy and into Northern
France. They freed crucial
channel ports in Belgium. They
fought bitterly through the
Netherlands and entered Ger-
many in February 1944. The
regiment lost 393 men and 873
were wounded.
Hart married Helen in 1945.
Morris - who fought right
through to V -E Day - made it
home to serve as best man.
The couple opened Hart's
Food Markets in Walkerton and
Teeswater. They live happily
together at the `R' Villa retire-
ment home in Ripley.
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