Times Advocate, 1989-11-08, Page 8Page 8 Times -Advocate, November 8, 1989
Lestwe forget
World War 1 broke out 75 years
ago. It was not, as hoped, the war
to end all wars. Another global con-
flict erupted 50 years ago. Two
more major conflagrations have
flared up in Korea and Viet Nam
since then. Smaller conflicts love
brought violence to Africa and
South America, and the fighting in
Lebanon seems to have gone on for-
ever.
War leaves an indelible mark on
everyone it touches. It provides
the" opportunity for the human
spirit to sink to the basest depths, or
rise to heights never before thought
possible.
Survivors recall their experiences
with mixed emotions - moments of
suffering and despair contrasted
with strong ' ` friendships
cemented in communal
" suffering fering and shared laugh-
ter. Here are some of their
stories.
Feature
by
Yvonne
Reynolds
i
and
Bill McLean
From Huron County to world war
EXETER - World War 2
plucked Bill MacLean from the
quiet rural life of Huron County
and took him half -way around
the . world, into the midst of
some of that war's worst battles.
His experiences were the source
of terrible nightmares for years
afterwards, but also the begin-
ning of friendships that are still
nurtured! through annual reun-
ions.
MacLean was one of 1,000
Canadians and 1,800 Americans
chosen to serve in the elite First
Special Services Force, a com-
mando unit used for some of the
toughest and most dangerous
jobs in the 1939-45 war. The
outfit was known to Germans
as "The Black Devils".
MacLean joined the Royal Ca-
nadian Artillery in 1942. His
training took him to Cape Bre-
ton, "the end of the world".
When a call went out for volun-
teers for a parachute battalion,.
the bored 25 -year-old signed up.
In that draft, he was one of 68
chosen from 2,400 across Cana-
da.
MacLean was sent immedi-
ately to Fort Ethan Allen, in
Burlington Vermont for training
in parachute jumping, unarmed
Young commando
combat, infiltration, night explo-
sives and other skills that would
be needed later.
•
Next stop was Casablanca in
troops crossed the Sahara to
Oran by mule train, then headed
across a sub -filled Mediterrane-
an to Naples. Here, bivouacked
in the wrecked barracks of a
bombed -out Italian village, the
soldiers were given further
training in mountain -climbing
and working in darkness.
'The time had come to put
what they had learned into prac-
tice. The unit's general offered
to retake Mt. Defensia, after
British and American troops had
n kicked off.
"He said he had the men, and
ould do it in 24 hQpr$' q .„WI &talk&,
While on the
MacLean and two fellow sol-
diers were designated as medics
by the good old military system
"You, you and you".
MacLean has vivid recollec-
tions of one brush with death at
this time. He heard a cry for
help from behind a rock. As he
started out, crawling across
bare ground, the menacing
black barrel of a machinegun
suddenly filled his field of vi-
sion. A German soldier was
dug in directly ahead. The two
men looked each ot.laer in the
eye. MacLean kept going, not
knowing if the next few sec-
onds would be his last.
"I guess he respected the red
cross on my helmet," ,MacLean
speculated. He rescued his
buddy, and the man lived.
The casualties were heavy.
Any wounded could count on an
eight-hour trip by stretcher and
pulley down the mountain be-
fore receiving expert medical at-
tention. Morphine was the most
used item in the medics' equip-
ment. . .
•
Dysentery and frozen feet
added to the misery. Only cold
rations were eaten; a flaming
can of Sterno would have alert-
ed the enemy to their position.
The unit took the mountain in
six days.
"It seemed like 60 years,"
MacLean commented.
The next battles are now part
of history.' Mt. Majo. Sante
Mario. Cassino. The Anzio
beach -head.
On one occasion, a house
sheltering over a dozen soldiers
was hit by armour -piercing
shells.
"They blew the house to halle-
lulia, and we all looked like
we'd been at a bean straw thresh-
ing, but not one of us was
killed," MacLean remarked.
The advance bogged down.
MacLean spent 99 days in a hole
about a meterdeep, and just
long enough to lie down in. The
Germans were on the mountains,
and the Allied soldiers were
down in the valley.
Years later, MacLean was
talking to a man in a waiting
room in a London hospital. He
discovered that he was talking
to a former member of a Panzer
division that had been dug in up
•
•
= Fl1"1"" 17 ... pry
made," the other informed him.
MacLean is sorry he did not
get the man's name. Comparing
notes would have been interest-
ing.
The First Special Services
Force spearheaded the drive into
Rome on June 5, 1944. On the
way in, MacLean was hit in the
right shoulder by flak from a
German tank. Although the
wound was "a black bloody
mess for a long time", MacLean
kept going.
He remembers the tumultuous
welcome the soldiers received •
welcome was warm to another
way from the Germans dug in
along the Tiber.
The first .night, MacLean put
his foot through a plate glass
window, and turned the build-
ing's interior into a temporary
first-aid station, He was too
busy to notice until daybreak
that he had broken into a feed
store. Next door was a jewellery
store. He amuses himself now
by speculating on what souve-
nirs he might have picked up if
he had chosen the adjacent win-
dow.
In the confusion, an Allied sol-
dier commandeered a motorcy-
cle. The driver turned out to be a
German soldier who took the
Canadian across the river to the
German lines. He spentthe rest
of the warasaPOW.
The commando unit was taken
next to Corsica for rigorous am-
phibious training and rope scal-
ing. The First Special Services
Force was the first into southern
France.
The Allies had invaded Nor-
mandy. The recollection of Tou-
lon harbour filled with boats of
every description is still vivid.
MacLean's unit evacuated Mo-
naco. He can picture the moun-
tain road where Princess Grace
had her fatal car accident.
The troops walked for weeks
and weeks, to the Italian border,
where MacLean stood with one
foot in France, and the other in
Italy. Then it was back fighting
down through Italy again.
MacLean spent two Christmases
there. By this time, only 199 of
the original Canadians remained.
The rest had been killed or
wounded and sent home.
MacLean was sent to Scotland
January 7, 1945. That July he
was told to get his gear together.
He was going home.
Back in London, Ontario,
MacLean was, offered - a
Sgt.Major's position until the rest
of the troops came home, but he
had had enough. He retumed to
civilian life in November.
Like many others who saw ac-
tive service, MacLean had a hard
time adjusting. He finally heed-
ed an old World War I vet who
advised him to "get a job, fight
yourself, forget it".
MacLean took a decorator's
course in London, settled down
in Exeter, and has been here ever
since.
Not A t! /'Pie ^el"
'°`fi""'`cars from someone with whom
he served. The First Special Ser-
vices Force is one of the few
units that holds an annual reun-
ion. Two years ago the event
was held in London. McLean
was one of the organizers.
Summing up, MacLean says
"It is a tremendous experience
any young man should have -
without the horrors. Now that
it's over, I wouldn't have missed
it for the world."
:k0
SuMvingIf
HENSALL - Birmingham na-
tive Olive Packham was a care-
free 22 -year-old Englishwoman
in the summer of '39. Much of ,
her time was spent at a youth
club playing tennis, or skating or
watching cricket, or dancing.
Rumours of impending war
had been circulating for monthe.
It all seemed very remote. She
didn't take too much notice df
what was going on across the
channel.
A number of German youth
living in England were members
of the club. Just before war was
declared, Olive remembers one
giving the Nazi salute as the
band played God . Save The
King.
With England's declaration of
war in September, the German
youths vanished.
"Everything else seemed to
disappear too," Olive recalls.
Food and clothing rationing
were imposed. Each person was
allowed one chop a week, and
one egg and two ounces of
sweets a month. However, "life
was still quite tolerable.
The second-largest industrial
city in Britain -was a likely target
of German bombers. A civil de-
fence organization was already
in place, and Olive had received
some training. The horror of war
came with brutal suddenness a
few months later.
The bombing raids over Eng-
land had begun.
Olive was part of a team work-
ing urgently to rescue the inhabi-
tants of a house that had been
hit. A plane, too small to be a
bomber, flew over, flying low.
The pilot began strafing the
people below.
"I looked up, andl could see
him clearly. He was such a
young man, no older than the
Germans who had come to our
club," Olive said.
Obeying . , her . training, she
flung herself down in the gutter
at, the side of the road. She felt
something wet under her cheek.
She raised her head. She had
been resting on a child's severed
hand.
Olive was soon conscripted
4itti the National Fire Service in
ed by bombs, and digging
through rubble to find survivors.
She was driver, or radio opera-
tor, or assistant to the men ma-
noeuvering ,the gigantic turnta-
- ble ladder iat could stretch up
92 feet into the sky.
Rows of houses were demol- -
ished overnight. The Germans
practiced pattern bombing, a•
square a night until whole sec-.
tions of the city were completely
flattened. Thousands died.
"I lost so many friends," Olive
said.
One incident is still vivid.
O1iye , _was_ herself partially'
bombed building while on a res-•
cue mission. A man took advan-
tage of the dark night and her:
helplessness by attempting to'
1