During the last few years it has been necessary several times to reach back into The Canora Courier files and retell the stories about several of the local veterans of the Great Wars. For many decades this newspaper has paid tribute to veterans, usually by profiling the service of at least one veteran of the Great Wars, but as time continues to march by, the number of veterans still walking this earth continues to diminish rapidly. The undeniable truth appears before us at each Remembrance Day or Decoration Day service when few if any are present to salute as The Last Post is played. There are no more veterans of the First Great War and with it being 70 years since the Second World War concluded, there are very few veterans left from that Great War.
In the years that followed the Second World War, the title of “The greatest generation” was given to the returning soldiers. Initially, the public viewed these men as just average residents in the community, but through the prism of time we can now acknowledge that there were giants walking among us. It is worth taking another look at their stories and as their stories are repeated, it is only fitting that their title be expanded to the “giants of the greatest generation.”
The majority of these veterans are now gone also, but their stories endure.
Ted Phippen fought proudly for a cause he said was just
Ted Phippen never spoke much about his wartime experiences other than to say that he was proud to have served his country. It was while he lay in respite care at the Gateway Lodge, waiting for a permanent bed in 2005, that the decision was made to tell his story.
He had suffered a stroke-like medical incident so communication was difficult, but with members of his family present to fill in the missing pieces, Phippen described what it was like to be a member of the fierce Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, units which followed the landing parties in after D-Day and pushed the Germans back across northern Europe.
Growing up on a small farm near Huntsville, Ont., he had signed up shortly after his 19th birthday in 1942. While going through his training, he was immediately assigned guard duty for the power generating facilities and the Welland Canal. In May of 1943, the regiment was sent overseas. Most members of the regiment had already been in combat but his first exposure to war was the continuous bombing of England. Training continued under this environment until just days after D-Day and the Argylls crossed the English Channel.
He said the first engagements with the enemy weren’t much more than skirmishes which were easily handled. In what should have been a major battle, the Argylls took Hill 195 without firing a shot. Under the veil of darkness, the whole battalion marched single file and surrounded the German headquarters. More than 50 Germans were taken prisoners. The Germans did mount a vicious counter offensive which led the deaths of seven Argylls and 24 were wounded.
In the next few weeks, the fighting was tough. The Germans were in retreat, but they were battle-tested and provided a fierce opposition. It was often necessary for the Argylls to just dig in while enduring horrifying shelling.
When he wasn’t on the front line, Phippen said he often had the job of guarding enemy prisoners, doing security detail or being a dispatch rider.
When the Argylls moved through Belgium in September and October of 1944, it was fighting on unfamiliar terrain that cost them dearly. So much of their resources were used to protect bridges and canal crossings that few were left to fight. Heavy shelling had to be endured day after day.
During those traumatic days, many comrades had been wounded or killed, and Phippen then became a statistic of war. An exploding mortar sent shrapnel ripping through the back of one of his legs. The injury was so severe, that he was sent back to a British hospital.
By the time he was well enough for duty, months had passed and it was obvious that the Germans were about to be run over. Phippen was given the choice of returning home or returning to the front. He chose to rejoin his friends, the Argylls, who were already in Holland. There was still some heavy fighting to be done to push the enemy out of ports and back along irrigation channels. At one point, he recalled the Germans controlling the north shore of the Maas River while the Canadians controlled the south shore.
Continuous shelling and sheer force managed to push the Germans back all the way into Germany, but they refused to give up. Superior forces managed to continue to push them back and prisoners were being captured by the hundreds. Phippen found his job was again guarding prisoners.
The final battles of the war were as vicious as the first, Phippen said. Even on May 4, the day that Germany surrendered, the fighting was ferocious. The Argylls made the decision to pull back in the Spobie area so that they would not engage any enemy forces, but four more Argylls were killed and nine were wounded. The plan was to take four prisoners to the German side of the line the next morning, so that they could explain that the war was over. When they arrived, they found that the Germans had also retreated. That meant the war was over for the Argylls.
P.O.W. Alvin Zaharychuk
Alvin Zaharychuk of Stenen had told his war-time story several times in this newspaper, but an article in 2005 by Wayne Corbett was likely one of the most detailed accounts.
In 1940, he was transferred from the Princess Patricia Light Infantry to the Winnipeg Grenadiers and that meant he was on his way to Hong Kong. The additional military support was seen as a deterrent to Japan invading Hong Kong and the mainland.
Upon arriving on November 18, 1941, Zaharychuk said it was obvious they would not be able to defend this position. To make matters worst, most of the Canadians were not fully trained.
On December 7 and 8, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, Northern Malaysia, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and Hong Kong in almost simultaneous attacks to bring war to the Pacific. After 17 days of fierce battle, the Governor of Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese on Christmas Day.
From that point to the end of the war, Zaharychuk was a prisoner of war – a Japanese POW.
There were many was to describe the POW experience where it was common to be starved, sick, be beaten, forced to do hard labour and then watch as fellow POWs died in ghastly, ugly circumstances. Zaharychuk said it was hard to believe that human beings could be that cruel to other human beings.
After a year in the Sham Shui Po camp, Zaharychuk was moved to a shipyard camp in Yokohama. The work and living conditions were much better and he even sent a post card back to his family, assuring everyone that he was okay.
Towards the end of the war, due to the incessant bombing, the prisoners were sent to an iron mine on the Island of Hokkaido.
In August of 1945, the prisoners were able to hear over the camp loudspeakers that the Japanese were surrendering.
“There was nothing to eat or to drink but it was the best party ever,” said Zaharychuk.
They sang O Canada and God Save the King over and over again.
In the days following, the Americans dropped food and clothing, but it still took some time before a hospital ship came to take them to an American military base for medical treatment.
Even the journey home seemed much longer that it should have been. First a ship took them to San Francisco and then he went by train to Seattle and then by ferry to Victoria, where he landed in Canada on October 16, 1945. Eventually he took a train that got him to Watson where his brother, Mike, picked him up.
“To be on Canadian soil again was quite a feeling,” Zaharychuk said.
Once back home, he quickly adjusted. In 1947 he was appointed the postmaster at Stenen, a position which he held until 1973.
In 1994, Zaharychuk was accompanied by his daughter, Sharon Seebach, when he returned to Hong Kong and Japan for the first time since the war.
Gunner Carlson
Gus Carlson of Invermay told his story in 1988. He was a gunner with the 17th Field Regiment of the Canadian Armoured Division. He fired 25-pound, high-explosive shells throughout the Allied push through Italy. In the final part of the war, the regiment was moved into France, Belgium and Holland to take part in the final battles of the war.
He said his wartime memories were a series of recollections, many individual memories of particular people and specific incidents and the overpowering fear and strain. The main consolation was always knowing he was not alone, everyone around him faced the same fears.
He landed in England in 1941 and for almost two years of intensive training, he also was part of the coastal protection, firing at German planes that came across the English Channel.
In October of 1943, the regiment finally left England, but it was headed for Italy. It was in the Cassino area that they first saw action. After two or three days in battle, a soldier learns to control his fears, numbing his mind to fear, he said.
While big guns were always far behind the front lines, they were the targets of the enemy’s big guns, so he always knew what to expect.
In the early part of the 18-month campaign, the civilians were openly hostile to the Allied invaders, but towards the end of the campaign, attitudes changed. The civilians in the north had been under German abuse for so long that they welcomed the Allied Forces.
Through 1944, Carlson recalled fighting under bitter conditions. He recalled living in cold, wet gun pits and slimy slit trenches. But the assault on the Hitler Line continued for the rest of the year.
When it was basically over, his regiment was sent to France and then moved into Belgium and Holland. The battles were vicious until the end of the war.
There were observations made that pointed to the end being near. Carlson said everyone thought it was a little strange that a handful of men could take hundreds of prisoners.
After Victory in Europe was declared, most of the work detail to keep the camp running was given to the new enlisted men. The veterans were given the opportunity to train for civilian life back home. Courses were available for everything from sewing to welding. Carlson said he learned to sew and weld with equal enthusiasm.
New recruits kept coming in and the veterans were slowly being shipped home, Carlson said. Soon his time came and he boarded the Queen Elizabeth in England and sailed for Halifax. His final discharge came on December 6, 1945.
First casualties
In an article by Ralph Davis in 1989, the first two casualties of the Second World War to affect the Canora area were two pilots in 1940.
Pilot Officer Emory O’Fennel of Canora was listed as killed in action during a bombing attack on an enemy seaplane base in August of 1940.
Pilot Officer Estelles Wickenkamp of the Stenen area was reported killed in action in the June 13, 1940 issue of this paper. He had lived with his parents just north of Crystal Lake.
Wickenkamp received a medal posthumously from the King George VI. It was for “gallantry, promptitude and disregard for his own life when an aircraft, in which he was the second pilot, crashed and burst into flames.” The air ministry had reported that he was missing and believed dead.
Shortly after hearing the news, the Canora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion held a memorial service for the pair at the Ukrainian Catholic Hall.
