KIPLING - Many people from the Kipling area served their country over the years. Here are some of their profiles:
Gerry Krecsy
Gerry Krecsy enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1943 at 18 years of age. He trained as an asdic operator. Asdic was the ship-borne sonar of the time a type of echo-ranging equipment used for the underwater detection of submarines.
In the case of enemy submarine attack, asdic was vital to the defence of the warship and any merchant ships that it may be escorting.
Gerry's first ship-posting was to the Canadian Corvette HMCS Midland out of Halifax. Corvettes were small warships tasked mainly with escorting coastal convoys but were sometimes used in trans-Atlantic convoys as well.
Their purpose was to guard against and repel attacks by submarines or aircraft. They carried a crew of around 95 men.
Throughout the war, many German submarines, or U-boats prowled the east coast waters of the U.S. and Canada and even the St. Lawrence seaway. Several naval and a great many merchant ships were lost to them but numerous U-boats were also destroyed by the naval and air forces of Canada and the U.S.
Later, Gerry was posted to the West Coast and the Canadian Minesweeper HMCS Quatsino out of Victoria. Minesweepers were small warships whose main purpose, as the name indicates, was to clear important areas for ship-traffic of sea mines that may have been laid by enemy vessels. A mine could sink or severely damage a ship of any size. Minesweepers were also occasionally called upon for escort and anti-submarine duties. They carried a crew of around 85-90 men.
After the war ended and with three years of service, Gerry was discharged with the rank of able seaman. He returned to Kipling and joined his brother and father in the general store business of L. Krecsy & Sons, later running his own stores in Kipling until retirement. Gerry has since passed away.
George Demyen
George Demyen enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1942 at 20 years of age. He was trained as an infantry soldier first in the Prince Albert Volunteers Regiment in Canada and later in the United Kingdom in a replacement unit.
Prior to the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, he joined the Calgary Highlanders Regiment of the 2nd Canadian Division and was placed in No. 11 Platoon of A Company. His regiment landed in France shortly after D-Day.
George was a Bren gunner. The Bren gun is a type of light machine gun of which there were at least one assigned to each infantry platoon. His job as No. 1 on the Bren was to carry and fire the weapon. An assistant, or No. 2, would carry spare ammunition and parts and help the No. 1 reload the Bren when in combat.
In France at the beginning of the Battle of Falaise Gap on Aug. 13, 1944, George was severely wounded in action by enemy artillery fire. He spent the next six months in hospitals, undergoing operations and recovery; first six days in France, and the remainder in England.
Of the original 30 men who were in George's platoon at the start of this battle, one was killed by sniper fire the night before George was wounded; several were killed by the same shell fire that wounded George; and by the time that he got out of hospital, all of the rest were dead.
After the war ended, and with 3 1/2 years of service, George was discharged with the rank of private. He returned home and took up farming in the Buffalo Plains district southwest of Kipling. He later moved to Kipling where he owned and drove school buses and drove buses for pipeline companies until retirement. George has since passed away.
Enos Sproat
Enos Sproat enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 at 21 years of age. He completed pilot's training in November 1942 and was sent overseas to the United Kingdom where he was posted to No. 407 Squadron RCAF in Coastal Command.
Enos piloted a Wellington bomber aircraft with a crew of six. Their missions consisted mainly of flying lengthy night patrols over the North Atlantic Ocean in search of enemy submarines by the use of aircraft-mounted radar. If an enemy sub was discovered on the surface, the aircraft of No. 407 squadron, and others like it in Coastal Command, would attack it before it had time to submerge by the use of a spotlight(called a Liegh-Light, which was mounted under the nose of the aircraft.
They would drop depth charges or bombs on the sub. These aircraft were known as Liegh-Light bombers.
Enos and crew were also involved in flying patrols over the English Channel and the coast of France during the D-Day invasion of June 1944.
Later in the war, Enos was posted to Transport Command. He was sent to No. 435 Squadron of the RCAF which was stationed in Burma. There, he piloted a Dakota transport aircraft with a crew of four. Their missions mostly were to drop supplies by parachute over jungle and mountainous terrain to the British 14th Army who were battling the Japanese forces.
After the war ended and with 4 1/2 years of service, Enos was discharged with the rank of flight lieutenant. His pilot's log book shows that he landed aircraft on 48 airports in 17 different countries.
He returned home and got started in farming in the Crystal Springs district east of Kipling with the help of the Veterans Land Act. After passing on the family farm to son Gordon and family, Enos and wife Mildred retired and moved to Kipling until his passing.
Elgin Batters
Elgin Batters enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1941 at 19 years of age. He was trained as a rifleman in the infantry, taking his basic training at Calgary. He was then sent overseas to the United Kingdom and placed at Camp Aldershot in southern England where he joined the South Saskatchewan Regiment of the 2nd Canadian Division. This unit was landed on the Normandy coast of France after D-Day.
In the later part of July 1944, during the Battle of Verriers Ridge in France, Elgin was wounded in his leg by an enemy shell. The damage was severe enough that he was shipped back to Canada after spending time in hospital in the U.K. After spending more time in hospital in Winnipeg, he was discharged from the army for medical reasons before the end of the year. He had spent three years in the service and was discharged with the rank of private.
Elgin returned home and farmed until 1951 when he started an earth moving and road construction business in partnership with Charlie Gerhardt called G. & B. Construction, now known as Gee Bee Construction. He bought out Gerhardt's interest in the business in 1960 and ran it until passing it on to his sons. He retired and lived in Kipling until his passing.
Stan Olafson
Stan grew up on the farm 10 miles north of Windthorst where he went to a country school. While helping his dad on the farm, War interrupted Stan's life in 1942.
Stan was the oldest and at 21 enlisted in the army. After IQ tests it was decided that he was best suited as an engineer.
After enlisting, Stan was sent for training. He first went to basic infantry training in P.A. After that, he was sent on to Chilliwack, to Engineer's Training in November of 1942 and then sent overseas.
He went over on the 'Isle d' France'. There were so many being transported they had them 'stacked' 3-4 deep.
Stan was trained as an engineer. He helped build bridges over some of the largest rivers in Northeastern Europe...the Seine...the Rhine.
But, building bridges was not Stan's only chore.
He worked at 'picking up' (clearing) mines too.
While in a little village up near Oldenburg Germany, on May 8, 1945 they got word.
He stayed on in Germany as an 'Army of Occupation” for 6 months and was then able to make the long trip home.
He returned to farm on his grandparents’ homestead which was started in 1902 until retiring to Windthorst. Stan has since passed away.
William John Toppings
William John Toppings was a man who farmed near Bender. Toppings senior was called to fight in WW1, and he served in Europe as a signalman. In an age when radio was still relatively new, signalmen were lined up at strategic points along a battlefield to relay information using flags and semaphore.
William John Toppings survived the trenches, and returned to Canada on May 29, 1918. The date is recorded in a rather historical document; his income tax form T1a of 1919, showing his farm income of 1918. Canada had avoided charging income tax prior to the war, it was one of those incentives that encouraged people to move from overseas. However, in 1917 the government imposed a “temporary” income tax to help cover wartime expenses, and returning soldiers were among the first to be subject to a temporary measure that is still in place over 100 years later.
Irvin John Toppings
In 1941 Irving John Toppings joined the war effort voluntarily. He was a bright young man who excelled in mathematics, so he found himself being trained as a navigator for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After his training at Edmonton, Flying Officer Toppings was sent to England, where he joined the elite pathfinders.
No. 8 Pathfinder Force was indeed an elite unit in 1943. It was comprised of hand-picked bomber crews that were known for their exceptional navigational ability. These crews flew mainly Mosquito or Lancaster aircraft, and would fly alone at night, deep into enemy territory, to find and mark the targets for the main bomber force that followed far behind them.
Flying Officer Toppings was posted to the makeshift base of Bourn, from which he flew Lancasters. While the normal RAF bomber command tour of duty was 30 sorties, and the American crews flew 25 sorties, it was common for pathfinder crews to fly a “double tour” which often meant 45 sorties or more. He flew 49 sorties successfully, but fate caught up with him on the 50th, when his Lancaster was shot down over Neurenberg. Only the pilot survived, and he was captured by the Germans four days later, and placed in a prisoner of war camp.
