I'd like to go back to D-Day.
When you were on the landing craft what were you thinking?
What was it like being on the landing craft and all and leading up to that?
There's a lot of little sounds. The machine gun fire was hitting on the top.
You had to keep your head down because you'd hear the "pop, pop" on the side of the boat.
In September of 1939, as an aggressive and powerful
Nazi Germany invaded the borders of Poland,
Many nations began mobilizing for an inevitable global war.
Although unprepared, Canada was among those to declare war on Germany
and began drafting many young men into service, including Jim Parks of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I was just a young guy. I started off with the cadets in the dirty 30's,
and as war broke out i joined the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.
We thought war was an adventurous thing, although we also knew it wasn't adventurous,
But we also wanted to be part of it.
I spent the winter training in Fort Osmond Barracks,
and when the spring come, the 3rd Division was going overseas.
So they came along and they took 60 people away, 20 from each regiment.
And actually, I was on guard duty but my brother who was there he put my name on the list
And so when I came off guard duty he said, "You got a 48 hour pass."
"Oh!", I said. "Is that right?"
He said, "Yeah,
it's embarkation leave. You're now with the Winnipeg Rifles. You'll go down to Camp Debert on Monday."
So that's how I ended up going to the Winnipeg Rifles.
We went overseas on a banana boat called the SS Orbita, and we landed in Liverpool about the
16th of September, 1941.
Then we got on a train, and we went from Liverpool down to Camp Aldershot.
We did a lot of training there, a lot of what they call anti-invasion exercises,
'Cause we were stationed along the coast of England.
At that time there was always a threat that the Germans might invade.
Then we went to Scotland in 1943 to do assault landing.
After years of preparation, the Allies were ready to turn the tide of the War,
selecting Normandy beach as their gateway towards victory.
This short stretch of French coast was divided into five different beaches.
Jim and the Royal Winnipeg Rifles would land on Juno beach
with the rest of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.
For many, this baptism by fire was their first and last combat experience.
There was a lot of little sounds. The machine gun fire was hitting on the top. You had to
keep your head down because you'd hear "pop, pop" on the side of the boat.
There was a big thump - we hit a mine. We were also hit by a 75 millimeter.
The fellow that was to lower down the ramp, he got pretty well wounded, and they dropped us in the
water too deep. Our Sergeant said, "The water's too deep. We can't go in." And
they were ordered off anyway. But we knew what was happening, so I undid my equipment
so once we hit the water I could be free to swim. Because, as soon as we hit the
water everything went under the water - about eight or nine feet of water.
And of course, the waves were coming in a bit rough. We lost everything.
And we got into shore and it was pretty rough going.
The infantry companies had been coming in and a few people were wounded on the
beach. And I plopped down beside Corporal Scaife. I knew this Corporal Scaife, he was
from out west in a Saskatchewan. And he was mortally wounded. So i took his sten gun,
because I lost everything. And I rolled him over and got a small pack. And
then I got involved onto the beach until the rest of my platoon came in.
The first assault wave suffered tremendous casualties, with nearly 50 percent of the Canadian
soldiers killed or wounded. But a relentless wave of some 14,000 troops continued to pour in.
By the end of the day, the beach had been won and the 3rd Infantry moved inland.
After you got off the beach where it was pretty messy, for a while in, it was very
quiet. And we got into a little village called Putot. We were there, and then the 8th of June,
the 12th SS Armored Division -- anything SS are what they call the mean guys, or Nazis.
They were up against us, and they were the ones that overran us at Putot.
That was pretty hectic for a couple of days,
getting overrun like that. You didn't know where the heck they were. They
would pop up and you'd fire and they'd be gone. They'd fire you'd be gone.
So we were in this farm. And we were there building up and we got reinforcements.
We got about 400 reinforcements the first night. The
Canadian Scottish made what they call a counter attack, and took over all the land that we lost.
Carpique, that was a nasty place. There would be a lot of dog fights. The Messerschmitts would
come over and strafe. They would come over and they would drop what they call a butterfly bomb.
It had wings on it and when you drop it, it would float. And they float around and you
wouldn't hear them coming and they would land and explode. So they'd come over and drop and you'd
hear the explosions here and there. You're just hoping they wouldn't be dropping over
where you are, because you couldn't hear or see them until they actually landed and exploded.
And the Germans were well entrenched. They had the 88's.
The 88
was the the best cannon on any side in World War II.
I remember this one time, I was looking for cover and I got caught
out in the open. I ran and I got my foot caught on the windowsill,
and ducked and the shell landed right behind me and blew me through the window.
The next thing I remember, I was sitting at the regimental aid post with a cup of tea in my hand.
So, by the time they dragged me out, they put me in one of these jeeps with a stretcher on
it. They took me back the regimental aid post which would be a mile and a half behind. And
here I am sitting with a cup... "How the hell did I get here?"
Jack was my brother. He was in the same platoon. They had to go back in with his Bren Gun
Carrier into the center of town. And a grenade landed on my brother's lap - a potato masher.
He froze. And Butch reached over and he grabbed the grenade. He tossed it over the side.
The German soldier was standing in a doorway and it landed right where the German soldier was.
Jim and his brother were lucky to be alive. But as the 3rd moved deeper into France,
casualties continued to mount.
We end up with a 156 casualties on the beach - that's killed or wounded.
Over that three or four days, another 80 or 90 wounded or killed.
Things were a bit quiet and I remember they put us back in a place called Bray. And i was along
the ditch and my brother came along the ditch and said, "Jim, there's a friend of yours from school
just down the ditch. Izzy Freedman." Izzy Freedman and I had been in school together. When I first
met him, our school burned down on Winnipeg and they took us to David Livingston School.
And the first guy I met was Izzy Freedman. He came up to me he bumped me and he said,
"What are you guys doing here?" He was sort of being a bit of a bully. And I
bumped him back and I said, "Our school burned down. We're supposed to be here."
And so, we got to be good friends. We played on the same baseball team.
And like i said, I never saw him again after that time until the 8th of July.
A shell hit his trench. He and the other guy were both killed.
So, I'd seen him the day before and he was killed by an 88 the next day. This happened quite often.
By the end of August 1944, the Battle of Normandy was declared an Allied victory,
and the road to Germany seemed wide open.
Jim and the Winnipeg Rifles continued north in an attempt to liberate Holland from Hitler's grasp.
But in order to keep a steady flow of supplies and troops into the Netherlands, the German-held port
of Antwerp would need to be taken, forcing the 3rd Canadian Infantry into the Battle of the Scheldt.
In the Battle of the Scheldt there were a lot of water and a lot of dikes.
So, in order to take cover from the enemy fire, you had to dig in to the side of the dike. And
the thing is, the infantry were more or less on their own because the tanks couldn't get
in to support because they'd be silhouetted on the dikes and they could be picked off.
At the best, they might sight themselves someplace where they could fire on targets. They could
only fire a few shots and get out of there, but they they did a lot of support for us that way.
And when the weather was clear, we had a lot of what they call the R.A.F. They would come
over with the Typhoons and the Spitfires. They'd have what they call rockets. And we always used
to be glad to see them because one rocket, if it hit a tank, it could knock a tank out.
But we were always so happy to see the - we call
them Tiffy's - the Typhoons when they would come over for fire and support.
After two weeks, the Battle of the Scheldt came to an end and the liberation of Holland was underway.
Fighting would continue throughout the country until May of 1945. Elsewhere in Europe,
Hitler's once powerful armed forces continued to crumble and German soldiers surrendered in droves.
On April 30th, a defeated and humiliated Adolf Hitler took his own life, and on the 8th of May
Germany finally surrendered. The war in Europe was over.
To this day, Jim recalls with great pride the joy and gratitude of the people of Holland,
newly liberated by their Canadian allies.
Once you got into Holland and got into the liberation, you could tell the people were
so grateful because they'd been under the thumb for four years. And they are thankful,
very thankful. I've been back there a few times, and even nowadays, you could tell how thankful
they are for the Canadians. The Canadians are so well expected over there. So, we've been
back several times on organized trips and we're treated like kings and queens. It's really nice.
So, if you could say one thing to communicate to the younger generations...
So young people, you have to remember your values. Your values are composed of your being a citizen,
the country you're in, the family you're in, the neighborhood you're at, and the life that
you love. And you've got to respect that. You want to enjoy it? You've got to protect it.
You don't get that for nothing. You've got to earn it day by day.
You may not think so, but day by day you've got to earn it. And you've got to be ready and available
if you're called on to defend it. Just remember, you're sitting back and you're enjoying it,
but it comes at a cost. And the cost is: you must remember to protect it in any way you can.
That's it.