Feature Story
in the
LEGIONNAIRE
NEWSLETTER ~ MARCH 2014
Written by Tad Krasicki
26 Fd Regt RCA—XII Dragoon Museum Volunteer
D-DAY 70 YEARS ~ JUNE 1943
We lost three Brandon boys that
day…
D-Day saw a big change in Europe
and also in Brandon. Brandon had losses all during the war but now things
went into high gear. We lost three Brandon boys that day.
Rifleman KENNEDY, ALLAN JOSEPH
H/103100. A Manitoba service number, but we do not know how he ended
up in the Regina Rifle Regiment. Many Brandon boys served in units from
all over Canada. Brandon's former alderman of the '50s and '60s -- J.M.
Shurb was a Sgt. with the Regina Rifle Regiment having been transferred
from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles to teach rifle shooting. There are many
reasons for serving with more distant units.
Rifleman WORONCHUK, EUGENE J.
B/142310 (the B is probably a typo and it should be an H) Royal Winnipeg
Rifles. This stocky fellow was also a wrestler who was popular in Brandon
at that time. He showed up one evening at his girls' home to say good-bye
as they were shipping the RWR out the next day. He said that he would not
return. The girls there all said for him not to take that attitude but
he had already lost his neighbor on Eighth Street North to an ammunition
accident in training and had a bad feeling.
That neighbour, Rifleman PURPER,
WILLIAM H/41015 Royal Winnipeg Rifles, had died at Shilo on 11 May 1940.
In June of 1944 the girls, including his pal, were spending a warm evening
singing. Another girl ran over saying, "The family just got news and Woronchuk
has been killed." The girls never sang again during the war.
Corporal KLOS, WALTER JOHN H/41048
Royal Winnipeg Rifles. Raised on Twelfth Street North, Klos had ended
up as a mucker in the mines of Flin Flon. This is copied from the book
Juno by Ted Barris and tells of Cpl. Klos's last moments
on Juno beach. The Winnipeg's 'B' Company, and the Royal Canadian Engineers
6th Field Company assault team working with them, had one of the highest
beach casualties of the day. The company had lost almost three-quarters
of its men. Their courageous company commander, Captain Gower, was left
with only twenty-six men. A pill-box on the west side of the Seulles River
contained a 75 mm field gun and a very large anti-tank gun. A story of
unimaginable courage took place near this pillbox. It concerned Corporal
W.J. 'Bull' Klos. "Rushing the enemy, 'B' Company encountered heavy enemy
fire. Corporal Klos, badly shot in the stomach and legs while leaving the
assault boat, made his way forward to an enemy position. Men fell all around
him as Corporal Klos thrashed through the deep water. Klos was a big, powerful
man. Thus the nickname “Bull”. The corporal's rage was greater than his
pain. He staggered to the beach and shot an enemy gunner. Despite being
wounded, he engaged in hand-to-hand combat with three German soldiers he
came across in a pill box. He knifed two of them and was strangling the
third with his bare bands when he was killed. His hands still gripped about
the throat of his victim produced a chilling sight!"
A lady that lost her brother, a
Flying Officer told me what it was like on Tenth Street North where the
family lived at that time. In the summertime with windows open the sound
of the telegraph boy's bicycle bell could be heard. The shout went out
and was spread street to street in all directions. The mothers or wives
walked to the front gate to wait. Where would the telegraph boy go? For
the unlucky ones he turned onto their street and then stopped at their
gate. With a telegram coming for every injury, every sickness, every wound,
every "missing in action", every "taken prisoner", and every death this
began a time of much increased dread for the families on the home front.
And so it was from D-Day until after the war and the boys came home.
BRANDON'S VETERANS MEMORIAL
Be part of an exciting project
The Brandon Veterans' Memorial Committee is seeking your help
to raise funds for the Veterans' Memorial.
The Memorial will built on the corner of 11th Street and Victoria Avenue.
This is your opportunity to make a donation, in remembrance of
a Veteran of the Regular or Reserve Forces of Canada.
Donations of $100 or more will be recorded on a plaque.
Please give your name, the Veteran's name, Rank, Service Branch or
Unit.
Donations may be made to the City of Brandon Veterans' Memorial
410-9th Street. Brandon, MB R7A 6A2
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