LEST WE FORGET: Remembering those who served A9-12 Friday, November 9, 2012 Joyful Noise ready to start its run at Theatre North West A19
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Lest we forget
TERESA MALLAM arts@pgfreepress.com
Second World War veterans Bill Stanley, 91, and Bill Greenly, 92, never crossed paths as they fought with the Allies on the front lines in Italy in 1943. They fought a common foe but in quite different capacities. Stanley served as a medic, Greenly as a mechanic. Teresa MA LLA M/Free Press Today they both reside at Northern Top photo: a young Bill Stanley as a medHealth’s Gateway Retirement Centre and on ic during the Second World War. Right: Bill Thursday they got together to talk with the Greenly and Stanley share their memories. Free Press about their wartime experiences. The two men first shake hands. and the corps. I was about 16 feet from “My regiment number was K-75518,� says Stanley. where the shell hit when it happened. “Mine was K-71155,� responds Greenly. I just had time enough to fall over and It was if they had met on the battlefield. hit the dirt.� Stanley joined the war effort, at age 20, while living in Stanley has another painful memory. Vernon, B.C. He went overseas in 1942. “The Dutch ship that brought us to Italy With his St. John’s Ambulance training, he joined the was on its way to Africa to pick up troops first division medical corps serving with the 4th Canawhen it was sunk by the Germans.� dian Field Ambulance Unit. Stanley was injured in the left leg He recalls vividly his service in Sicily. from concrete blocks that went flying “I went there on July 10, 1943. After the invasion, when a bridge was blown up. His unit there were thousands of wounded soldiers. My job was was taking a soldier for medical help. to get the wounded back from the front lines – I drove a “They sent a letter back home saying jeep – and get them back for medical help.� I had been ‘wounded in action’ and Stanley says author Farley Mowat is a better storythat my injuries were undetermined. teller of what took place at the Battle of Ortono with That was hard on my family – my mother and the German paratroopers [Dec. 20 to 28, 1943] in his book woman I was engaged to.� The Regiment, but the local veteran has his own vivid Stanley gives a slight smile. recollection of his experience during what has been “I had to write right away and tell them I was okay.� called the “bloodiest battle of the Italian campaign.� Both Stanley and Greenly were present in Holland The number and severity of casualties was astoundwith the Allied Forces on May 5, 1945 for the joyous libing, he said. eration of the country from Nazi Germany. They agree “There were thousands and thousands of casualties, a it is a proud moment in history and a good memory of lot of them in really bad shape. The Germans destroyed their years of service. everything – medical truck, the doctor, the staff sergeant Stanley lived at Gateway for three years, through
three Remembrance Days – wondering if there was a way for residents to show their respect. “I asked Susan [Kragt of Northern Health] if we could do something at Gateway to honour and remember the veterans. She did the work and came up with the idea of a display,� he said. Residents contributed old photos of their family members and loved ones who served and their name along with the names of the veterans and their pictures appears in a display in the front lobby. “It’s good for us to remember,� says Stanley.�It’s important to remember. We lost a lot of our dear friends.�
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