Book Origins
“I inspected the Canadian Parachute Battalion today. Any man with two eyes in his head could not fail to see that there is a fine Battalion with all the making of something good, something magnificent. Boys of the clouds – we salute you!”
Major-General Sir Richard Gale, OBE, MC
From his diary, 29 July 1943
This project had its beginnings when I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a veteran of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. I had always enjoyed speaking with veterans about their wartime experiences and when a mutual friend suggested that I go and pay a visit to former paratrooper Nelson MacDonald, I quickly jumped at the chance. The fact that Nelson and I lived a few kilometres apart made it very convenient for us to spend time together. I enjoyed many an afternoon with Nelson and his lovely wife Audrey, pouring over old photos and rekindling memories of a time that he had, like many veterans, largely tried to forget. Nelson had never really been one to talk too much about his experiences during the war, not even with his family. For whatever reason, we made a connection and once he started to remember, there was no stopping his enthusiasm. He became more involved in the Legion and even started to visit schools on Remembrance Day to share his experiences with the children. I know that he made many new friends, all of whom had a deep appreciation for the sacrifices made by his generation.
From the beginning, it was clear to me that Nelson had no shortage of remarkable wartime experiences. He made it through the selection process to get into the airborne and survived the rigorous training. He was attached to C Company and as such, was among the very first Canadians (indeed, among the first Allied troops) to touch French soil in the early hours of 6 June 1944. Nelson’s stick was dropped miles from the intended Drop Zone and he had to fight his way back to the Battalion positions. He was wounded in action in late June 1944 and was sent back to England to recover. He was back with C Company for the Ardennes campaign and jumped with the Battalion at the Rhine in March of 1945. He stayed with the unit through their hectic advance to Wismar and was among the first Allied troops to link up with the Russians. During his time with the Battalion, Nelson was promoted from private up to sergeant, a very respected rank. I realised that he had some wonderful stories and experiences and that they should be recorded in one form or another. I started to bring a tape recorder with me to our meetings, as he had no objection to my recording his recollections. It was a great time for both of us and was the genesis for this book.
Sadly, I received a telephone call on 27 March 1995 informing me that Nelson had passed away suddenly the day before. It was an enormous loss as we had become quite close in the few years that I had the pleasure of knowing him. Nelson was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. He was such a kind and caring person that people must have found it very hard to imagine him as a rough and tough paratrooper. Although I have no doubt that he was more than capable at doing what had to be done during those difficult times.
The concept for this book was born of the tragedy of his sudden and untimely death as I began to wonder about the many other veterans who were passing away without their stories being recorded. Had I not met Nelson, his history would have died with him. I was aware that the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion Association was quite active and had a large membership. I began to mull over the idea of collecting stories from as many veterans as I could track down. I wrote to the Association and received their blessing to pursue my vision. They were kind enough to allow me to insert a survey into one of their newsletters and almost immediately I began receiving calls and letters from veterans who wished to share their stories. After the initial spike of interest waned, I had to spend more and more time on the phone and writing letters back and forth to try and generate interest. Battalion veterans were spread out all across Canada and into the United States. There were very few who were within driving distance. As the project moved forward, I became aware of how immense an undertaking this was and before I knew it, ten years had passed.
There are many challenges in compiling an oral history, especially when more than five decades have passed since the events in question occurred. Of course the most critical issue was ensuring that the stories were as historically accurate as possible. Fifty years later, it is very easy to mix up dates and places and to perhaps embellish events to a certain degree. It was necessary for me to cross-reference as much information as I could to make sure that the narratives were as accurate as possible. Undoubtedly there are minor mistakes in the text, but by and large I feel that this is a true representation of what these men saw and went through at that time.
The next major challenge was editing the text of the stories. I had to exercise some authority to make small changes to try and establish consistency and a smooth flowing, readable text. Some of the stories were quite long and had to be edited down in size. If I have offended any veterans by making changes, I apologize in advance. Another issue that had to be dealt with was that of rank. I decided to use the rank that the veterans had attained at the conclusion of the Second World War as my guideline. An example would be Jeff Kelly. During his wartime service with the Battalion, he was a private. After the war, he was commissioned, went to Korea and eventually retired as a major. For the purposes of this book, he is Private Kelly. In terms of decorations, I have noted only those that were awarded for gallantry. I chose not to include awards for long service such as the CD.
While researching this book I attempted to contact as many veterans as I possibly could. Naturally, there were many that I did not get to speak with. If you are a veteran of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion or if you are related to someone who served, I am interested in collecting your stories and experiences to add to my archive. Family members may have letters that were written by veterans during the war. These letters are often a fascinating insight into the life of a Canadian parachute soldier and I would welcome the chance to copy them. I would also be interested in copying any wartime photographs from personal albums. I will, of course, return all originals.
You can contact me by clicking here.