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Henry Churchill
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion
Momentary
panic
freezes
your
nerves
as
you
fall
in
the
turbulence
of
a
shrieking
gale.
The
earth
is
small
below.
Then
comes
a
teeth
chattering
jolt
as
the
parachute
opens.
Now
the
gale
has
subsided,
floating
like
a
summer
cloud
in
the
sky.
You
are
thinking
perhaps
you
have
died
and
gone
to
heaven.
Then
the
earth comes hurling up to meet you.
Such
are
the
sensations
which
you
would
find
compressed
into
the
fifty
chaotic
seconds
of
your
first
jump as a paratrooper.
Henry
Churchill
joined
the
army
in
1940
at
the
age
of
28.
Most
veterans
that
join
the
army,
in
the
early
days
wanted
to
see
active
service.
Most
wouldn’t
get sent overseas right away.
Churchill
spent
two
and
a
half
years
in
Cape
Breton.
One
day,
a
boy
that
worked
in
the
orderly
room,
Grant
Brooke,
from
PEI,
asked
Henry
to
volunteer
with him for paratroopers.
They
went
to
Sydney,
Nova
Scotia,
for
an
IQ
test
and
a
medical.
Grant
Brooke,
a
brave
fifteen
year
old,
took
the
test
first.
Henry
told
the
examiner,
“despite
his
age
he’ll
be
all
right,
he
has
encouraged
me
to
go
this
far.”
They
left
the
same
day
for
Montreal.
In
Montreal
they
were
screened
again.
Henry
laughs,
“you
really
wanted
to
go
badly
enough,
when
you
got
your
hair
cropped
as bald as a baby.”
On
the
25th
of
December,
1942,
they
left
for
Fort
Benning,
Georgia,
where
they
qualified
as
paratroopers.
They
made
five
jumps to get their wings.
In
May,
Henry,
otherwise
known
as
“Winnie”
by
his
fellow
soldiers
after
the
British
Prime
Minister,
Winston
Churchill,
joined
the 1st Canadian Paratroopers and assigned with the British 6th Airborne Division, also called the “Red Devils”
Close
to
D-Day,
one
fellow
said,
“Winnie,
we
should
go
out
and
enjoy
ourselves,
we
don’t
have
much
longer
to
live”
It’s
serious,
thinking
they
all
couldn’t
come
back
home.
“They
told
us
we
were
expendable.”
says
Churchill.
“Losses
were
part
of
it.
In
the
Airborne
they
expected
70%
casualties
on
the
D-Day
experience.
In
Our
Battalion
were
550
men,
after
D-Day
we
got
around
140
of them together. Then we had to hold the lines of the Battalion. My platoon consisted of 30 m3n and we were down to 18.”
D-Day
came.
“I
was
right
there
with
them,
and
I
wouldn’t
have
wanted
to
miss
it.”
June
6,
1944,
D-Day
began
with
thousands
of
paratroopers
dropping
from
the
sky
over
Normandy,
France.
This
was
hours
before
the
first
ground
troops
would
hit
the
beaches.
On D-Day there were over six thousand aircraft in the air.
The
sun
had
just
set,
they
embarked
on
their
flight
to
Normandy.
Within
a
short
distance
of
the
Normandy
coast
they
were
told
the
lights
would
be
going
out
shortly.
That
meant
the
guys
would
look
out
the
window
for
the
last
time,
to
see
up
and
down
the
line. It was hard enough to jump, but in the dead of night with the uncertainty was difficult.
Above
the
coast,
a
man
sitting
next
to
Churchill
said,
“Henry,
our
plane
is
on
fire.”
t
wasn’t,
they
were
being
shot
by
tracer
bullets. The pilots dropped the plane to around 400 feet. Normally it is 700 feet when they jump.
The
green
light
came
on
and
Henry
Churchill
jumped.
On
his
way
down
he
struggled
to
remove
the
110lb
kit
bag
from
his
leg.
He released it and the rope broke.
he
impact
for
his
landing
knocked
him
out.
When
he
came
to
he
was
in
an
irrigation
ditch.
“This
saved
my
life,”
said
Churchill,
“if
I
didn’t
get
knocked
out,
I
would
probably
be
in
a
grave
over
there.”
Churchill
awoke
to
the
sounds
of
guns
and
the
sight of tracer bullets.
The
kit
bag
landed
not
far
from
him
so
he
pulled
it
into
the
ditch
with
him.
In
it
was
his
rifle,
grenade,
ammunition,
a
pick
axe
and six 10 pound mortar bombs. The fuses on the bombs were dented and unusable and the stock was broken off his rifle.
The
two
men
that
landed
ahead
of
Churchill
didn’t
make
it.
One
man
got
a
bullet
between
his
eyes,
and
the
other
was
shot
in
the back.
Churchill moved up the ditch. They told him to look for flares, but they were everywhere. The sky was alive with everything.
Henry
wasn’t
feeling
good
so
he
went
into
a
wheat
field
and
laid
down.
He
later
heard
voices
and
looked
up
to
see
six
men
walking
by.
Dawn
was
just
beginning
to
arrive
and
it
was
difficult
to
tell
if
the
men
were
friend
or
foe.
He
followed
them
for
a
short
distance but they were going east and he knew his group would be going west.
Henry moved along a bunch of bushes and heard English voices. One was Overby, and the other a medic from England.
They
were
a
sorry
lot.
Churchill
had
no
stock
for
his
rifle,
while
Overby
had
a
machine
gun
but
no
ammunition.
The
medics
did
not
have
any
weapons.
Churchill
eventually
found
a
discarded
rifle
that
he
figured
might
have
been
dropped
buy
a
Canadian
paratrooper taken prisoner by the Germans.
Churchill was in France for three months, two weeks of that on the front lines.
They
were
attacked
by
planes,
artillery
and
infantry
but
managed
to
hold
their
ground.
“We
held
it
for
quite
a
few
days.”
said
Churchill. “They tried too push us out but we managed to hold.”
It was three days before Churchill could sleep.
Shelling
was
the
worst
experience
for
many
of
the
soldiers
as
there
was
often
little
respite
from
it
and
no
where
to
hide.
“A
man who says he is never scared isn’t telling the truth,” says Churchill.
During
the
fighting
inland,
the
paratroopers
had
little
idea
of
the
situation
on
the
beaches
of
Normandy
because
they
had
landed
six
miles
inland.
It
was
there
they
met
with
a
British
Commando
who
had
expropriated
a
German
truck
and
recklessly
driven
inland until he reached their lines.
The
news
from
the
beaches
was
good
and
bad.
Troops
were
landing
continuously
and
were
making
headway
inland
but
some
areas had experienced delays with jamming up of material and men on the beaches.
During
a
rest
period,
Churchill
was
sent
back
to
the
beach
area
where
he
saw
the
hundreds
of
ships
bringing
the
men
and
materials for the invasion. “It was a spectacular sight”, says Churchill.
Churchill
tells
a
story
of
his
friend
as
he
fights
back
the
tears.
“My
friend,
we
used
to
go
to
church
together
in
Sudbury,
he
was
a
Pentecostal
boy.
One
day
his
officer
went
to
his
dugout
and
he
was
reading
his
testament.
As
the
officer
left,
a
mortar
landed
in the dugout. That was the end of him”.
“A
Sergeant
told
another
guy
to
go
stand
watch
somewhere
in
the
night.
The
guy
said
he
couldn’t,
his
nerves
were
gone,
so
I
took his place and saved him from being court marshalled.”
“I
volunteered
to
bury
some
people
in
the
field.
My
buddy
and
I
had
just
got
going,
and
down
in
the
valley
we
saw
movement.
The
Gerries
were
making
a
move
on
us.
I
looked
back
and
my
pal
had
taken
off
on
me.
I
buried
the
guys
just
deep
enough
to
cover
the
top
of
their
toes.
Sometimes
we
had
to
wrap
white
cloth
around
ourselves
when
burying
people,
for
white
was
the
symbol
of
mercy.”
Henry Churchill went back to England from Normandy.
The
Battle
of
the
Bulge
was
in
the
winter.
“They
had
more
snow
than
we
ever
get
here
at
home”.
Henry
went
to
Belgium.
When the German push had stopped, the weather cleared. The Germans were defeated.
Churchill
went
into
Holland
on
the
20th
of
February.
They
told
him
that
he
was
going
back
to
England.
That
was
good
news.
In England they told him that in one month he would be going to Germany. During that month the y were well trained.
In
1945,
March
24th,
they
dropped
into
Germany.
[Operation
Varsity,
the
crossing
of
the
Rhine]
The
Colonel,
who
was
from
Winnipeg,
Canada,
went
with
them.
He
got
hung
up
in
the
trees
and
was
shot
by
the
Germans.
This
was
a
big
operation,
the
jump
across the Rhine. They were two and one half hours in the plane. and jumped between the autobahn and the railway lines.
When
Churchill
jumped
his
suspension
lines
twisted.
When
he
stopped
spinning,
he
saw
a
German
soldier
coming
in
his
direction.
When
he
had
landed,
the
German
had
gotten
to
the
second
man
ahead
of
Henry.
Churchill
hid
behind
his
kit
bag
and
got
out
his
rifle.
He
was
hoping
to
be
fast
enough
to
help
his
friend,
Clarke
but
the
German
soldier
left
and
went
toward
a
nearly
house.
Henry saw Clark lying there. “I knew it was of no use to after either of them”, he said. “I saw one guy run.”
“Another
few
guys
were
wounded.
I
shot
at
the
Germans.
The
two
guys
had
been
shot
by
a
stern
gun,
the
range
is
not
far.
When I went up to them, one guy was bent over, the other was picking bullets out of his back and ankles”
Henry
moved
along
and
jumped
into
a
German
trench.
He
couldn’t
see
down
the
trench
because
it
was
made
like
saw
teeth.
He
was
all
alone.
A
hand
grenade
called
a
“potato
masher”
landed
on
top
of
the
trench.
A
German
soldier
threw
it
at
him
but
it
was a dud. “That saved my life’” says Churchill. “I was meant to make it!”
Churchill
told
his
friend
John
Escaravage.
Henry
wanted
to
be
with
him
when
they
were
in
Belgium.
The
people
there
were
told to put them up for the night and John was French and so was that part of Belgium.
“John
Escaravage
got
shot”,
Henry
said.
“He
opened
his
eyes
and
said,
‘Hi
Henry’
and
closed
his
eyes
and
died.”
Every
fourth
man
was
a
casualty.
The
outcome
of
this
engagement
was
the
defeat
of
Germany's
famous
1st
German
Parachute
Corps
in
a
day
and
a half.
The
Germans
would
move
at
night.
Henry
and
his
platoon
would
move
during
the
day.
“We
walked
from
the
Rhine
River
to
the
Baltic
Sea.
It
was
a
long
trip
of
some
285
miles
but
very
few
of
the
boys
complained”.
After
the
jump
across
the
Rhine,
on
the
first
day twelve hundred German prisoners were taken.
Ration
trucks
came
by
sea.
It
was
five
or
six
days
before
they
got
to
Henry’s
group
by
the
Rhine.
The
men
would
eat
whatever
they
could
find.
They
raided
gardens
and
would
kill
a
chicken
and
boil
it
and
also
drank
the
chicken
broth.
“At
one
house,
a
woman
came
out
holding
a
baby
and
asked
us
not
to
kill
the
goat
as
it
was
their
only
milk.
We
told
her
we
wouldn’t
and
said
for
her
to
get
back
into
her
basement.”
The
German
Army
were
driven
toward
the
Baltic
Sea
and
the
Allied
troops
captured the city of Wismar.
Henry
Churchill
went
from
Wismar
on
the
Baltic
Sea
to
Lubeck,
Germany.
Then
they
flew
to
England.
“They
gave
us
leave
and
I
was
in
Wales
when
a
policeman
stopped me and told me to get back to my barracks. I knew I was going home!”
“I’m grateful to have taken part and to be here to tell you about it.” said Henry. “I have nothing to brag about.”
Canadians in Wismar, Germany
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Henry Churchill
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion
[Original article was written by Karen Donaldson, a YCMHS student (1996)]
CHURCHILL,
Henry
Lyman,
aged
91,
passed
away
in
Yarmouth
Regional
Hospital
on
Tuesday,
July
4,
2006.
Born
on
December
30,
1914,
in
Port
Maitland,
Yarmouth
Co.,
he
was
a
son
of
the
late
Albert
Clayton
and
Seretha
(Sollows)
Churchill.
In
the
spring
of
1940,
he
enlisted
in
the
Canadian
Army,
and
later
joined
in
the
1st
Canadian
Parachute
Battalion.
He
had
basic
training
at
Fort
Benning,
Ga.
Following
that
he
went
to
Europe
and
was
in
on
the
D-Day
invasion.
He
also
served
at
the
Battle
of
the
Bulge
in
Belgium,
Holland
and
the
Rhine
Jump.
At
the
close
of
the
war
he
was
in
Wesmar,
Germany.
Soon
afterwards, he was brought home. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 143.
Henry Churchill (middle) with Private F.J. Mollin
and Private T.W. Clapham in Ladbergen, Germany.