Remembering the Canadian soldiers who died on a mission of mercy at the close of the Second World War
A little more than 12 hours before the end of the Second World War in Europe, a young Canadian padre, accompanied by an equally young tank commander, set off into the cool, rainy countryside of northern Germany on an errand of mercy.
Or so they thought.
Honorary Capt. Albert McCreery and Lt. Norman Goldie had only been with the Canadian Grenadier Guards tank regiment for less than a month.
It was May 4, 1945.
Adolf Hitler's Third Reich was in its final hours and Nazi soldiers alternated between fighting to the death and surrendering.
The war diary of the guards regiment records heavy fighting that morning in the forests and laneways north of Oldenberg, including mention of Goldie's troop of tanks being held in reserve in case the defending Germans advanced.
Canadian combat chaplains, throughout the war in Europe, found steady employment outfitting jeeps with stretchers and rescuing disabled tank crews.
It was from German prisoners that McCreery learned about possibly wounded enemy soldiers in need of aid and comfort — or so he was told.
In hindsight of history, it was a typically Canadian thing to do.
An account, quoting former guards regiment soldiers published decades after the war, quoted one of them as being skeptical of McCreery's plan, mostly because nobody knew where the wounded enemy could be found
Regardless, at 3 p.m. on the last full day of fighting, McCreery and Goldie set off to bring in the wounded Germans.
They never returned.
Phil Ralph, a former Canadian military chaplain, said he's haunted by the story.
"His mission is to care for all. And, so he does, a marvellous and unselfish act," Ralph said, referring to McCreery.
"In the horror and the misery of combat and war and conflict to keep that level of humanity and compassion, it's quite remarkable.… They're close to what they believe is going to be the cessation of hostilities.
"They're still the enemy … but that doesn't deter him."
The regimental war diary dispassionately noted that when the pair hadn't reported back, a patrol was sent out to find them, but turned up nothing.
According to one later, unofficial, account, McCreery's body was "run through with bullets," and found in a bog two days later. Goldie's remains were never recovered.
"Both officers were killed in circumstances which remain obscure," said the Canadian Army's official history, published in 1960.
Another account insisted there was nothing ambiguous about their end at all.
A tribute to McCreery written for his alma mater, McMaster University, pointed to an official account that claims the unarmed padre was "shot by a German sniper when he went to the rescue of a young German soldier trapped in a blazing tank."
Goldie's fate remained a mystery.
During that final bloody day, all along the front the Canadian Army suffered 60 casualties — 20 of them fatal, including McCreery and Goldie. The pair are the only two mentioned in the army's official history and could very well represent the last Canadians to die in battle against the forces of German facism.
News of victory was suddenIn the hours following their deaths, rumours of the German surrender raced up and down the Canadian lines.
The BBC was the first to broadcast news of the impending German capitulation in the Netherlands, Denmark and northern Germany, and the ceasefire that was to take effect the next morning — May 5, 1945. The broadcast report beat the official signal from British Gen. Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group headquarters.
News of the surrender came as anticlimatic to troops, some of whom, such as the Canadian Grenadiers, had been fighting furiously that morning.
When the announcement was made, there were "no cheers and few outward signs of emotion," the official account read. Many soldiers found it hard to believe.
Upon receiving the official signal, the commander of the First Canadian Army, Gen. Harry Crerar, ordered an immediate halt to all operations and late in the evening on May 4 addressed the troops under his command.
He spoke about the valour with which they fought through the war, mentioning the slaughter of Dieppe almost three years earlier and the brutal campaign through France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
"Crushing and complete victory over the German enemy has been secured," Crerar said. "In rejoicing at this supreme accomplishment we shall remember the friends who've paid the full price for the belief they also held that no sacrifice in the interests of the principles for which we fought could be too great."
Jeff Noakes, an historian at the Canadian War Museum, said Canadians tend to remember the celebrations of liberation in the Netherlands but there was a whole different, brutal side in northern Germany where the guards tank regiment was driving toward the North Sea.
"There are tanks that were hit by anti-tank weapons at close range, and crew members are killed, or snipers, or ambushes, or larger-scale combats that take place," Noakes said.
"It may seem obvious to us now that the war is about to end in early May, but it wasn't at all obvious exactly when the war was going to end to the people who were there on the ground."
Their deaths so near the ceasefire underline the tragedy and senselessness of war, and leave a lasting scar on families left behind, Ralph said.
Earlier in his career as a military chaplain in Toronto, he said the sister of a Canadian soldier who died in Europe would regularly put him on the spot.
"Her brother was killed right near the end of the Second World War. Not quite as dramatic as the padre, but very, very near, the [end]," said Ralph."Every time it came around Remembrance Day, I knew she was going to have a question for me and the question was: 'Pastor, he went all the way through the war. It was almost over. Why now?'"
What do you say?
Ralph responded with the only answer possible: "You know, we don't know."
cbc.ca
