By Chelsea Laskowski

D-Day a clear memory for 90-year-old veteran

Jun 6, 2014 | 7:12 AM

William Halcro sits in a chair in his living room. The 90-year-old man has one visible remnant from his time in Normandy – a gap between his thumb and fingers that was hit by grenade shrapnel.

When asked what he remembers about the Second World War, at first he said he doesn’t remember the emotions he felt heading into D-Day.

However, the emotions played across his face as he described the morning he arrived on an airplane.

Halcro and his company approached the shore by ship.

“When we landed, they were shooting at us before we got even off of the ship and we had to climb over the deck and go down on rope net ladders into the landing craft.

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And then these landing crafts took us onto the shore,” he said.

He described just how real the threat of those bullets was.

“I was the third guy off of the landing barge and the first guy got hit and fell off into the water and the second one got hit and he laid on the gang plank. Then it was my turn,” Halcro described.

He jumped off and waded to the shore, finding shelter in a crater left behind by a large explosive. This was where he had his first brush with fortune, or possibly, his intuition.

“Another fellow crawled in there with me and, I don’t know, I got the feeling that we should move out of there and I told him, I said, ‘we gotta move. Don’t ask me why.’ But we both crawled out of there and we didn’t go too far when another one of these shells landed in the same shell hole. This fellow said to me, ‘how did you know?’ I said

‘I don’t know how I knew,’” Halcro said with a laugh, recounting the man followed that up by saying ”well, if you know where those shells are going to land, I’m gonna stick with you.”

This was the first of many memorable moments Halcro had with his fellow soldiers, although he can’t recall how all of them fared.

“This fellow with me said, ‘I’m gonna get up and make a run for it.’ He didn’t make it far. He got hit, got shot in the head and he fell over. I thought, ‘well I seem to be OK there on the ground.’”

His next task was to cut a barbed-wire blockade to get through.

Halcro continued running and met a sergeant, and eventually met up with the few men in his company that were still able to continue on – only nine out of 90, he said.

They joined in a low-lying graveyard that same afternoon.

“There was a corporal, he went kind of berserk. Sort of shell shocked and he was sort of running around there and they had to kind of catch him. Had to tie him up and took him away in the Jeep. I was watching this and thought to myself, ‘if I can get out of here I don’t think they’d have to tie me,’” Halcro said with a wry laugh.

He stayed part of the night in a French building, but even with a guard outside walking back and forth there was no rest to be had.

“I could still hear the shells and shooting of guns all night.”

As his company gained ground into town, towards the intended 14 kilometre gain in footage, they ran into German opposition. One of the tasks given to Halcro was to pass messages back and forth at this time, which had him running constantly.

Throughout all of this, Halcro hadn’t eaten for over a day and “I was kind of hungry because we had gotten seasick landing.”

“The French people, they came along the road there. They were handing out wine and milk.”

The soldiers took the offers and encouraged them to keep moving with their offerings.

“I said ‘I’ll take a glass of milk.’ And the other fellow said, ‘ you mean to say you’d take milk instead of wine?’ I said ‘that stupid wine you can drink that anytime but it’s not often you get a cold glass of milk,” he said with a laugh.

At that time, the company was waiting for reinforcements and holding their position.

However, as Halcro was lying down under a special sheet to repel the falling rain, the front rank was broken.

It was while running to pass on the message that troupes were pulling out and backing up to reorganize that Halcro found himself in harm’s way – this time it couldn’t be averted.

He was in a slit trench for a short moment, when a German threw a handled grenade, which were nicknamed ‘potato mashers,’ was thrown in his direction.

“I figured it was going to explode pretty quickly and there’s no use in running, better just flop over here on the ground. Anyways, it exploded all right. And that’s how I got wounded,” Halcro said.

He was able to walk since his injuries were mainly on his back, but after he reached a first-aid station, his fighting was over.

Halcro was moved back to the beach and then taken to England.

He stayed for five months and finally asked to see his records to see if he was going back to the front lines.

“[The doctor] said, ‘well, we decided to send you home. You’ve had enough of that over there so we’re going to send you home.’”

About five years later he met his wife.

It’s a big year for Halcro. Not only is it the 70th anniversary of D-Day, it’s also his wife and his 65th wedding anniversary.

Sitting in their apartment on Thursday, Halcro’s daughter mentioned there was something they’ve asked him before – if back then overseas he ever thought he’d be back here at all, let alone celebrating occasions like this.

Halcro’s story is also included in an online resource made to create a record of Canada’s participation in the Second World War and Korean War as seen through the eyes of thousands of veterans.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk