Saskatoon D-Day vet recalls painful memories

D-Day on June 6, 1944, also known as the Invasion of Normandy, was a massive invasion of France along 80 kilometres of beaches. The victory on D-Day helped turn the tide of the Second World War, marking the beginning of the end of the conflict.

Now 70 years later, it takes Katzman only a moment to go back as he does every year in the days leading up to June 6.

“About a week before D-Day and right now, I have a hard time getting to sleep. Things start going through my mind – what could or should have been done and I think of some of the people I lost, some really, really good friends,” he said.

Katzman enlisted in 1940 in Prince Albert when he was 17 years old. He was first turned away when he said he was 18 and a major who knew his father recognized him as underage. Katzman didn't give up and returned soon after to try again.

“I lied a little bit. I told them I was 21,” he said. “One guy says, 'You were 17 the day before' … and I said 'Today, I'm 21.'”

From there, Katzman completed training in Prince Albert, Dundurn, Nova Scotia, Scotland and England before heading to Normandy for D-Day.

“Before we went (to France), they told us that only one in 10 guys would make it,” he said, adding even when he and other men around him were given the chance to back out, no one did.

“We were all scared. Anybody who tells you he wasn't scared was a liar,” he said.

Katzman and another man were supposed to be in charge of a type of a torpedo known as a Bangalore, but that man was shot just as they landed and Katzman couldn't handle the Bangalore on his own.

Katzman said he quickly tried to reach for a Bren machine gun, but another soldier got it first. That soldier almost stood up with the gun, but Katzman said a bullet landed right near the center of that soldier's forehead killing him instantly.

“I took off and I didn't make more than 20 steps when I was running and I got machine gunned,” Katzman said as he remembers getting a bullet right through his leg.

“The pain doesn't hit you until way later on,” he said.

As Katzman tried to crawl to safety, a bomb went off right in front of him, sending shrapnel into one of his eyes and knocking him out cold. Katzman said he was lying among the dead for a while until he heard two voices speaking in English.

“When I heard them, I hollered 'over this way' so one guy came running over and said 'here's a live one.' Then they called over a stretcher-bearer and they picked me up.”

Another injury Katzman sustained on D-Day means he has trouble hearing today.

“We had these big battleships and they were firing overtop of us to soften up the position on the shore. They didn't give us any earplugs and I guess that's how they busted my eardrums. My ears rang for about six days.”

Katzman said the memories of D-Day are still so vivid, especially about the people he knew and lost.

“People floated up when the tide caught up to us. There were people without a head, without an arm, without a leg and one guy floated over and I thought I partly recognized him. I lifted him up and sure enough it was a guy that I knew.”

Katzman said the comradery shared between soldiers was something he won't ever forget.

“Guys that would give their life for you and you would give your life for them.”

On D-Day, the Canadians had the most casualties of any division in the British Army with more than 5,400 Canadian graves now in Normandy.

Katzman glances back at the Regina Rifles picture above his kitchen table. It's the only thing he has left to remind him of some of his friends he never saw again after D-Day.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by Trelle Burdeniuk

Saskatoon D-Day vet recalls painful memories

paNOW Staff

What's Trending