NE Sask. veteran’s WWII story recalled through family history

NORQUAY — This story is about one man’s life, a likeable youth of eighteen years from a pioneer community in northeast Saskatchewan. It documents his experiences as an infantry soldier during the height of fighting in Belgium, Holland and Germany during the Second World War in 1944-45. Included are insights into his fears, his hopes, his thoughts, reflections and his astute observations during those times.

The postwar years were not always good to Bob and Milly, Bob’s wife, but they persevered, giving many remarkable years of service to the Pool Elevator in dozens of small communities, and raised four responsible children.

The following was written by Stacey Moroz and published in the Norquay North Star on November 12, 1987.

When war broke out, Leonard Robert (Bob) Abbott was 14 years old and still going to school. His family, from the Weekes district, had cattle and farmed on a large scale for those days. Through the early war years, as young men and women left school, they joined the armed forces. When Abbott was seventeen, he had his schooling, and friends older than he who had served in Hong Kong, the Dieppe raid and North Africa. Some were prisoners of war, and others had been killed already. So when Abbott got old enough, he joined the army. His folks “did not want me to go as they had no help on the farm and also figured I might be one who would die thousands of miles away from home.”

Abbott spent nearly a year in Canada, going from one camp to another, taking courses and getting old enough to go overseas. They already had millions of men in England getting ready for the invasion of Europe. When D-Day hit, he was in trade school at Hamilton, Ont. The course was cut short, and Abbott returned to Calgary, where he was put on draft for overseas. They left Calgary one evening. Five days and six nights later, on a train in an old immigration car with wooden-slat seats, one blanket, their grey coats and a stove at both ends, they landed in Halifax, N.S., to get on a boat called the Aquitania. “I had never seen a boat before,” he says. “What a big one!” There were thousands aboard. They were each allotted a canvas bed, arranged bunk-style, four deep. “We got fed twice a day. They fed us at 4 a.m. and 12 midnight. Soldiers would then sleep on the tables for the four hours as it was so crowded in the boat and so hot.” They travelled all over the Atlantic. One day it was hot, the next was cold. The ship travelled fast and could avoid submarines. Six days later on a misty morning, they saw land and a house. They were in the Clyde River in Scotland, and were loaded so heavily “we had to stay in the middle of the river so the boat wouldn’t tip over,” he says. From there, they were taken off by barges, which took all day, and train after train pulled in to Greenock, Scotland, loaded and left.

There were Scottish women serving tea and cookies, as much food was not available. Abbott says, “They were a happy lot of women, and I thought I would be back if I survived.” The Canadians left by train that night. “I thought we had it, we were all sick.” The next day in the afternoon, they arrived in Aldershot, England, where the people weren’t as friendly. There were already millions of men there, and another “10 or 12 thousand didn’t press them one bit.” At daybreak, when they arrived, “There were about 150 German prisoners lined up for our boats,” he says. These were the first German soldiers they had seen. The war was over for these Germans; it was just beginning for the Canadians.

Abbott spent two weekends there and then the contingent headed for New Haven harbour. According to Abbott, “it was raining cats and little fishes.” They were only there a couple of days and then walked about 10 miles inland as there was fighting still going on. A few days later they moved to Belgium, then Abbott was sent to the South Saskatchewan Regiment for reinforcement as they needed men badly. The crack troops of Hitler’s great army were finally starting to realize that things were closing in on them, and they were not about to let that happen without putting up a fight.

Then, it was on to Holland for the regiment, where they spent nearly all winter. In the spring, Abbott was attached to the U.S. Ninth Army in the Ardennes region in southern Belgium. When he got leave, he went back to the city of Dundee, Scotland, where he met his wife-to-be.

He returned to the war front, to Germany, and was later attached to the British Second Army near Lunenburg, not far from Berlin, about 90 kilometres. They went into the Russian sector of Berlin and were in the Hitler house, the place where the dictator and his wife, Eva Braun, died shortly after this happened.

Later in the summer of 1945, he returned to the Canadian Army. He got a couple of leaves to Dundee, Scotland, and on Jan. 31, 1946, he was married in Keith, Scotland. He was later attached to the Regina Rifle Regiment with the Allied occupation forces. They were in the Emden area. Later that spring, the Canadian government pulled all Canadian forces out of Germany. They returned from the port of Cuxhaven, Germany, to Tilbury docks, London, by Polish boats, then to Whitley camp.

A week after he returned to Whitley camp, they headed for Southampton aboard the Île de France. When they got to Halifax they boarded a train once more. They came back as the Fourth Battalion of Regina Rifles. Abbott left the train at Winnipeg and came home through Swan River to Prairie River and returned to his family’s farm at Weekes. His war bride, Millie, from Scotland joined him a few months later. At 21 years of age, later that summer Abbott was discharged.

“It was a great experience if you lived,” he thought. Abbott later joined the Legion at Somme No. 4 branch and has been a member ever since, and has taken part in nearly every Nov. 11 parade, including ones at Cold Lake, Alta., and Huntley, Scotland, which he attended last year.

During the couple’s 41 years of marriage, they had four children, all of whom have been to Scotland twice.

To Bob, Remembrance Day means a lot. He says, “Everyone should remember the men who fought for their country. It’s something that should never be forgotten.”

Abbott was discharged in 1946 from the army, took over the family farm north of Norquay, and from 1974-1991 bought grain for the Sask Wheat Pool. The couple retired to Yorkton when they were both in their 80s. Robert Abbott passed in 2000.

On Nov. 16, 2022, he received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.