Otis C. O’Hara, the way to Ridderkerk

This is the 23rd. of September, 1986. The other evening my oldest son Philip suggested I should write down my exploits as a serviceman during World War II. He felt it might interest my grandchildren in the years ahead, and help them understand and appreciate War in a more real way than could be covered in a school textbook.
I considered this request. Thinking of the many stories I had listened to from Veterans and quasi Veterans alike during my short membership in the Legion, I decided to recount the details of my life in general, rather than just tell some fanciful stories about my service life.

Otis C. O'Hara 1943. Source: Mike O'Hara

I was born on November 6th., 1916, just a year before the Halifax Explosion in December of 1917. At that time it was the greatest disaster in the history of man, before Hiroshima. The catastrophe caused an estimated 2,000 deaths and 2,500 others were permanently disabled; blind and dismembered. The cause was a collision between two ships: the Mont Blanc and the Imo.
My family was living in North End Halifax at the time. My mother moved myself at 1 year and my sister Norma at 2 and 1/2 years to the Halifax commons. Later over the years she reiterated the sorrowing and suffering that was created. My Dad was missing for three days and Mother presumed he was dead. But he had survived and was brought home with most of his ribs broken and an ugly gash on his left cheek. At the time of the explosion, he had been working at the Dockyard on a ship,

While I worked at the Post Office, I continued part-time at the laundry and it was during this period that Gordon Hayman (Hightingale and Hayman Chartered Accountants) approached me and wanted me to go with them as an apprentice toward a Chartered Accountancy degree. Since war clouds were developing in 1938, I considered it best to stay with the Post Office and declined their offer. In retrospect, I wonder what course my life would have followed in subsequent years as both Mr. Nightingale and Mr. Hayman became millionaires. But then as a young fellow, I had no guidance; my Dad, while a brilliant man in his field as a shipwright (with only a Grade IV education in a country school) perhaps could not envision or counsel me as to my best course. Throughout the years I secretly wished I could be a Lawyer; mostly civil because I always had a yen for the underdog or disenfranchised person. It was and always will be a liking for people that motivated my life, even though I had many occasions to mistrust people.

In any event along came the War in September, 1939. I was still at the Post Office and married but sooner or later I knew I had to join the forces. I attended a course at Kings College for potential Navy Officers but at that time the Navy was more concerned with their recruits in the ’social’ atmosphere. I attended classes with the now Senator I. Barrow, Rollie Hurst, Arthur Stairs and others; mostly boys from South End Halifax and influential families. Some of these people later became Commanders and Lieutenant Commanders but few of them served on ships as I later recalled. In any event, I can't recall the exact date I was called and had to serve 6 weeks ’Basic Training’ as an army Recruit in Yarmouth, N.S.

Otis C. O'Hara and his training unit in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia. He is in the back row, far right. Source: Mike O'Hara

Otis C. O'Hara and his training unit in Brockville, Ontario. He is in the front row, second from the left. Source: Mike O'Hara

This was quite an experience in the wintertime. Up at six, on the parade square, breakfast, drill, Basic Arms training, etc., etc. However, I survived this and went back to short time service with the Post Office. During this period because of my Basic Training, I was invited to C.O.T.C. (Canadian Officers in Training) at the N.S. Technical College. When this was completed, I enrolled in the army and was sent to Brockville, Ontario which was then under the command of Col. Milton Gregg. I took Officers Training in Brockville with David Petrie, producer of such movies as ’Raisin in the Sun’, ’The Bronx’ and ’The Bay Boy’

The Certificate of the Officers' Training Center. Source: Mike O'Hara

Danny and I went overseas together and went out a few times to various shows. I spent 4 months at this camp and graduated as a 2nd. Lieutenant. Since I had signed up for artillery, I was dispatched to A.A.23 (Eastern Passage) for training in anti-aircraft artillery. Three months later I was on the Queen Elizabeth bound for England with 22,000 servicemen and women where I served and had a troop of 6 Bofors Anti-Aircraft guns at R.A.7 radar site near Brighton. Later I was transferred to an Anti-Aircraft site on the beaches at Shoreham-By-Sea and Hone in Sussex on the English Channel. By this time the Germans were literally and finally knocked out of the skies on their forays into England. Our unit, the 7th. Light Ack Ack regiment was disbanded. While in London, England during the War, world famous Covent Gardens (Operas) had turned itself into a dance hall for servicemen. I went there this particular Saturday evening - the floor could hold up to 600 couples. I met a young lady there and offered to take her home via London Subway. I was not aware that the subway shut down at 12 o'clock and since she lived in a village some 30 miles from where I was staying and since the subway was closed down I had to go to the Police Station and slept on a bench until the subway opened in the morning. This was most embarrassing as I was in Officers Dress.

The qualification for the Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Source: Mike O'Hara

I was reassigned to C.A.R.U. (Canadian Army Reinforcement Unit) at Bramshot, England and after 2 months was selected as one of 3 out of 200 officers to go to Italy. We left Liverpool, England with 4,000 troops and spent 14 days at sea on the M.V. Almanzora en route from Liverpool to Naples, Italy. I was appointed the artillery officer for the ship in charge of all the guns and was responsible for gunfire in the event of an attack on our convoy, principally from the Germans who had bases in Spain and we had to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar and Malta near their locations. Because we had been alerted that only 6 weeks previously a ship carrying 3,000 Canadian Troops was sunk in the area with complete loss of life, we were naturally a little nervous and apprehensive. One particular evening an aircraft was sighted; all men were called to Battle Stations and when the aircraft came in sight of our ships, all hell broke loose.

On both sides of us were armed cruisers. What a beautiful sight it was to see; the gunfire lighting the night sky. Not a single shell hit the aircraft. Eventually it (the aircraft) dropped a flare. It was a British Reconnaissance aircraft. The pilot I feel certain must have had a pants full of s... after all the thousands of shells which burst around him.

We all were a bit shaken up after this episode but after an hour or so the crap games and gambling continued below decks and the episode hardened us for the remainder our Mediterranean cruise which eventually arrived in Naples. Along with several hundred troops we were dispatched to a Canadian staging area at Avellino, near Montefalcione, About a week after our arrival Vesuvius erupted and we were covered with an inch of lava and volcano dust. What a mess it was. It was in your eating kit, your tea, your hair, everywhere - and we didn't have too many showers in the place. So you went around grubby for days. This was also in the winter of 1943. Oh what a miserable time. We were not in the ’line’ but it was sure hellish. However, there was plenty of wine and champagne so we kept ourselves busy reading, writing, waiting for mail from home, and playing cards. While in Italy, I visited a Monastery at Montefalcione, high up in the mountain. Below it was sunny and warm, but up there it
was snow and cold at that time. The interesting thing to see was a monk who as that time had been enclosed in a glass case for some 350 years.

After a short time I received a notice I was posted to a British Artillery Training Centre (8th. Army) for a Field Artillery Course (25 pounders) which was at Eboli (Mussolini's birth place). All the inhabitants of the area were Italians; no one spoke English. We were sequestered for 6 weeks in tents pitched in an orange and olive grove. We trained all day firing our guns into the mountains, etc.

After my course was finished, I was assigned to the 1st. Field Regiment, R.C.H.A. (Royal Canadian Horse Artillery) who were in action. As I arrived at F (Fox) troop in C (Charlie) Battery, three gunners were brought out on stretchers - 2 dead and 1 mortally wounded. Ten minutes before my arrival, a shell from a German Tank had landed in their gun pit (our gun pits were usually surrounded by earth or sand bags). This was my first real baptism of enemy fire.

Since the troop to which I was assigned was under heavy bombardment for 2 days, we were unable to man our guns as it would have been suicidal and would have decimated our troops for the barrage we conducted several days later against the German positions. We had to content ourselves by lying in a stone barn for 2 days. We were on this site for approximately two weeks and our Regiment was moving forward again.

One of our Lieutenants, who was the Mine ExDert was sent forward to inspect some areas where we were destined to go. He never came back, his vehicle went over a mine and only shreds of his clothing and bits of skin were found. I vas then sent forward as a replacement to reconnoitre gun positions for our troop. I arrived in a field and was moving around looking for four good positions to place the guns. Several German soldiers were lying dead in this field and had been there for several days in this field. The stench was terrible. Nearby lived some Italian peasants. As they did not understand English and it was our custom to bury all dead soldiers we found, I had to motion with my pistol for these 3 Italians to dig graves. They cringed at the prospect of doing it. It was also our custom to search dead bodies for identification, specifically the dog tags from around their necks. Because they had been dead for days, the carcasses were rampant with maggots and bugs of all descriptions. While I was positioning stakes in the ground for gun positions (#1,2,3,4), several German shells landed near; apparently they had spotted me. One shell burst close by. I hit the ground and a piece of shrapnel (red hot) landed about one foot from where I lay. Perhaps this was the closest I had come to being directly hit.

It was miserable in October, November, and December, 1943
in Italy. Gerry (the German Army) was on the run but was still putting up plenty of resistance to our Canadian divisions which were moving North. The Americans on our left flank came through Anzio (on the west side of Italy), the British troops were in the centre (8th. Army) and we were on the right or east side of Italy moving up from Brindisi - the Liri Valley, etc. One of the most momentous times I had was at Cassino, where 1,200 pieces of artillery were putting on a massive display against the monastery. With a Polish Division of 20,000 men and 1,000 American Bombers, Mt. Cassino vas demolished to ashes. Our gun barrels were so hot from the continuous fire that you could spit on them and it almost came back at you. The action was heating up. We had 11 officers in our regiment killed in 10 days.

Some members of our unit, including myself, were sent by troopship along with 400 Gurkas from Bari to Rimini on the Adriatic Sea. To our right was JugoSlavia. We passed through several mine fields without incident.

At one Italian Village, two of our Canadian gunners looking for excitement or whatever went ahead of our unit to a farm, drank a large amount of Vino, raped a girl and killed her father. I was the first person at the scene along with my Sergeant just a few minutes after the girl's Dad passed away.

Later I was called to Jesi, Italy to the gunners' Court Martial as a material witness. They were convicted, sent back to Canada and were incarcerated at a Military prison.

The day of the trial in Jesi, the driver of my jeep and myself were under bombardment during our trip on the road leading into Jesi. When we arrived in the centre of the village, the shelling had become so intense that we both hit the ground beside a building. Within seconds, this stone building came tumbling down but neither my driver or myself suffered a scratch. We got up and ducked into an alley and to our surprise, who was there but General Cre(a)rar - Commander of the Canadian Army (1st. and Sth. divisions). After a few minutes of conversation with him and apprising him of the situation, we proceeded to the trial.

Intermediate remark

I have missed some points of interest because it is difficult for me at this time to remember dates in their sequence.

1. A visit to Rome on leave for lO days. Visited the Colosseum and had an Audience with Pope Pius (Pacelli) who spoke to me, asked me where I was from, about my family and blessed me.
2. Visit to the old city of Pompeii (ruins unearthed)
3. Visit to Sarrento and Amalfi (the caves)
4. Leave at Officers Club in Naples (overlooking the Bay) and Mount Vesuvius.

The Germans were pretty well on the move now, Mussolini was killed, the Italians were in disarray, so our move up to Northern Italy was fairly easy from now on.

Spent a 10 day leave in Florence with Col. Frank Hiltz (now living in Bridgewater) and a few nights out with Major General Chris Vokes who was then Commander of the 1st. Division.

In January our Regiment moved to Leghorn (Leaning Tower of Pizza). Several days later we were on a U.S. landing craft journeying to Marseilles, France.

I drove a Norton Motor Bike from Italy through the Alps, up through France (Lyon - Dijon outside Paris) some 1,200 miles to the Black Forest in Germany. Our one action there was at Emmerich and Cleve. Both cities were reduced to ruins.

We then moved to Belgium and I was stationed for a few weeks at a place some 20 miles from Brussels. This was in preparation for our last big push to drive the Germans from Holland where the action was fast and furious from February to May, 1945. In one particular action I got lost with my four guns and 14 vehicles and landed within 200 yards of a fierce infantry battle. I was lying in a ditch for cover when the infantry used flame throwers to bring out a group of Germans who were hiding in the forest. About 40 corpses were late found after about an hour of searching among the hot embers.

Our route was to Bolness then Ridderkirk, then Rotterdam, then Amsterdam, then Arnheim, then Appledarn arriving at Den Hague.

After this period of action I was given a 7 day leave which I used to travel to England, crossing the Channel from Calais to Dover by ferry and thence to London and Brighton.

After arriving back we were again into action in Holland. In April the Germans were offering very little resistance. For a week to 10 days my troop was within a 1,000 yards of a German Battalion stationed across a canal from our position. My observation post was in a church steeple and we were prepared to fight, but there was pretty much a truce between us. We did not fire our guns for a week and then came Wars End.

Our regiment took off from ’Somewhere in Holland’ and we traveled for 2 days and lived in pup tents outside of Rotterdam. We were then assigned billets in Hilversum which was and is the movie capital in Holland. Our journey through Holland was filled with unforgettable events.

The Dutch people overwhelmed us as ’liberators’ and towns sometimes made it impossible to move faster than a few miles an hour. They jumped up on our vehicles as well as rode on them, threw corsages and bouquets of flowers at us, embraced and kissed us - the older women as well as the younger girls.
A short time later there was and Orange Day Parade in which I was asked to lead a parade of citizens through this town, accompanied by the Burgomeister (Mayor) and placed on a stage to speak to the many hundreds gathered there with a microphone.

The service medals that Otis O'Hara received for his efforts during the Second World War. Source: Michael O'Hara

A sad break

I am getting a little ahead of my story as there was one event I almost missed which perhaps was one of the most poignant and sad episodes in which I was involved.

Early one morning, the day after VE day, a runner came to my tent around 5 o'clock in the morning with a message for me from Major Rutherford, our ’C’ Battery Commander. I got half dressed and went to his tent. He showed me a map and indicated a place on it called Bolness which was on a canal near Ridderkirk (a shipbuilding town) and the home of Schmidt Shipbuilding (world renowned for its tugboats).

The Major indicated there was some kind of trouble brewing there and that the town was controlled by a German Battalion of some 400 soldiers.
I was advised to take a complement of 30 gunners and proceed to the area - heavily armed and with provisions for several days.

As I drove my column of 8 vehicles down a road leading into the town I observed a gathering of women and children some 200 yards in the distance.
The Sergeant and myself, with pistols at our side and vehicles stopped, proceeded on foot (as was our usual custom) to this group. We spoke English but none of the women or young children understood us.
A basket containing a body was brought to the hearse and I walked through up driveway to the back of the house. Here I discovered 10 more bodies. They had been members of the Dutch underground and were now strewn around the driveway in a bloody mess.
I entered the house through the back door and in one room was a Dutch Doctor preparing another dead Dutchman for the basket.
I should mention that the house had all the windows smashed in front and it appeared to me that some type of carnage had taken place. Actually, one of the dead persons was a Dutch Doctor who had been treating a Dutch lad for injuries just suffered a few hours previously.

As I later found out, here is what happened...

During the previous evening a group of the Dutch underground were walking down this country road - joyfully and singing because the War was over. Suddenly coming towards them in his jeep was the German Major and his Dutch girlfriend (collaborator, hair shaved). The Dutch boys ordered her to get away from the German swine, whereupon the Major drew his Lugar pistol and fired at them, hitting one in the knee. In the panic that ensued the Major escaped and the Dutch people took their injured friend to the Doctor's home for medical attention.

In the meantime, the Major who was the Commanding Officer of the Garrison went back and told his men what had happened.
Several German soldiers, armed with machine guns, rifles, grenades and bazookas positioned themselves across the road from the Doctor's home in a ditch. They fired indiscriminately and during this barrage several Dutch boys tried to escape out the back door. In the driveway they were mowed down from machine gun fire.
I can't remember exactly whether it was 10 or 11 boys that were massacred. In any event, after arriving on this desperate scene, I had my vehicles and men proceed to the site where the German garrison was located, but the Commander had left.
What a sight it was. Germans drunk all over the place and in disarray.
I was however able to locate an officer and I ordered him to get his men on parade and be ready to move off in 2 hours time...
We sent a message back to Headquarters and in a matter of hours, these Germans were marched to a P.O.W. camp.

I remained in this village for some time and I was treated like a Saviour. There was nothing that these people could not do for me. I was wined and dined much the same way that a Sheik of Saudi Arabia might well be treated.

The honorable discharge from military service. Source: Mike O'Hara

As a postscript to this,

I returned to Holland in April, 1978 for a revisit and spent a week in Amsterdam and Bolness and was again treated royally. As a matter of fact, an automobile dealer in Bolness who was a little boy at the time told me he remembered me well as I had given him a chocolate bar and a couple of cookies.

Again, by friends in another village I visited (Naarden), I was wined and dined in high fashion, particularly by a KLM air line pilot who was on the Holland to India, China and Japan run.

The on May 8, 1947 founded Monument in memory of probably the last executions by the Germans on 8 May 1945, three days after the liberation of the Netherlands. Source: TracesOfWar

Incidentally, a cairn was erected in the centre of Bolness Village in memory of the people killed in the massacre. While in Europe during the war I was selected along with Dan Lafferty from the 1st. Field Regiment RCAA artillery troop in a salute to Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Bernhard at the palace in Hilversum...