• Operation Plunder
• Operation Veritable

Date of birth:

February 12th, 1925 (Velykyi Berznyi/Zakarpattia, Czechoslovakia)

Date of death:

March 25th, 1945 (Brienen/North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)

Buried on:

Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek
Plot: XVII. Row: E. Grave: 8.

Service number:

F/36686

Nationality:

Canadian

Private
North Nova Scotia Highlanders, R.C.I.C.

John was born in Velykyi Berznyi, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) in 1925. His surname was originally Bohonko. In 1929, he emigrated with his mother to Canada, where his father had been living and working for two years.
He did bush, forestry, and carpentry work for 2 years before enlisting with No. 6 District Depot in Halifax, Nova Scotia on December 13, 1943.
Just as John turned 19 in February 1944, he was transferred to No. 60 Canadian Infantry Basic Training Centre (CI (B) TC) in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
On July 2, 1944, he was sent to A14 Canadian Infantry Training Centre (CITC) in Aldershot, Nova Scotia for further ordnance training in 3 inch mortars.
After passing the mortar course he was attached to S-5 Canadian Driving and Maintenance School (CD & M School) in Woodstock, Ontario on September 8, 1944, for a 3 week carrier driving course for 3 inch mortarmen.
He was reassigned back to A14 CITC in Aldershot in preparation for overseas service.
John returned to Aldershot, but was not there long. On November 7, 1944 he was sent to No. 2 Training Camp in Debert, Nova Scotia in preparation for going overseas. He left Canada for the United Kingdom on November 21, 1944 – from Halifax, the same city in which he arrived in Canada at the end of 1929.
Upon arrival in the United Kingdom on November 28, 1944 he was assigned to No. 3 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit (CIRU).
On January 8, 1945 he was sent to Northwest Europe as part of 21 Army Group, and then on January 26, 1945, was assigned to the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, joining them in Holthurnsche, The Netherlands, located near Berg en Dal, and very close to the German border.
The Regiment reached Kellen, Germany near Kleve, just on the other side of the border with The Netherlands, on February 12, 1945. On February 14, using amphibious vehicles, the North Novies evacuated Warbergen as they made their way to Emmerich.
By March 20, 1945, Allied troops were on the banks of the Rhine River for Operation Plunder, a military operation to cross the Rhine on the night of March 23, 1945. They got as far as Bienen, when troop movement stopped due to blown bridges across the Rhine in that area.
On March 25, 1945 the North Nova Scotia Highlanders were tasked with passing through the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who had been stopped in front of Bienen during the night. On the way to a farm, they came under German machine gun fire. John was killed on March 25th, 1945 – one month away from liberation….

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• Photo 1: Canadian Virtual War Memorial
• - Private John Joseph Bohon | War Casualty Details 2662707 | CWGC
  - John Joseph Bohon | Find A Grave
  - John Joseph Bohon | Canadian Virtual War Memorial
  - John Joseph Bohon | On The War Memorial Trail
  

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