CP24.com readers were asked to share their Remembrance Day stories with us, whether they participated in the war or grew up with a loved one in service. These are their memories and the photos that have defined their experience.

Memories

Usually when Canadians speak about the Second World War, the first images that come to mind are Europe. It is true that the bulk of Canadian soldiers and their fighting took place on the European front - that is a respectable fact. However, there is a special group of Canadian soldiers who I find have been swallowed into the depths of history when we speak about WWII. That is the group of brave young men and women who were sent to Hong Kong to defend the British Empire's colony back in 1941.

My Great Uncle named Joseph Gurski signed up first in September of 1939 with The Winnipeg Grenadiers as a Private in Manitoba after hearing about the invasion of Poland by the Nazi's and Soviets. Although my Uncle was born in Winnipeg in 1911 he was always proud of his Polish roots being a first generation Canadian.

From what I was told he was hoping to be sent to the European front to avenge his country, unfortunately, the army had other plans for him.

Joseph was sent to Bermuda and Jamaica for 15 months where he underwent training as a rifleman. After returning back home we was sent with his regiment to Hong Kong where he was employed as a Batman Driver.

On December 25, 1941 my Great Uncle was taken as a P.O.W. and was finally released August 25, 1945. I have been told by my parents that when he was approached about his time as a P.O.W. in Japan he never wanted to talk about it. As Private Don Nelson of the Winnipeg Grenadiers explained, the Japanese were harsh captors right from the start. "They were pretty rough on us. They tied our hands together with barbed wire. A lot of boys that fell and couldn't walk because they were wounded so badly, they were cut loose and bayoneted right there. The Japanese didn't believe in taking too many prisoners as you can see..."

I feel far too few today are aware of the participation of Canadian soldiers in their hopeless defence of Hong Kong and their crude incarceration as prisoner's of war in the excruciating years that followed their surrender. The intriguing willpower and courage that brought so many of them through the deplorable conditions of vermin, filth, malnutrition, slave labour, betrayal and fatality in the hope of seeing home again, only to nearly forgotten, must also be remembered.

While there were not many Canadians sent to fight there, they were horribly sacrificed and those that survived were scarred physically, emotionally, and mentally by their experience such as my Great Uncle.

Soldiers such as himself continuted to pay the price of their service long after World War II.

Yours Sincerely,

Michael Burzynski


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