Letter written days before end of WWII sheds light on Canadian soldier in Germany
Global News
The letter, written by Tom a few days before the end of the war, says, 'This morning's edition of the news says Hitler is dead and that his successor will fight until the last.'
A south Surrey, B.C., man is learning more about his father’s experience in the Second World War after discovering a letter his father sent home.
Tom Didmon wrote the letter to his family on May 2, 1945, just days before the end of the war.
The letter says, “This morning’s edition of the news says Hitler is dead and that his successor will fight until the last.”
The letter also details some of the daily life of a Canadian soldier in Germany.
With peace so close, they were still in danger. While out on patrol, they came under shell fire, ran for a ditch and spotted two Germans.
“They were proud as peacocks,” Tom wrote in the letter.
“A couple of our fellows wanted to shoot them, but I said, ‘No, wait. Maybe they have a message for me from the Führer’. Anyway, when they got close, we winged three shots over their heads. My, oh my, did they get off those bikes in a hurry and started hollering, ‘Comrade’.”
In the letter, Tom says that he went to a farmhouse just before it got dark to look for some food.
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