MAISONNEUVE PAUL-EMILE (228 ENGLISH -- 227 fran)
Paul-Emile fils de Philias Maisonneuve + Madona Léveillé
n. 1918-11-17 Donnelly, AB
m. 1943-04-16 Angleterre, + Lever, Lillian
d. 1990-07-
m. 1994-08-01 Guy, AB + Houde, Cécile
(Alfred)
The following interview was done by Lilianne Coutu, Paul-Emile's daughter-in-law.
This year we have celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
To commemorate this anniversary, I asked my father-in-law a few questions. He was a veteran from Guy, Alberta and returned to Holland last May (1995).
Many former veterans will remember the profound gratitude shown by the Dutch people after the liberation of the Netherlands on May 5, 1945.
WHY DID YOU ENROLL IN THE CANADIAN ARMY AND HOW OLD WERE YOU THEN?
I enrolled in McLennan, Alberta in September, 1939, and I was twenty and a half years old. I think it was because I felt it was my patriotic duty to do so, also maybe because I liked to travel, and perhaps for a sense of adventure. We heard about the War on the radio and read about it in the newspapers. I went to the Prince of Wales Armory in Edmonton, Alberta. After my training and at the end of November, I went to Halifax where I got on the ship “Batory” and we sailed to Europe.
WOULD YOU DESCRIBE A TYPICAL DAY DURING THE WAR?
I belonged to the Canadian Signals Corps. We had an office in a truck and we’d receive and send secret codes by radio using Morse code. I lived with a fellow soldier in a Dutch family. They had two children, a boy and a girl. We have been sending each other Christmas cards each year since 1945. I saw his wife in 1984 and also this year when I went on a trip to Holland. She’s now 84 years old and still in Nimègre.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT HOLLAND IN 1944 AND WHAT CHANGES DID YOU SEE NOW?
In 1944, we arrived in Brenda, then we headed east towards Nimègre where I stayed until the 15th of November. It was very rustic and we had very little. There was no water, no electricity and very little supplies of ammunition. The people went cycling among the farms to buy food.
Nowadays, it is modern and there is an abundance of everything. They work very hard; they rebuilt a beautiful country. They have reclaimed a lot of land from the sea to create new farm-land, greenhouses to grow flowers which are delivered across the world.
DID YOU FIND ANY MOMENT PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT DURING THE WAR?
In my opinion, the most difficult moment during the War was the German assault in the Ardennes in Belgium.
DID YOU FIND A PARTICULARLY JOYFUL MOMENT?
The Germans had mined an old bridge at Nimègre full of explosives and we learned that a 12-year-old boy had cut all the lines. Otherwise without this boy’s actions the whole bridge would have been destroyed. There was only one spot where the line had not been cut and this made a hole 3 meters wide. We were able to pass on the bridge and continue the assault.
DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THAT THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS EXISTED?
There had been persecution against the Jews since 1938 and two young Jews from Germany roomed with my in-laws in England during the War.
WHERE WERE YOU ON V-E DAY (Victory in Europe Day)?
We were in Germany. We could not celebrate; about two-three days previous, we had heard that peace was being declared because the high-placed Germans had gone by in order to get to Holland.
IS THERE ANYTHING WHICH SURPRISED YOU WHEN YOU LAST WENT TO HOLLAND?
At the Amsterdam airport, there was a cenotaph in the form of a pyramid with a poster saying ‘WELCOME LIBERATORS’. From there we were billeted in a family in Aalton. We were very well received. I spent an afternoon in a classroom and what surprised me the most was that these students were well informed. They knew their statistics and knew them better than our students. Their grandparents and their parents had been directly involved during the War, so this was not surprising.
DID YOUR EXPERIENCE OF THE WAR, HELP YOU DURING YOUR LIFE?
Yes, it made us make decisions by ourselves because we were far from our parents and home. Also, I still like to travel, more than any other pastime.
AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, IS THERE A THOUGHT, A MESSAGE WHICH YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEAVE WITH THE YOUTH OF TODAY?
I truly hope that they will never need to do what we did. I hope that there will never be any more global conflicts.
IN YOUR OPINION, IS THERE ANYTHING ‘GOOD’ WHICH CAME OUT OF THE WAR?
I found myself a partner and with her we had a nice family. She really liked Canada and there was never any question of going back to England. When I saw the cemeteries in Europe, I counted myself lucky. I had not realized we had left so many “buddies,” our companions aged 18- 25 over there in Europe.
Ref: Lilianne Coutu Maisonneuve
From a transcript July 4, 2014
Note: Mr. Maisonneuve said that he always liked to travel. In 1954, when their daughter, Raymonde, was seven years old, she travelled from Edmonton to London alone; the grandparents had sent the fee for her flight in order that she could spend the summer vacations with them.
Also in August 2014, Paul-Emile Maisonneuve once again returned to Europe in June on the 70th anniversary of the Dieppe Landing. This year Mr. Maisonneuve is 95 and will be 96 in November 2014.
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