JJ SCHILLER

My Dad, Joseph John Schiller (H674320), joined the Canadian Army in 1942 and went overseas in 1944 to be trained in England. He was sent to France as a replacement to the Calgary Highlanders as they had suffered losses to their numbers and needed new troops to fill the holes. He arrived one month after D-Day on July 6, 1944.

The Highlanders were involved in most of the Major battles across France including the Falaise Gap. The Highlanders continued to fight through France all summer long and came to Foret de LaLonde at the end of August. The plan was to cross the river and move into Rouen to join up with the rest of the British and Canadian forces there. The Highlanders received orders to move further in to cover up the hill but, unfortunately, the Germans spotted the movement of the Canadian troops and started shelling them heavily. In that one night, six Highlanders were killed and 34 wounded. Sgt. Schiller was one of the wounded having been hit by shrapnel from the shelling in his right upper arm. The impact also broke the bone in his arm.

He was then shipped to Edinburgh, Scotland to recover from his wounds and later was sent to Leavesden in England for rehabilitation. Dad was shipped to Holland after the war as an MP and was one of a team of soldiers charged with locating and deactivating booby traps left by the retreating German Forces. He met Mom in Utrecht in October of 1945 and they were married shortly after.

My Mom, Antonia (Toni) also has her own war story. She was a War Bride from Holland who, during the war, was a courier for the Dutch Resistance Newspaper. She would hide the papers in the Basket on her bike. Mom was very attractive, and the German soldiers were always easily distracted with her nice smile. As Mom put it, they were just a bunch of homesick flirts, although, if it had been discovered what she was doing, she may have been shot. Her brother was the publisher of the weekly paper and she said if he had discovered that she was delivering his paper all over Rotterdam she would have been in big trouble as he did not want his younger sister to be involved in something so dangerous!

My dad re-enlisted after the war when mom and my brother arrived in Canada in 1948.Dad went on to serve another 25 years as a MP Sgt. and he worked at the Vernon Cadet Camp for many years in the Summers. As with many soldiers, my Dad had nightmares for the rest of his life and my Mom said they were from the horrible things he witnessed during the war.

Submitted by Mark Schiller