Prepared by Richard Dowson, Moose Jaw, SK
This wonderfully socking account of being wounded appeared in the Moose Jaw Times Herald, on Saturday, January 27, 1945.
Headline “Dull Shock and You Black Out,” Says Signalman McKay
“When a soldier gets hit by shrapnel, ‘There is a dull shock and then you black out,’ says Signalman W. G. McKay of 1036 Donald (Probably McDonald Street) Street, Moose Jaw, who was one of a party of returning servicemen from overseas who reached Regina on Friday.
“And Signalman McKay should know for he experienced a sledgehammer blow when wounded in an Italian ditch trying to escape dive bombers.
“This Moose Jaw soldier was a member of the 1st Canadian Division Signals with the Canadian Army in Italy. Bomb fragments struck him in the left thigh and the chest and he was in hospital for a long time after that. ‘They take good care of you there,’ said Signalman McKay, referring to hospital treatment.
“Regarding the dive bombers which proved his undoing the soldier said, ‘I saw three of them come screaming down out of the heavens. I tried to get into a ditch like the others. I made two leaps and a bound and was caught in mid-air. We were repairing some wireless equipment when Jerry spotted us, dropped in on a visit and tried to lay some eggs on us. It’s strange, I didn’t seem the least bit frightened. I just figured this was it and headed for the ditch.’”
Editor
At the time he was wounded the 1st Canadian Division Signals (Royal Canadian Corps of Signals) was on the Adriatic side of northern Italy and participating in ‘Operation Olive.’ They began attacking the German ‘Gothic Line,’ a string of heavily fortified defences along the northern part of Italy, in September 1944.
He was probably wounded in the early fall of 1944 during the advance on the Gothic Line. By January 1945 the fighting slowed until a new offensive was started in the spring along the Senio River where Canadians took heavy casualties.
Canadians who fought through Italy were often called, “D-Day Dodger” because they did not land and fight through Europe.
It was a tongue in cheek comment. Everyone knew the fight though Italy was a vicious, searing affair. In the early stages of the Italian Campaign Fight Lieutenant Rex Probert of Alder Avenue, Moose Jaw, was flying a Spitfire against the Germans and Italians. His was one of the first fighter aircraft to land in Sicily. He shot down one Italian airplane and he, himself was shot down, landing in the Mediterranean. He was rescued by a single engine flying boat called a Walrus.
Lucky Wilson, who lived in Moose Jaw in his later years, was with the armoured division in Italy before being transferred to Holland theatre, as were many other Moose Jaw veterans.
