27

We were supposed to stop the German retreat out of the town of Ravenna; go to a highway and block a crossroad. I don't know how far away we were from this crossroad; nobody knew where we were. We stopped at several farmhouses so the officers could look at some maps. There were two big farmhouses together. The officers went into one of them, some place to make a light. All of our guys walked into the barn to have a smoke. They were smoking, smoking, smoking; the inside of the barn was blue with smoke. I wanted a smoke too, but there wasn't even room to sit down. Just standing room only. I could not get in there. So, I was standing outside beside the house with the soldiers on guard.
We thought we heard something coming down the road. HOLY SMOKES! It was a column of Germans coming down the road in the dark. A whole bunch of infantry marching alongside the half-tracks and self-propelled guns. They were darn near on top of us before we heard them. They were idling their motors and rolling along quietly. Their half-tracks ran a heck of a lot quieter than the ones we used because you could hear our half-tracks five miles away. When they walked by us they were smoking, talking and laughing. All you could see were the silhouettes of the vehicles and men because of the fog. The whole damn column went past.
There were three Germans coming along behind the column. One was an officer, and two NCO's. Just then our officer poked his nose out of the door to see if they were gone. The German officer saw him looking out the door. He comes running up, kicks in the door and goes charging in like a mad bull. Our Colonel stuck his Tommy gun in the German's belly and pulled the trigger and nothing happened. So he drops the Tommy gun and grabs him and they were dancing around. The German was trying to pull his pistol out but couldn't do it. One guy hit him on the head with a Tommy gun but that didn't seem to fizz on him. Finally, another guy pokes his rifle in between the two of them and pulled the trigger. Shot him through the belly but he still didn't go down. Conked him on the head again with the Tommy gun and finally he collapsed. He never got up again either. He stayed there.
About this time, the Corporal came out and says, "Let's get around to the back of the house." Behind the house was a ten-foot ditch with a little water in the bottom. Meanwhile, this German column that had gone by ran into another of our companies farther up the road so they turned around and started charging down the road towards us, shooting.
Our guys finally got out of the barn by way of the back door. I thought that they were still inside; it was so dark that I couldn't see very much. They were down in the ditch a short distance from me.
Our officer called for the artillery about ten miles behind us. By this time, I was laying on the ditch bank beside a guy with a Bren gun. Pieces of the shells from the artillery fire thumped into the bank between us and we were only two feet apart. We ran down the canal a ways and there we found the whole company. Some guy hollers that there were a whole bunch of Germans in the ditch. We didn't know there were that many; forty of them came out. It was kind of scary because of the fog and you could see the men's dark shadows thirty feet away.

28

Harry Albers' leave pass and railway ticket
1945

29

We pulled out of Italy and were moved to Marseilles in March 1945. We drove across France and into Holland to join the rest of the Canadian army.
I went on leave to London, saw Florence again and got engaged. England looked nice at that time. It was springtime and it was warm. Apple blossom time. The train windows were open and I swear that I could smell apple blossoms. The people were waving and happy. Then our leave was over. The hell of it was, we had to go back to Holland and finish the war.

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Harry Albers and friends
1945
Holland

31

We moved north into Holland, got a little bit more shelling, had another little skirmish in a Dutch village, and took a few prisoners.
Pretty near every German soldier had a nice white handkerchief in their pocket; they knew they were beat, I guess. They all kept a nice white handkerchief. We had to search them and go through their pockets and we used to laugh when we found the handkerchiefs.

32

Canadian army overseas leave pass
25 July 1945

33

We were sitting in a barn one evening when this guy came running down the road, jumping, whooping, and hollering, "It's all over. The WAR'S OVER!"
The Sergeant says, "Well, what are you going to do now? We're out of a job boys."
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I never received a scratch while in battle but, as luck would have it, I was injured while going on leave. I was in Holland, in a truck on my way to catch a ship to England. There were at least a dozen men in it, in the back, a big truck with a tarp over the top and bars holding the tarp up. I was standing up holding onto these bars, it just had wooden benches to sit on and after an hour or so it gets kinda hard, so I was standing up. I was the only one standing up when the truck went around the corner on two wheels, and then the driver got straightened out, and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. Then bang! it kicked over to the other side, and I flew the farthest, I guess because I was standing up. I landed in the corner, hit my shoulder on a pipe, had my face pressed against the tarp with about ten guys on top of me. It felt like a thousand pounds, and the truck was going down hill yet, and the truck was sliding, sliding, sliding, and I could feel every little pebble in the road. The tarp tore in some places but it didn't tear around by my face or I wouldn't have had any skin.

34

Albers Honeymoon destination, Broadstairs
1945
England

35

When I got to the hospital, my arm was x-rayed and it was discovered that the bone had a one-inch split. I was sent to a hospital in Hoarly, England for about a month and then moved to Aldershot.
I was to be married in September 1945. Florence and I corresponded by letter throughout the war while I was stationed in Italy and Holland. The wedding was postponed while I recuperated in the hospital, and in October 1945, I got leave again to get married. Florence and I honeymooned in Broadstairs.

36

After the wedding, I wanted to return to the regiment but they couldn't be bothered with sending me back to Holland. I had been overseas too long and the regiment was soon going home. I found a good job for the winter in the senior officers' quarters. They had a hot water heater that needed to be fired; I think that I had the only warm place in England that winter. I didn't mind a bit. I could sneak into London once in a while and every so often Florence would come down to Aldershot. That's the way it went until February and then, finally they said I had to go home.

37

We took off for Canada about the middle of February 1946 from Southampton on the liner, Queen Elizabeth. It took only four days to get to New York and we had a bunk to sleep on instead of hammocks. No danger of submarines.
We disembarked, crossed the harbour on a ferryboat and boarded a CPR train bound for Canada.

38

Harry Albers discharge certificate
10 September 2004

39

I received my discharge from the army March 8, 1946 when I was twenty-seven years old and returned home to stay on March 12.
My Uncle Pete had owned a half section of land when he passed away and it was still for sale. I decided to buy it for six thousand dollars with six hundred dollars down (money that I had saved from my service pay) and with a loan through the Veterans Land Act. I started clearing bush and began farming in partnership with my brother Jim.

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Harry Albers and his siblings
1949