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Mike Faille, a resident of Canmore, Alberta, was one of
14,000 Canadian soldiers who landed on Juno Beach, the
objective of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd
Canadian Armoured Brigade on June 6, 1944. At the time he
was a 22-year-old member of the 3rd Canadian Division's 7th
Reconnaissance Regiment, a part of Montreal's 17th Duke of
York's Royal Canadian Hussars. Faille, now 83, and the other
members of the 7th Reconnaissance Regiment — effectively
vehicle-based scouts — landed on Juno Beach shortly after 9
a.m., an hour after the infantry had landed. The members of
the 7th Reconisance Regiment drove the first Canadian
vehicles, after the tanks of the 1st Hussars, to land on the
eight-kilometre long Juno Beach. During the invasion, as the
landing craft raced towards the beach, Faille said he and
his fellow soldiers were too numb to feel anthing, fear
included. "… were we scared? Were we frightened? We didn't
think of these things. There was too much going on. You had
a job to do," he said.
"It's very difficult to analyze my emotions. At the time, we
were zombies.” In the spring of 2004, Faille returned to
Juno Beach for the 60th anniversary of the invasion. And
even 60 years later the memories and the emotions were still
strong enough to stop many veterans cold and bring tears to
their eyes. "You could see a few of them bleary-eyed,
looking at the beach. It brought back memories of the
landing. I know it did for me, too, and others were chatting
away talking amongst themselves," Faille said on Sunday
(June 20). "Some of them were quiet and staring out to sea."
In 2004, when they arrived at Juno Beach, Faille’s daughter
Adele said that as her father set foot on the beach, he
gasped and said, "I can't believe how I feel. I thought I
was over this!" And even a few weeks after his trip, the
memory of standing on the beach again was enough to bring
tears to Faille's eyes.
The battle for the Breskens Pocket, known as Operation
Switchback, began on Oct. 6, 1944 at dawn as the attackers,
under cover of massed flamethrowers, attempted to wrest
control of Belgian’s 150-foot wide east-west Leopold Canal
from the defending German army. Operation Switchback was
hard fought in mud and flooded land, which made it a
practically impossible job for the infantry. Instead, the
job was left up to the members of the the 7th Recce, a
Montreal reconnisance regiment, The 7th Recce had a number
of armoured vehicles mounted with light and heavy machine
guns, small cannons and flamethrowers. The regiment also had
amphibious vehicles. The vehicles meant the 7th Recce, one
of the first regiments into the pocket, were the last to
leave the area as the regiment mopped up the remaining
resistance and the coastal batteries missed during the bulk
of the fighting. On Nov. 4 the 7th Recce was sent to Ghent
for 10 days to refit and rest, and while in Ghent, its
citizens took to the streets to welcome the Canadian
soldiers.
The battle of the pocket left the regiments in the 3rd Div.,
including the 7th Recce, with practically nothing.
"Everything was depleted. We were tired. We were filthy.We
were hungry.We never had hot meals through that whole
operation. Our vehicles were a mess. All our weapons were
full of mud," Faille said. "Mud. Mud everywhere. It was just
incredible.You couldn't move without being at least ankle
deep in the mud."
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Were we frightened
Mike Faille - WWII Veteran
7th Reconnaissance Regiment.
Liberator of the Netherlands
Story by Rob Alexander,
Rocky Mountain
Outlook, Canmore |
