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Mr.
Berwick Bell
WWII Veteran
Bren gunner with the 2nd Division
Black Watch
Liberator of the Netherlands |
War is always on his mind
The war is something Berwick Bell has tried to erase from
his memory for the last 60 years. It is an event in his life
he has never talked about. But the ex-Bren gunner can’t
forget. “It’s something that’s on my mind every day. I try
not to dwell on it.” Rather than thinking about his own
experiences and the hell of battle, he tries to think about
the victims. He tries to imagine how the Dutch people
suffered. “I felt my heart belonged to them for what they
went through.” Bell was with the 2nd Division Black Watch.
He saw all the fighting a soldier needed to see. He was only
in England 14 days after arriving from Canada when his unit
was sent into France. After the battle at Falais Gap, he
fought through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. “I
joined in 1943 and went into battle in 1944. I was just 18
and I had been in the Kincardine militia since I was 15.”
What remains uppermost in Bell’s mind is that he survived
war and he feels it’s due to the close relationship he had
with Padre Allan Reock. “He was my shadow.” Reock was with
him in basic training in Listowel, all the way to B.C. when
he lost track of the padre. Imagine his surprise when he
next met him on the battlefield in Belgium. Bell remembers
that before going into each battle, Padre Reock would have a
communion service—the Last Supper. “He was the type of padre
who would sit down and have a couple of beers with the boys.
All the boys loved him.” Holland is what Bell remembers
most. Two buddies were killed by flame-throwers. His unit
had the SS pinned. His buddies were too far ahead, too close
to the SS when the flame-throwers were called into action.
Every time he smells the smoke of a fire his only memory is
of that day. In battle, Bell says he was “just going on
nerve. We were just like machines.” “I used to dream that I
would get wounded to get the hell out of there.” Bell was
wounded in Groesbeek, site of the biggest Canadian War
Cemetery in Holland. Medics removed 18 pieces of shrapnel
from his right leg and two from his left. Three weeks later,
he was back in the fight. Then on Christmas Day, 1944 he
made attacks over the Maas River “to take German prisoners
to get information. One civilian is about all we got.” In
Holland, Bell says the Dutch people did the laundry for the
Canadians. “We were the favoured troops.” “We captured lots
of Germans. I remember one fellow saying we were crazy, that
we should be fighting together against the Russians.” When
he left for the war, Bell was 18, just married. His wife,
Kaye, was 17. Bell wasn’t a church-goer before the war, but
he found religion because of the war and Rev. Reock. “I did
more praying over there that I had ever done. I think that’s
what took me to the church.” “I couldn’t believe it when I
heard the war was over. I think we all cried tears of joy.”
In 1948 the Bells had their first child, Bonnie, christened.
Imagine his surprise when the guest speaker that day at the
Kincardine Presbyterian Church was Rev. Reock—his shadow.
Kincardine News |
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