Unparalleled bravery in the mountains of Italy

In the spring of 1941 John Wasilenchuk left the family farm near Wroxton, Sask. to seek a new life in Calgary.

He was 18 years old.

After failing in his bid to join the railways, his uncle then suggested the Canadian Army, which was mobilizing in earnest to support its Second World War allies. The young farm boy from the flatlands of the Canadian West agreed.

It was the start of a heroic four-year journey that saw him narrowly escape death after his troop ship was ­torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea, in and out of ­ferocious combat in the mountains of Italy and lying

shell-shocked for hours on end in a trench while artillery rained over his head and enemy snipers fired non-stop from the bombed out ruins of a village.

“I had tough times,” said Wasilenchuk, now 89 years old, living in Olds and proudly wearing an array of six war medals on his chest. “Somehow I kept my faith up. I am still here.”

He officially enlisted in Calgary on May 27, 1941. In late fall he and hundreds of other young Canadian soldiers, part of the Canadian 1st Division, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to England. It took 12 long and harrowing days

“We had to zigzag because of the U-boats. It was rough going,” he said. “I was pretty sick by the time I got there. I was hanging on the rails. It was unbelievable.”

In late 1943 Wasilenchuk got the call to go to Italy where the Germans had seized the country after the former had surrendered.

Wasilenchuk was then a trooper with the Royal Canadian Dragoons. He was a gunner inside a T17 armoured car, also called a Staghound.

While his troop ship was crossing the Mediterranean Sea heading for Italy, an enemy U-boat lurked below and fired a torpedo.

“We were watching a movie when our engine got hit,” he said. “We got orders to get off the ship. We had to get off by rope to a dinghy.”

While his ship was sinking in the cold sea Wasilenchuk and another solider sat for five long hours in the dinghy hoping for a miracle. It arrived by way of an American ship that picked them up and transported them to North Africa.

A few days later they were off again to Italy.

For almost two years Wasilenchuk was in and out of combat. He was both a gunner and an infantryman. The combat was fierce. The enemy was giving no quarter in the Italian mountains.

One battle he will never forget was near Ortona, a picturesque ancient village on the Adriatic coast. The battle is considered one of the bloodiest of the Italian campaign. Canadian and German troops clashed daily in bitter, house-to-house fighting. There were snipers, booby traps and land mines in or near every building.

“Every time I moved my head shells were flying over my head,” recalls Wasilenchuk. “I don't remember how many times I tried to raise my head only to get shot at.”

For a full day he faced death. Wasilenchuk was ultimately found in a trench by Red Cross officials. He was suffering from shell shock and taken to hospital.

“I spent a couple of days there and I went back,” said Wasilenchuk, who stayed in Italy until the war ended in spring of 1945.

He came home to Saskatchewan a few months after the war ended. He later spent 17 years in Calgary working as a sheet metal worker.

He eventually found himself in Olds in 1992 where he lives today with his wife Lil.

Today he concedes his times in combat cost him his hearing. His memory is not the best either. Sadly, he saw many friends die.

Wasilenchuk survived the horror and terror of combat. Today he is with us, proud and yet a bit sad as well.

“So few of us are left. I hope we have done some good for our country so people could have good lives,” said Wasilenchuk. “I hope they don't forget us and what we had to go through.”