Leo Major

Private Léo Major was a soldier from Montreal in the Régiment de la Chaudière in World War II. He was one of only three Canadian soldiers in the British Commonwealth to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He is the only Canadian to have been awarded the honour twice (Bar to the DCM) and the only allied soldier to be awarded two DCMs in two different wars (WW2 and Korea).

The Allied landings in France

On D-Day during a reconnaissance, he captured alone a German Armored Vehicle (a Hanomag). The vehicle was full of German communication equipment (along with secret German Army codes).

Days later, during his first encounter with an SS Patrol he killed four soldiers, however one of them managed to ignite a phophorous grenade.

After the grenade burst, Leo lost an eye. The medical doctor told Leo "My friend the war is over for you. You are going back to England." Astoundingly Leo replied defiantly "No Way! Sorry, but I have a war to finish.". He refused to be evacuated.

He was a scout and a sniper and insisted that he needed only one eye to sight his weapon. According to Leo, "I looked like a pirate".

Holland Summer 1944

Battle of the Scheldt

Leo single-handedly captured 93 German soldiers during The Battle of the Scheldt in southern Holland. During a Reconnaissance, whilst alone, he spotted two German soldiers walking along a dike. It was raining and it was cold. Leo said to himself "I am frozen and wet because of you so you will pay." So he captured the first one and used him as bait to capture the second one. The second one tried to use his gun but seconds later he was dead. Leo captured their commanding officer and forced him to surrender. The German garrison surrendered themselves (after three more were shot dead by Leo). In a nearby village, SS troops who witnessed German soldiers being escorted by a Canadian soldier shot at their own soldiers, injuring a few and killing seven. Leo disregarded the enemy fire and kept escorting his prisoners to the Canadian front line. A Canadian tank passing by was ordered by Leo to fire at the SS troops.

Leo marched back to camp with nearly a hundred prisoners. For this event he was chosen to receive a DCM. He declined the invitation to be decorated however, because according to him General Montgomery (who was giving the award) was "incompetent" and in no position to be giving out medals.

The first DCM

In February 1945, Leo was helping the padre loading the corpses from a destroyed Tiger Tank into a Bren Carrier. After they finished loading the dead bodies, the padre and the driver seated themselves in the front whilst Leo jumped on the back of the vehicle.

The carrier took off, but didn't go very far as it had struck a tank mine. Leo remembered a loud blast followed by his body being thrown into the air and smashing down hard as he landed on his back.

He lost consciousness and awoke after two concerned Medical officers asked him "Are you OK?" He simply replied "Is the padre all right?" They didn't answer, but loaded him on a stretcher and onto a truck for a very bumpy ride to a field hospital 30 miles away, stopping every 15 minutes to inject morphine to remove the pain from his back.

The Doctor was not encouraging as they told him that his back was broken in three places, with four broken ribs and both ankles broken.

Again they told Leo that the war was over for him. They didn't know Leo because he let them take care of him for a week while he contrived a way to escape from the hospital.

A week went by and Leo had the opportunity to flee. He managed to get a ride from a passing jeep that drove him to Nijmegen, where he had previously met a family there.

His stay with the family was close to a month. Leo went back to his unit in March 1945. In the beginning of April, the Régiment de la Chaudière were approaching the city of Zwolle , which presented strong German resistance.

The Commanding Officer asked for two volunteers to recon the German force before the artillery began firing at the city. Léo and his good friend, Willie Arseneault, stepped forward to accept the task. They knew that there was big risk during this mission, but accepted it none-the-less. Leo and Willie, not wanting this beautiful city destroyed, decided to try to capture the city of Zwolle alone, though they were only supposed to recon the German numbers, and attempt contact with the Dutch Resistance. Around midnight Willie was killed by German fire; he made just enough noise to make the Germans open fire, giving away their position. Enraged, Leo killed two of the Germans, but the rest of the group fled in a vehicle.

He decided, more than ever, to continue his mission alone, and to avenge his fallen comrade. He entered Zwolle near Sassenport and came upon a staff car. Leaping out of the shadows, he captured the German driver, and led him to a bar where an officer was taking a drink. Inside he found that they could both speak French (the officer was from Alsace), and Leo told him that at 6 am the Canadian Artillery will begin firing at the city causing many casualties among the German troops and especially among the civilian. I do not want that to happen to this beautiful city so the Germans have to pack their things and leave – he even gave the German his gun back.

He then proceeded to run throughout the city firing his machine gun, attacking and capturing German troops (about 10 times during the night he captured groups of 8 to 10 German soldiers, escorted them out of the city and giving them to the French-Canadian troops that were waiting in Zwolle vicinity. After giving his prisoners he returned to Zwolle to continue his mission) throwing grenades and making so much noise that he fooled the Germans into thinking that the Canadian army really had surrounded them and was entering the city. Four times during the night he had to force his way into several houses to get some rest. That night he located the Gestapo HQ. He set the building on fire. Later stumbling upon the SS HQ, he got into a quick but deadly fight with eight ranking Nazi officers – four were killed, and the other half fled. He noticed that two of the SS he just killed were disguised as resistance members. The Zwolle resistance had been (or were going to be) infiltrated by the Nazis.By then, at 4:30 a.m. an exhausted Leo found out that the Germans had retreated.

Zwolle had been liberated, and the Resistance contacted. Walking in the street he met four members of Dutch Resistance. He asked them if they speak French or English. None spoke those languages but they brought him a woman that was an English teacher in Zwolle. Léo told the woman to inform the Resistance people that Zwolle was now free of Germans. The Resistance people took off in a hurry to tell the good news to whoever was awake at this hour.By the early morning hours, Léo’s task inside the city of Zwolle was almost completed; he now knew that the Germans had fled to the west of the River IJssel and perhaps more importantly, that the planned shelling of the city should be called off and that his Régiment de la Chaudière could enter the city unopposed that very morning.

Leo then set about collecting his dead friend, Willie, and took him back to the Van Gerner farm until regimental reinforcements could carry him away. He was back at camp by 9 am. For his actions, Leo received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

The Korean War and his second DCM

Leo Major fought in the Korean War, where he won another Distinguished Conduct Medal for capturing and holding a key hill (hill 355).

This position was in the hands of the Third US Infantry Division (a Division is around 10,000 men) when the 64th Chinese Army (around 40,000 men) made a decisive artillery barrage.

Over the course of two days, the Americans were pushed back by elements of the Chinese 190th and 191st divisions. The Americans retreated, leaving everything behind (food, weapons, vehicles, etc).

They tried to recapture the hill, but without any success, and the Chinese had moved to the nearby Hill 227, practically surrounding the US forces. In order to relieve pressure, General Dextraze brought up an elite scout and sniper team led by Leo Major. Wielding sten guns, Leo and his men silently crept up the hill, surrounded by Chinese. At a signal, Leo's men opened fire, panicking the Chinese who were trying to understand why the firing was coming from the center of their troops instead from the outside. By 12:45 am they had retaken the hill.

However, an hour later two Chinese divisions (the 190 and the 191 around 14,000 men) counter-attacked. Leo was ordered to retreat, but refused and found scant cover for his men. There he held the enemy off throughout the night, though they were so close to him that Leo's own mortars were practically raining down on him.

For three days, Leo's men held off multiple Chinese counter-assaults, until reinforcements arrived. For his actions, Leo was awarded the Bar to the Distinguished Service Medal. Amazingly, twenty French Canadians successfully resisted the assault of 2 Chinese Divisions while an entire American Division had been forced to retreat.

See also

* [http://www.kvacanada.com/stories_trfleo.htm A story of Leo and his acclaimed work in two wars]

References

* [http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=fbcc446c-231f-4781-940a-3ebc3dee9f94 Tony Atherton. "Divergent portraits of war." "The Ottawa Citizen", May 07, 2005.]