A Job to be done

By Karla Kelly

Digby Courier

NovaNewsNow.com

When 18 year old Glidden Cromwell from Southville, Digby County enlisted in the Canadian army in June of 1944, he was Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Cromwell’s fifth son to sign up for active service.

Cromwell joined the West Nova Scotia Regiment (WNSR) as his three older brothers, Leander, Richard and Norman had done earlier in the war. Cromwell’s fourth brother, George enlisted with the Princess Patricia Fusiliers.

After basic training in Aldershot and Yarmouth, Cromwell sailed from Halifax on a crowded troop carrier to England. “Since we were not part of a convoy, the troop carrier had to zigzag its way across the Atlantic. The ship would change its course every few minutes in order to reduce the risk of receiving a direct hit from a German torpedo.”

Cromwell spent six miserable days once the ship left Halifax. “I was as sick as a dog once the boat began to move.” Cromwell recalled.” I would have to leave the mess line many times during the trip to England.”

From England, the WNSR sailed to Naples, Italy where Cromwell met up with his brother, Norman. Cromwell was a foot soldier and his platoon saw action right away as they were on clean up patrol. “We would go out after supper looking for the enemy. I didn’t mind it since my brother Norman drove the Bren Gun and we rode with him on patrol. Richard and Leander were in the area as well and I got to see them at times. It wasn’t so lonely that way.”

In February, 1945 the WNSR was transferred from Italy to France by sea and then on to Holland.

German troops were still in the Netherlands, although “on the run” and Cromwell’s platoon had to “dig in”. “We dug slit trenches just off the roadways in order to keep watch for the enemy.” said Cromwell. “It was like digging a grave but the trenches protected us.”

Cromwell was in a trench by himself and could hear the German shells explode overhead. He compared the falling shrapnel to a car falling from the air and although shrapnel fell in his trench, Cromwell was never hit.

Cromwell recalled a close encounter with the enemy while on watch in his trench. Cromwell spotted a German soldier walking up the road headed in his direction. “He had his head down and wasn’t really paying attention to his surroundings. He had two grenades hanging over his shoulders and I watched him walk up the road. I knew it was my job as a soldier to try and capture him so I crawled out of my trench and headed in his direction.”

Cromwell trained his rifle on the German soldier and ordered him to put his hands up. “The soldier put his hands up over the back of his head right away. I took the grenades and threw them into the ditch then I disarmed him.”

Cromwell’s orders were to march the soldier to headquarters which was quite a ways up the road. “I didn’t think much about what I did. I had a job to do and I did it. I realized that I could have been the one captured or shot since there were German troops not far down the road.”

Cromwell recalls being in Holland when Germany surrendered on May 5, 1945. “You had to be very careful as the German soldiers remaining in the area had no way of knowing the war was over just then and it was still dangerous.”

By war’s end, Cromwell had been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal and he remained overseas as part of the occupation forces in Germany until July 1946.