Born in Chatham, ON. on 9/11/1918, the son of Claude James and Florence May (nee Wright after Lapointe) Fisher of R.R.#3 Dresden, ON.  

James enlisted 4/03/1941 age 22 yrs., at London, ON. with the 1^st Hussars. James did his Basic Training at London, ON. He sailed for England aboard the S.S. Aronsay. His overseas training at Aldershot, Gosport Hove etc. He served in the UK and in Europe, landing on D-Day, 6/06/1944, on Juno Beach, he would see combat in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. As reported in the Chatham this Week of 14/11/2012, speaking to the Chatham Rotary on 7 November he began by saying,“It’s not about me, it’s about thousands of other guys who were there.”

He talked about his training leading up to D-Day that was “intense and you never knew where you were going or whether it was going to be the real invasion or just another exercise. We were always prepared to land”. Finally word from their Captain who said, “This is it boys. This is real”. James was in a Duplex-Drive tanks that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. His tank crew was among that landed at Juno Beach on D-Day. Over the next several months they moved through France, Belgium and the Netherlands and finally Germany. 

When crew members weren’t they were called upon to collect and bury the dead. “It’s left with you for every day of your life”

He would be involved in one action or another for nearly a year as he and his crew travelled across north-western Europe. It was after being involved with a German Messerschmitt and having shot it down he was able to ‘liberate’ a piece of the tail with the Swastika from the planes tail. Crossing the Rhine river on a Baily bridge (a temporary bridge) while under heavy German artillery fire, hoping the bridge would carry their tank and that the bridge wouldn’t be hit by a shell. Once across the next worry was booby traps and mines which the Germans used very effectively. “Every thing you looked at, you had to be suspicious. Is that a mine? Is that a trip wire?”

Night time was also dangerous for tanks as the enemy would use flares to light up the countryside and a tank made a great target. The tanks would hide amongst the trees where possible and if no trees were handy they would back into a house, leaving three sides standing and leave the same way in the morning. James ended his war at Godensholt, Germany. James came through the war with only a slight wound to his neck were only a scar appears afterwards. When not fighting it was not like a ‘day off’, much of the time was burying the dead Canadian and German.    

Listed as next of kin reported as Mrs. J. Lapointe of R. R. # 3 Dresden, ON. James arrived from overseas on S. S. “Louis Pasteur” CDN 1/09/45. CDN 8/09/45. The CDN 28/12/45 reported that James had arrived in New York city aboard the Queen Elizabeth.  He was given an Honorable Discharge from the Hussars 12/02/1946. He recalled his return to the Hussars depot in London, ON. After the war and being discharged from service a train ticket to Chatham and $26.00 and a ’thank you for your service’ was all that you got. Arriving back in Chatham , “I got off the train ….. I didn’t know a soul.” His father had died when James was young. His mother Florence Lapointe told him he could be whatever he wanted to be.

In a talk to the Rotary Club of Chatham in November of 2012 James related the following: he recalled arriving at the train station in Chatham with $25 in his pocket, “It was nothing for someone who had sacrificed so much, but he considered fortunate because so many never made it back at all” .  On a grey November day he walking down King Street; “It was one of the loneliest moments of my life.” He said people didn’t understand about the way I felt. Fisher went on to say that he had “a very difficult three or four years when I got home.”CTW.

But like the other veteran’s that made it through the war and arrived back in Chatham and Kent County, he built a life with his English ‘war-bride’ Mary and their two daughters Margaret and Virginia.

In 1980 it was reported that James was living at 38 Glenwood Dr., Chatham, ON.

In his closing remarks James pointedly  said, “We need to quit glamourizing war. Period. War is a terrible thing. It is indescribable”. A sentiment held by many who served at the ‘sharp end’ of combat.

The war caught up to James yet again. On 10 Nov. 2014 the French government awarded Corporal James Edward Fisher the rank of Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour for his contribution in the liberation of France. A letter from Phillippe Zeller, France’s ambassador to Canada wrote: “It is awarded in recognition of your professional involvement in the liberation of our country. Through you, France remembers the sacrifice of all of your compatriots who came to liberate French soil, often losing their lives in the process.”

James, quite like most veterans remarked: “I never expected any honour at all really. You don’t fight a war expecting recognition. You just hope to God that you make it through. A lot of my buddies didn’t.” James did suffer some scars and lost some of his hearing but he stressed he was lucky.  

(Legion of Honour) 

He ended up working for the J. L. Case company. The one thing he was sure of was not wanting to leave home so when the Case Co. wanted him to go to Africa he quit the company. His mother was a respected nurse in Wallaceburg and had a small house where she ran a rest home for seniors. It was from that small beginning that the Lapointe-Fisher Nursing Home in 1947 and is still operating in Wallaceburg. In 1959 James and six others founded a group that today operates the Ontario Long Term Care Association. After his retirement in that business he developed and built commercial properties in Chatham.

James, quite like most veterans remarked: “I never expected any honour at all really. You don’t fight a war expecting recognition. You just hope to God that you make it through. A lot of my buddies didn’t.” James did suffer some scars and lost some of his hearing but he stressed he was lucky.  

In the 2017 article James note the part that being with the 1^st Hussars made on him, “ They were my life. They made the difference whether I lived or died”. And being one of the few remaining veterans of the Second War, “It’s been a long trip, but I’m happy with the results.”

Jim and his daughter appeared on the front page of the CDN 3/11/18 with the headline “D-Day vet celebrates a century. 

 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Awards	C.V.S.M. with Clasp, France & Germany Star, 1939-1945 Medal
Sources	IODE-CM(P), CDN (1/09/45, 9/09/45, 10/09/45, 11/11/14), NB, CTW (14/11/2012), IODE-IS (Px9), Margaret Fisher (daughter), First Hussars Association Anniversary 2006 info sheet, additional photographs on file, NB(P), CDN (8/11/17(P))

Age	22
Birthplace	Born- November 9th, 1918
When Enlisted	March 4th, 1941
Next of Kin	Parents- Mr. Claude James & Florence May Fisher

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