Enlisted with the Kent Regt. 15/08/1940 at Chatham, ON. Married with three children living at 94 ½ Grand Ave. West, Chatham, ON.  He played in the Band.

Trained and served in Canada for three years. Went overseas and served in England, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany for nearly three years. Was promoted to the rank Staff Sergeant.

The CDN. 28/04/43 reported that Pte. Freeland had arrived overseas, the cable message to his wife who was residing on Grand Ave. West, Chatham. He had recently transferred to another unit for placement overseas.  

According to Leonard’s “Discharge Certificate” he served over seas for three years, in England and in Continental Europe – France, Belgium, Germany and Holland. 

It was reported that Leonard arrived back in Canada aboard the S.S. Mauretania. CDN 10/12/45(P) Next of Kin: Mrs. K. Freeland, 94 ½ Grand Avenue West, Chatham, ON.

He was discharged 1/02/1946 age 37 years 5 mths., he return to civilian life. He received the 1939-45 Star, France & German Star, Defence Medal and C.V.S.M. w/Clasp.

Arrived aboard the S.S. Mauritania from overseas docked at Halifax NS. 1 January, 1946.

 LEONARD CHARLES (LEN) FREELAND

Leonard Charles Freeland was born on the 2nd day of August, 1908 in Portsmouth, England.  His father was a Yeoman of Signals in the Royal Navy and his mother (born in India) was the daughter of a Company Sergeant-Major in the British Army.

In 1927, he came to Canada under a program sponsored by The Salvation Army and was assigned work as a farm labourer in the area around Arkona, Ontario. He later came to Chatham, Ontario to sell Fuller Brush products which was the only work he could get because of the depression.

Len and Kay Smith were married in Chatham on April 27, 1935.  He  supported his family of two children  as a bread route salesman.

With the outbreak of the war, he volunteered for military service and on August 15, 1940 he became A50312, Private L. C. Freeland in the Kent Regiment. A third child was born in 1942. He left a wife and three children at home, to train and serve in the Niagara area, Nova Scotia and western Canada. In February 1943, at the age of 34, he shipped to England aboard the SS Empress of Japan. In peace time, the Empress of Japan was a large, fast luxury liner so it sailed without the benefit of convoy protection and zigzagged across the Atlantic to avoid the torpedoes of the German submarines.

THE FOLLOWING IS A DESCRIPTION OF LEONARD’S WAR EXPERIENCE IN HIS OWN WORDS

     Ten days later we arrived at Liverpool and went by train to the Army’s dispersal depot. Aldershot Barracks, south of London. Here in addition to the British forces were also thousands of troops from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other allied nations. It was a huge bustling hive of military activity. After a two or three day respite we began basic training all over again. We then took marksmanship at the rifle ranges and finally a series of test and a physical examination. Then on to the reinforcement division to be allocated to a specific unit. Each of us had an interview with a  personnel officer and during this interview it was suggested to me that because of my age (I was thirty-five at the time, about twelve to fifteen years older than the average infantry soldier) I should be transferred out of the infantry. I had had some clerical experience and could type, and so was transferred to the Corps of Military Staff Clerks and attached to the Casualties and Effects Departments of 2^nd Echelon Canadian Army Headquarters.

     This was the portion of the headquarters staff that was stationed “in the field” that is, in close proximity to the fighting units. It consisted of a Supplies Department, Reinforcement Department, Medical Department, etc. Our function in Casualties and Effects was to report to Canadian Headquarters in London, who in turn relayed the information to Headquarters in Ottawa, the condition and location of every man who had become a casualty, by virtue of sickness, wounding, killed or missing in action, etc. We were in daily contact with all the Canadian Army’s General Hospitals, Field Hospitals, Field Dressing Stations, etc, and all and every unit in the field. In addition to this we were responsible to secure, catalogue, and forward to London the effects or property of each man that lost his life so that ultimately it could be sent to the next-of-kin.

     When I joined this unit it was stationed in a large thirty-room mansion. Vernon House in Farnham, England. Since we were not yet engaged in hostilities our duties were to report the men who were sick or hurt by accident, their condition, and the hospital where they were located. We had a staff of about twenty-five  men. Later, when the Canadians were in action in Italy and finally in France, the other designations, Killed in Action, Wounded, Missing were included. We were also responsible for the personal property of the men who lost their lives.

     When Canadians were sent to Italy to attempt to wrest it from the Nazis, a portion of our section of Casualties and Effects Department also went along. I requested to go, partly because my brother Sidney was also in that area as a Chaplain with the South African forces. I had not seen him for over fifteen years and I hoped that I might meet with him in this manner. However, my request was not granted.

     As soon as possible after arriving in England. I went to visit my parents whom I hadn’t seen for sixteen years. It was a joyous reunion and we had a great weekend together. During the time I was in England, I took every opportunity I could to get home and also visit with all of the relatives that I could at the time.

     Our living conditions at Farnham were such that there were no barracks available and so we were billeted in private homes with residents of the village. I lived with a very decent English family that provided me with a bed and a room and we had our meals in the same large home that our offices were located in. Periodically, we got two or three day leaves and I visited London on many occasions and was there at least a couple of times when tremendous German air raids took place. One night, I remember in particular, when literally thousands of incendiary bombs were rained down on London, which ignited fires in every section of the city. It was a dreadful experience, particularly for the people who lived there, for they had no option but to take it on the chin.

     1944 dawned and there was much talk of the opening of the “Second Front” much planning for what was termed “D-Day”. As I rode down by bus or train to southern England where my parents were living, I noticed in most of the English lanes and in many of the fields, literally thousands of tanks, guns, jeeps, and trucks lining the lanes and the fields in preparation for the invasion, camouflaged so they couldn’t be observed from the air. Miles and miles of these things were stacked up waiting for the great day. On the 4^th or 5^th of June, just two days before the invasion took place (although this was kept a secret until it was actually a fact) hundreds of four-engine bombers crossed the Channel bound for France. We watched them go over in squadrons, and we knew that something was afoot. Wave after wave of these huge bombers passed overhead and we later learned they were softening up the German forces and making preparation for the invasion by our own troops.

      June 6^th, 1944, D-Day, came to pass, and British, Canadian and American Forces in great number crossed the Channel. They got a toehold in Normandy, and the invasion of Europe and the beginning of the end was now actually in sight. Five days after this I crossed the English Channel with my party. By this time I had been promoted to Sergeant and had a group of twenty-five men under me. We had with us not only our own personal equipment but also typewriters, and all the office paraphernalia that we would need. We immediately set up in Normandy in tents (a little tent city) and went to work reporting all of the casualties that had occurred during the invasion of France. The weather was wet and nasty and working conditions were anything but ideal, but we were so busy we didn’t even notice it.

     Prior to being sent to the Continent, we were issued with French francs (the British script version of French francs) and other unusual items that we would need. The third night we were there a huge land mine dropped just about thirty feet from the perimeter of our tents, while we were sleeping. The land mineis a large bomb, so heavy that it had to be floated down with a parachute. This thing made a tremendous crater and yet, fortunately, none of our men were harmed. By this time our Casualties and Effects staff had now grown to forty-eight and we were really kept busy, virtually night and day.

     After a good foothold was obtained in France, the troops fought their way into Belgium, and we followed right behind them and drove into Antwerp, the port city of Belgium. There we were greeted by thousands of cheering Belgium people who lined the roads on both sides, hailing us as their liberators. We took over a large office building in the heart of Antwerp, just a block from the Cathedral and there we set up office again.

One of my tasks was to visit the hastily dug cemeteries of the Canadian Forces to obtain from those in charge the effects of the men who had been killed.  I can’t begin to describe, nor would I want to describe, the scenes that confronted us as we undertook this distasteful job. In fact, I could relate many horrible experiences that were ours during the time that we were on the Continent, but nothing would be gained by so doing and since returning home I’ve tried to put these things out of my mind. Suffice it to say that the individual who coined the phrase “war is hell” knew exactly what he was talking about.

     It was about this time that the Germans began using their much vaunted “secret weapon” known as the “buzz bomb”. Actually, it was a pilot-less plane filled with explosives that was launched in Germany and was programmed to come down in England, and there do a great deal of damage. However, many of them were faulty, and as they flew over Belgium we would often hear the motors in them cut out: one could never tell whether they were going to come directly down, or whether they would coast on for another twenty-five miles or so. When they flew over we had orders to take shelter, and once we heard the concussion from the explosives, we knew that we were safe again until the next one came. The Belgian people themselves were extremely frightened of these things and there was much screaming and running about when they were heard overhead. Our own people took them more calmly.

     At Christmas time, or, at least, three or four days before Christmas of 1944, we got orders to move to Aalst in Belgium, which is some thirty-five miles from where we were in Antwerp. We were to be, once more, closer to the front lines as we followed the fighting troops and the actual move was to take place on Christmas Day.  I remember that day because as we were in the process of moving, we had for our Christmas Dinner “M&V” a canned version of a stew containing meat and vegetables: hence the name. This was a meal that we rather enjoyed the first few times we had it and after that we got so sick of it that we could hardly stomach it. However, once we got established in Aalst, we located our unit in a high school and had quite decent offices. I stayed with a family who treated me very well indeed. We quickly set-up, and about three days after Christmas, I think it was about the 28^th of December, we had our regular Christmas dinner with all the goodies that had come from Canada for the troops

     My memory is a little sketchy on several of these happenings, but I remember that about six weeks or two months after this, our troops suffered a reverse in what was termed the Battle of the Bulge. It was feared the Germans were going to break through and overrun us. Every man that could be made available was transferred from a service unit to a fighting unit, to reinforce them. Practically all of my men were taken and I received from England approximately twenty-five women soldiers. Canadian Women Auxiliary  Corps (CWAC) members. These were young women who were typists and who were thought to be capable of doing the work. They averaged somewhere between eighteen and twenty-one years old and had quite recently arrived in England from Canada. Most were single kids, were homesick and certainly they had never lived under the conditions that we were living at the time. From my point of view, they were rather a headache. They couldn’t seen to get along too well with one another and would bring their problems to me and try to get me to determine who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Also they would leave their work at the slightest excuse. When, two or three months later, things eased up a bit and I got my own staff back again, I was happy to see the last of them.

     Soon after they left, the war against Germany came to an end. “VE Day” (Victory in Europe), was declared and there was much rejoicing. There was still a lot of work to be done and I was sent to Germany by plane to reconnoitre for a place for us to work. I obtained an SS barracks, an excellent place that the German troops had utilized during their training periods. We had suitable offices, good dining facilities, a swimming pool, and it was all quite acceptable. When I came back from locating it, we took the men into Germany, settled in, and were there until the end of the war, when victory was declared against Japan as well as in Europe. We had German women to do our cooking and wait on tables, but we found that most German people, at that time, were extremely cold and distant. They didn’t have too much to do with the Canadian and British troops who had recently overrun their country and when we went out of our barracks we were met with very little friendliness.

     During this period I had a ten-day furlough due me and I went to Amsterdam in Holland and had a rather nice stay. What I haven’t mentioned previously is that during the war wherever I was stationed, I tried to see the countryside and visit the area as much as I could. Even in Canada I did this, and wrote descriptive letters to Kay telling her where I’d been and what I’d seen and learned. I don’t know how it happened, but she was asked to take these letters to the local radio station (CFCO). Once a week they would broadcast a “Soldier’s Travelogue” and would read excerpts from these letters describing my experiences.  This continued right on through my service until I left Germany to come home to Canada.

     While we were in Germany, the two atomic bombs were dropped. Japan capitulated, and “VJ Day” was declared. Officially the war was over, and Kay thought, indeed we all thought, that within a short time I would be back home. However, things don’t work that fast in the Army! While the cessation of hostilities was declared in the late summer, it was December, just a few days before Christmas, before I finally got home. I remained in Germany for several weeks and finished up the work that had to be done there, saw most of my men leave, and was finally sent back to England and from England to Canada again.

     I left England by boat, and arrived in London, Ontario on the 18^th of December 1945. We detrained there because we were going to be discharged from the District Headquarters in Wolsley Barracks, which is located in London. Kay and many of the other soldiers’ wives and families met us at the train and after going through the necessary formalities we were free to go home after a couple of hours and continued on to Chatham. Finally I was home for the Christmas holidays! It was a very happy occasion to be with Kay and the three children, after all the time we had been separated because of the war. We found we needed to get to know one another all over again. We had a pleasant Christmas and afterwards early in January, I went back to London and underwent the physical examination and the other formalities in connection with being discharged and finally was a civilian again by the middle of February of 1946.

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After the war, Leonard returned to family life.  A fourth child was born to Len and Kay in August 1951.

He achieved considerable success as a life underwriter with the Prudential Insurance Company and was active in The Salvation Army Church in Chatham. Leonard was elected to the Chatham Board of Education where he served as Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Building Committee. During this period two new high schools were built. He was also elected to the Board of Directors of the Public Schools’ Trustee Association of Ontario. In 1957, he Chaired the Red Feather Drive (the forerunner of the United Way).

In 1959, Leonard accepted a position with The Salvation Army as the Army’s representative in the prison system in Washington, DC.  He and Kay also enjoyed various other roles with The Salvation Army in Washington and Texas.

Len and Kay retired in 1973 and returned to Canada. They took up residence in a “Century” farm house in Arkona and undertook major renovations. They settled into retirement life which included extensive travels across Canada, the US and abroad.

 Kay passed away on March 26, 2003 and less than a month later, Len passed away – on April 22, 2003. He died of a broken heart. They both rest at the Maple Leaf Cemetery, in Chatham, Ontario.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Awards	1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star, Defense of Britain Medal
Sources	IODE(Y), ,, CFF-FD44, TBD-RH, CDN Discharge Cert,  file picture IODE WWII

Birthplace	England
Religion	Salvationist Army
Marital Status	Married
When Enlisted	1940
Next of Kin	Wife- Mrs. Kathleen Edna Freeland

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