Fred Maiden

Joined up in Calgary to an ordnance corps. I stayed there until 1941 and went overseas. Ended up in … 5th Div, it was an armoured division. Went to Italy and that was, our first action was just before Ortona. After that, we found our own - went down to Cassino after Ortona. My favourite cousin, he was a lieutenant in the PPCLI, permanent force, he’s my favourite cousin who I looked up to. And during fall festivities,… him and his friends came out of Winnipeg, he joined up in Winnipeg. And after that, I never saw him. He was killed by Germans in Italy, by Cassino. And he was one of these gung-ho types, we used to call him Gung-Ho. Because nothing he wouldn’t do. He’d tell his troops that were under him, he wouldn’t do them unless he could do it himself. And he got strafed with a machine gun I guess, German machine gun, straight to the metal and killed him. I found him and his gravesite, he’d been killed. I thought it was the third day after the action and there’s all, first time I’d seen a real battle grave, graves where the crosses were put up in a hurry and they were later removed to a Canadian cemetery back in Canada, somewhere down east, on the East Coast, I understand. And I joined up because I looked up to him.