For some people it is hard to imagine going off to University at 19 years of age, but for some Second World War veterans, at 19 they were going overseas to fight with the Canadian Forces.
Ray Hoffman was 18 years old when he joined the army and went overseas at the age of 19.
“I was still a teenager,” said Hoffman. “Anybody that has been over there in that war and said they didn’t get scared, you can call them a liar and you’re right.”
Hoffman was a machine gunner with the Calgary Highlanders and said he was sent to Northwest Europe during the war.
He said one of the first battles he was a part of was Verričres Ridge. According to the Calgary Highlanders website, this was one of the most notorious battles, taking place July 25, 1944.
He also took part in the battle of the Walcheren Causeway that occurred, according to the Highlanders website, from Oct. 31 – Nov. 2 1944.
The final battle Hoffman mentioned was the battle of Antwerp. The Highlanders website states that this was part of the Battle of the Scheldt, which was fought in October 1944 between allied forces from Canada, the United Kingdom and Poland, and the German forces occupying territory in northern Belgium and the southwestern portion of The Netherlands during the North-West Europe campaign.
Hoffman said by the end, out of 80 machine gunners for the Calgary Highlanders, there was only six left walking and he was one of them.
Hoffman did sustain injuries during the war.
One was when he and a number of other Highlanders took a blast from a bazooka bomb.
“It took my hearing right away. In fact it knocked me out completely. They were going to leave me there. They thought I was dead,” said Hoffman. “Three of the fellas that weren’t too far from me, the concussion of that bomb killed all three of them.”
Hoffman also mentioned getting a piece of shrapnel behind his right knee and said he has the scar to prove it.
After the war, when Hoffman came back to Canada, he said he returned home to a farm located between Milo and Vulcan in Southern Alberta and farmed for a while before moving to Springbank to work at a dairy farm.
On Jan. 4, he said he would be 91 years old.
“I’m still living by myself in the house here. I’m doing not too bad. I’ve got all my marbles yet,” he said with a laugh. “There isn’t very much in life that I haven’t done.”
And that is something he is being recognized for, with Hoffman receiving a medal of honour at the Mewata Armory in Calgary last weekend.
Hoffman also said that for the last few years he has been leading the procession behind the flag bearers to the cenotaph on Remembrance Day on his scooter. He said Remembrance Day is something that is important to him.
“With the loss of our boys and what those who survived went through, it is a good thing that they have it so the younger generation can catch up on it,” he said. “War is terrible. Nothing good about it at all.”
