A2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 6, 2002

From front

Fear and love colour local couple’s wartime memories

Hedgehogs, nine-foot high Gates, and Rommel’s trunks and steel beams, as they were known.”

Dad stops to open a book to show me what all of these looked like.

“See,” Dad points out, “They were all tipped with mines and bombs, some still attached. Others had been loosened by the tides or storms — which could be pretty terri- fic over there. A mine could be bur- ied anywhere in the sand.” —

“We would start early in the morning at low tide and work until high tide. There were six crews in all. Each crew consisted of a truck - a three-axle GMC. Army surplus— a truck driver, which ] was, six French labourers, six German prisoners and one specialized bomb technician.”

“Our job was to defuse the bombs and mines, pull all the various ob- stacles off the beach, detonate (the bombs and mines} and scrap the remains.”

My dad continues, deep in his memories. “The bomb technician would advance first. He would locate a bomb or mine and defuse it. Then the labourers would come and dig it oul. My job was to pull these obsta- cles out with a winch and cable mounted on the truck.”

“U’d drag them out past the high tide area, then we’d detonate them. Our boss, Captain Pierre, was a mine and explosive specialist who had been decorated in England in 1941."

“Pierre worked closely with each crew, telling the bomb technician where to go or not po. Pierre worked a lot with my particular crew and I think that’s why our crew never suf- fered a casualty.”

“One day one of our trucks blew up after crossing over the same path [ had just driven, During the year we worked there, 12 died.”

“Sometimes Allied corpses would wash up on the beaches, usually after a severe storm. Most were de- composed, but some still had their dog tags. We would load them up in body bags and take them to Bou- logne for ID, At other times, large cases of ammunition or cigarettes washed up.”

I wonder aloud, “Dad what was your scariest moment?”

He replies with continued clarity, “One day I drove the truck over a small puddle on the beach, not real- izing I’d just driven over a mine.”

“Let's cheek it,’ Pierre said. So we took it to a pillbox. It blew up with such a loud boom. I was extra happy to hear that bang that day!”

At this point I interject; I want to know about Mom’s part in all of this.

Dad’s eyes light up; a smile soft- ens his face.

“She was so beautiful, such an elegant Parisienne. Many times she rode with me in the truck while we worked.

“We didn’t want to be apart for a minute. We always said if one had

to blow up, then we would blow up together, Sometimes your mom drove the truck with me into town ta pet groceries. We were 22 years ald and newlyweds. We had lots of fun between tides,”

Dad chuckles, letting the story come fo its natural end.

“E made a lol of money but most of it got eaten up paying for a pri- vate clinic. It looked like she was going to have a miscarriage so the doctor said she had to be hospita- lized for some time, There went most of our savings out the window.”

I know, of course, Mom did not miscarry. She birthed twice in one year — first a healthy baby boy, then one year and one week later, twin girls (of which I am one).

Mom concludes with memories of her own.

“Tt was a small village, quite a change from Paris. ] rode with your dad until someone told us I couldn’t any more. Then there wasn’t much for me to do,”

Writing this story has, of course, made me see my parents’ love at a deeper level. But it’s also done something else. It’s given me a ver- tainty that I’ve done the right thing.

Stories like these must be told — not just for family histories, but his- tory, period.

Chantal Meijer is a Terrace free- lance writer. Her parents, Richard and Janine Rinaldi, have lived here for 40 years.

Halloween spooks go on hotel booze raid

TERRACE RCMP had a busy Halloween night re- sponding to 56 calls,

Most were minor com- plaints of young people

smashing pumpkins or set- ting off firecrackers, says Cpl. Sean Wadelius. There were also several arrests for liquor violations.

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