From the Smoky Lake Signal, November 17, 1982

Two Brothers in World War II.

Fred Makowichuk was number M105048 in his pay book and on his dog tag. Born and raised on a farm near Smoky Lake he enlisted in 1939 when the war started. He was 21. He took his basic training in Camrose and then Edmonton and was shipped to England in 1941. In 1944, June 6th, D Day, he landed on the beaches of Normandy with the Canadian Scottish.

He was one small part of the largest single military operation ever assembled. The Allies were fighting to open a beachhead in Hitler's fortress in Europe. To do it the combined British American Canadian French forces had over 5,000 ships and two million tons worth of goods and supplies. They even brought their own harbours, the top secret Mullberries, huge steel and concrete structures that were floated out from the ports in southern England and sunk on the Norman coast line to form a breakwater for ships to unload. If the forces could grab a beachhead the Allies had fifty thousand trucks, tanks, jeeps, ambulances ready to continue the war into France and finally Germany itself. Over 1,000 new railway locomotives and 20 thousand tanker cars and freight cars were ready to be hauled across to replace the shattered French equipment. It was not a war of men so much as machines.

But to get that first beachhead took men. The first in the middle of the night, before the invasion, 570 American and British paratroopers, pathfinders who landed to mark the way for the biggest airborne operation ever attempted. Then came the 18,000 in 886 aircrafts who dropped from the sky, some to cut off bridges that the enemy could use to bring reinforcements, some to knock out enemy guns that could blast the fleet. Fred Makowichuk was in that fleet on board on of the thousands of ships plowing through the English channel at this time. Ironically if he could have peered out through the gloom he might have been able to see the battleship Waspite, the namesake of the village near home, streaming alongside in the great armada.

The Canadians landed on the beach code named Juno. The beaches were clogged with landing crafts and underwater obstacles. Depending where the men stepped ashore they lived or died in the crossfire of machine guns and mortar fire. In some places bodies were stacked like cord wood, on others the men reached shore quickly and pressed inland. The fight continued through the little villages and farms until fro M105048, Private Fred Makowichuk, it ended on June 9, 1944. He made it off the beaches to die of shrapnel wounds in the battlefields between the coast and the City of Caen.

He lies buried with 5 other Canadians, a major and 4 privates and hundreds of British in the La Delivrande War Cemetery near the Village of Douvres 8 miles north of Caen. The first burial there was made on D Day. The others, including Fred Makowichuk, were brought in as they died days later. They gave his next of kin the metal he had earned for giving his life to his country. The silver cross.

Past President of the Smoky Lake Legion Alex Makowichuk does not wear his brother's medal. It's kept in his pocket on Remembrance Day, a silent reminder. Like so many war veterans he poohoo's his part in the war. On his left side, over his heart, he wears the 1939 - 45 medal, the defense medal, the France and German Star and the volunteers medal. He joined as soon as he was old enough in 1944 and spent the last days of the war as front machine gunner in a Lancaster Bomber. Part of the 433 Porcupine Squadron, they were precision bombers, laying bombs and mines in canals and in bays to stop enemy shipping. If they came back from the bombing run it was a good life. They had clean sheets and good food. But flac and enemy airmen took a heavy toll. Alex was one of the lucky ones. Two brothers, one lives, one dies. The fortunes of war.

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