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Leo Major

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He marched back to camp with almost 93 prisoners

 

Léo Major, a French Canadian, joined the Canadian Army at the start of World War II most likely because he wanted prove his worth to his father.
Major headed overseas in 1941, serving in Le Regiment de la Chaudiere. On D-Day, a grenade wound left him with only partial vision in his left eye. He refused to be sent home, saying that he only needed one good eye to sight a rifle. He was assigned to a scout platoon and earned a reputation as an excellent sniper.
During a reconnaissance in Zeeland in the south of The Netherlands, while alone, Major saw two German soldiers walking along a dike. It was raining and cold, so he said to himself, “I am frozen and wet because of you, so you will pay.” He captured one soldier and used him as bait to capture the other. The second tried to shoot, but Major quickly killed him. Major made the German take him to his commanding officer, who was among 92 other German soldiers.
Major’s offer was basically surrender or die.  Of course, he would have died too, but this plan worked because some SS troops had observed the exchange and thought the commanding officer and his men were surrendering. The SS troops fired on Major and the German soldiers around him, killing seven and injuring a few. The soldiers under attack decided surrendering to Major trumped being killed by the SS, so they went with him, the SS in pursuit. Disregarding the enemy fire, Major led his prisoners to the Canadian front line. He then ordered a passing Canadian tank to fire on the SS troops.
He marched back to camp with almost 93 prisoners. Though he was chosen to receive a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions in the Battle of the Scheldt, he declined to be decorated. According to him, Field Marshall Montgomery, who was to decorate him, was “incompetent” and in no position to give out medals. 
In April 1945, Major’s regiment approached the city of Zwolle, The Netherlands.  His commanding officers asked for two volunteers to do reconnaissance and report on the number of German troops patrolling the city. The assignment also involved contacting the Dutch resistance because the Chaudiere regiment would begin firing on the city the next day, putting at risk the city’s 50,000 inhabitants.
Along with his friend, Willy Arseneault, Major volunteered. As the two started toward the city, German soldiers killed Willy as both men ran across a roadblock. Reportedly, Willy managed kill his attacker before dying. An angry Major grabbed his friend’s machine gun and ran to the enemy, killing two German soldiers while the rest sped off in a vehicle.
Major then ambushed a German staff vehicle and captured the driver. He made the driver lead him to an officer drinking in a tavern. He told the officer that Canadians would begin firing heavy artillery on the city, killing German soldiers and Zwolle’s civilians. Afterwards, aware that his news would be spread, Major ran up and down the streets firing a machine gun and tossing grenades. Though the grenades made a racket, he threw them where they wouldn’t cause much damage to the town or its residents.
In the early hours of the morning, Major stumbled upon a group of eight soldiers. They pulled a gun on him, but he managed to kill four; the rest fled. Major escaped the confrontation without injury but regretted that he didn’t kill them all.
As he terrorized the enemy during the night, the German soldiers began to panic. They thought a large force of Canadians was attacking them. By 4 a.m., the Germans had vanished. An entire garrison—estimated to have had several hundred soldiers—had been so spooked by Major that they fled. Zwolle had thus been liberated with no threat to civilians or soldiers that would have fought in the battle.
Rather than rest after running around the city all night, Major got help from Dutch civilians to retrieve the body of his friend, Willy. Only after he had recovered Willy’s body did Major report to his commanding officer that “no enemy” was in the city. The Canadian army marched into town while the residents cheered. For his actions at Zwolle, Major received a Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Major went on to earn another Distinguished Conduct Medal during the Korean War where he and a group of 20 snipers managed to hold Hill 355, nicknamed Little Gibraltar, for three days against repeated attacks from 14,000 Chinese soldiers until reinforcements arrived. 
Léo Major died in 2008 at age 87, survived by his wife of 57 years, four children, and five grandchildren.

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