NV man drove a
tank filled with

mines on D

TROOPER ED Leppky had
trouble keeping his partners
after he landed on a windy
Normandy beach on D-Day,
June 6, 1944,

By Kale Zimmerman
News Reporter

Somehow his co-dtivers weren't
crazy about managing atank full of
hind mines, ammunition and foad

_ While shutding regularly between the
beach and the front.

The first co-driver, he said, “dis-
appeared on the beach and we never
found bide nor hair of him. He
wasn't blawa up ar anything — he
just figured it wasn’t healthy.”

The North Vancouver rian, who
was a 27-yeur-ald trooper with the
Fort Garey Horse Brigade, chuckles

“at the memary. His recollections ef
D-Day -— and the war in general —
are tinged with humor.

What he remembers most about
disembarking anto the beach early
on the morning of June 6 with thau-
sands of other Canadian soldiers was
that his companions were horribly

ay

seasick alter “bobbing about an the
channel” for dives days. “Everyone
was green, barting all aver dre
place.” he sate,

Of course, many aspects at the
landing did not po according to plan;
Leppky's tink had to aplead ante
the beach fitst nether tare fast, as: it
should have done.

The banding toak longer than
expected-se the dank tindiog craft
disgorged iS carge at bigh vide,
rather than low, Phe troops were
Supposed to nich 16 miles the fits
day but aninaged only eight, And
once, over the course of the inva
sion, Leppky bad te transport the
ammunition not by cover of aight
but in broad daylight,

That's wheo he lost his second
co-driver. Leppky thinks the officer
who ordered this particularly risky
move “forgat his manners.”

Leppky's tisk was to drive the
tank up the sunken roads from the
beach and untoad supplies at the
front, resting in leafy orchards. “It
was a game of hide-and-seek,” he
said.

See Trooper page 14

D-Day war diary

THE, NORTH Vancouver-based
». Sixth Cdn Field Company Royal
Canadian Engineers were among the
Allied Forces taking part in the D-
Day assault, June 6, 1944.
The following i is an excerpt of the
company’s secret war diary:
“Weather: bright and clear. The
assaulting companies of our brigade
went in at H Hour which was 0735
hrs. The first tide fandings of this
unit took place on Mike and Man
beaches at Coursculles-Sur-Mer
between Cherbourg and Le Havre.
.. The assault party from No. 2 Platoon
jJanded with the forward companies
of the Regina Rifle Regiment and the
Royal Winnipeg Rifles at H plus five

minutes and encountered heavy
opposition fron pill boxes and
machine gun nests. They assisted the
infantry to get clear of the beaches
and then proceeded inland with them
to a position forward of Le Fresne
Camilly at 2300 hours. No. 1 Platoon
tanded at H plus 75 minutes and
found the beach under intermittent
mortar fire and sniper fire. ‘They pro-
ceeded with their task of clearing the
Mike I exit of mines. Enroute they
had to fight through slight opposition
and at Banville were pinned down
by sniper fire from a church steeple.”

Killed in action: 1. Missing and
belicved killed in action: 9.
Wounded in action: 19.

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WEWS photo Mike Wakefield

TROOPER ED Leppky looks through a new book about D-Day and reminisces about the part he
played there, ferrying ammunition and food from a Normandy beach to the battle front in a tank.

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