‘Just never forget’: Second World War veterans share stories for Remembrance Day

Two veterans of the Second World War sit down with Alex Karpa to discuss their service and the meaning of Remembrance Day.

Percy Rosamond was just 19 when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942, serving as an aircraft mechanic during the Second World War. He was sent to England about a year after he enlisted.

“I don’t know why, but I enjoyed my time in the Air Force,” Rosamond, now 102 years old, told CTV News.

Born and raised in Toronto, he started his training at Camp Borden in Ontario, a large military training base for the Army and Air Force. He was shipped to England, where he worked on Liberator bombers for two years.

Rosamond recalls his brother, who was an air gunner during the war, left England the same day he arrived.

“I thought that was quite a novel thing to have happened,” he said, adding that he enjoyed his time in England. “After that, I was stationed at another base, where we were painting out the stripes that were on the wings for the invasion.”

That invasion was June 6, 1944: D-Day, the Battle of Normandy.

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D-Day brought together land, air and sea forces of the Allied forces, in what is considered to be one of the most pivotal battles in the Second World War, responsible for turning the tide before the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.

Andrew Prodanuk, 101, was also just 19 years old when he joined the war effort in 1943.

“I tried to get in and become a pilot, but all the positions were filled, because it was near the end of the war,” he said. “So, I took on navigation.”

Prodanuk trained in Brandon, Regina, Saskatoon, and ended up in the southern Manitoba town of Rivers, about 250 kilometres west of Winnipeg. He was training to go overseas, but when his training was complete, the war was over.

He says he has fond memories of his time during the war, giving an example of what his training would look like.

“You would be given a course to set to a certain place. Let’s say it was up north: you would make up the flight plan, give it to the pilot and he took off, and he would try to get you up there,” he said.

“With the wind, you could be going off course and you would have to calculate the correction you have to make to adjust the course, to get to where you’re going,” he said. “It was very interesting work.”

With Remembrance Day on Tuesday, Prodanuk remembers his friends who made the ultimate sacrifice.

“Out of a group of four or five friends, two went into the navy and one went into the air force,” he said. “One joined the bombing squad, and unfortunately, he got the job of a gunner, and he was shot down and killed.”

“It was a shock to us,” he added.

Both Prodanuk and Rosamond are now part of a dwindling number of Second World War veterans in Canada. According to Veterans Affairs Canada, over one million Canadians served in uniform, both at home and around the world, during the Second World War.

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More than 45,000 men and women were killed, and another 55,000 were wounded.

Rosamond is sharing a simple message with Canadians.

“Just never forget. It’s a time to always remember,” he said. “I can’t stress it enough – remember.”