Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 93 Lawrence Maxwell Parker was born on May 27, 1924 in South Farmington, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. In April 1941, a month away from his 17th birthday, while still a high school student, he enlisted in the army. Max was sent to Halifax where he became a member of the Princess Louise Fusiliers D Company. His company was sent to Aldershot, NS for about three to six months where they were trained to use Vickers machine guns. They also spent a few months in Mulgrave, NS and then finally sent to Debert, NS. While in Debert, Max was promoted to Lance Corporal and then to Corporal, and was sent to Woodstock, Ontario for a driver-mechanics course. On his return to Debert, he became a driving instructor and was promoted to Sergeant. Max’s company was sent overseas in March 1942 on the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth which had been converted to a troop carrier and was on its first voyage in that capacity. They landed in Glasgow, Scotland and travelled by train to Aldershot, England. They continued their training at Boxhill, using flamethrowers on bren-gun carriers. A few months later, D Company was sent to Italy by ship and landed in Naples. A few stories stood out in Max’s memories of the war. One night he had dug a slit trench, and afterward laid down in it and was gazing up at the stars. He thought about home and how much he would like to see everybody. A moment later, he turned over on his left shoulder to get more comfortable, and a large piece of shrapnel landed right where his head had been and buried itself about eight inches into the ground. A few months later, Max was driving an officer to look for a new position from which to shell the enemy. They came to a railway crossing and as the tracks in Europe are built very much higher off the ground, he decided not to cross but to drive into an olive orchard beside the tracks and wait for the rest of the trucks that were following. Max decided to go for a stroll as he waited and that is when he noticed a sign written in German that said “Minefield”. By this time the first truck was already making the turn into the orchard and before he could call out a warning the truck struck a mine with one young soldier in the truck being killed. A second truck also hit a mine but with no casualties. Then Max had to make his way back through the orchard to his Bren-gun carrier and the officer. No one volunteered to go with him, as you might imagine, but he went in and drove it out safely. A few weeks later, just before the Battle of Monte Cassino, D Company were given a 72-hour break from the front lines. On Sunday morning at breakfast, Max said to one of the other guys that he had a feeling they would be back in action that day. Around 10:00am, the officer in charge left and when he returned he announced that they were moving out to a new position. By 4:00pm, they had set up their headquarters in a large building, which had a courtyard with a roof over it. In the main part of the building were the headquarters and the kitchen. Everyone was pretty well settled in and Max went to the door where the cooks were setting up to see if he could help them. They accepted his offer and the next thing Max remembered was a huge blast and the whole roof came down on him. He believes it took him about 15 to 20 minutes to dig himself out of the rubble and when he did he realized he was covered in blood. Max spent the next seven months in 14 Canadian General Hospital in Italy. He was repatriated back to England on April 26, 1945 and spent some time in hospital there. Max came home to Canada on the last trip the Queen Elizabeth made as a troop ship, in 1945. They disembarked in New York and travelled by train to Halifax. After another checkup in a Halifax hospital Max was released and came back home to the Annapolis Valley – his career as a soldier was finished. Lawrence Maxwell Parker
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==