‘I can’t help but remember’; Veteran John Kuharski shares his story of bravery and sacrifice fighting through Europe after landing at Juno Beach

“Twenty after seven in the morning. Bright, daylight and there was nothing but aircraft all over, gun ships were firing, there was a lot of noise,” Kuharski recalls. “I remember that day, I can’t help but remember. I can just see it too, the way guys were just running in the water, going.”

D-Day was the first time Kuharski saw action in the war. The Fort Garry Horse suffered 14 killed and 11 wounded, part of more than 1,000 Canadians wounded or killed that day.

Kuharski was a target of German troops, driving a fuel truck at night to fill up his squadrons 19 Sherman tanks as they pushed through Europe helping liberate towns along the way.

“I drove a fuel truck, and Jimmy Chalmers drove an ammunition truck for ‘A’ squadron. And our work was done always at night,” Kuharski says. “There was a little light underneath the back of the jeep, that light just shined out. You could see it and you would follow that light. You never travelled with the lights on.”

Born to Polish immigrants, Kuharski was a first generation Canadian who didn’t balk at being the first member of his family to serve his country.

“Everybody else was going and you know how it was, at that time work was kind of hard to get,” Kuharksi told CFJC News. “So, I figured I might as well volunteer, go in the army and go with the boys.”

Leaving for war, however, meant leaving behind his pregnant wife, not meeting his first-born daughter until she was already four and half years old.

“I had a photo of her and then she sent me a photo of my little girl. I had that in my wallet all the time too,” Kuharski says. “I had a daughter; she was four and a half years old before I saw her for the first time. She was sort of going away from me, so I started playing with her as another kid you know, out in the yard, jumping around in the grass with her and one thing or another. So in time she got used to it. And she’s gone now.”

That moment nearly never happened, with Kuharski escaping death more than once while in combat.

“One day I came back, and I left the camouflage net on the ground, and when we come back, I picked up the camouflage net and threw it in the back of the truck. When I got up in the morning, there it was, one of the anti-personnel bombs laying on top of that soft net, it didn’t explode,” Kuharksi says. “If that would have exploded, we were sleeping right behind, that would have been, gone.”

Sharing his story was not always easy for the Lance Corporal as memories of grandeur, celebration and camaraderie often mix with those of sorrow.

“Sgt. Finch was our transport Sergeant, and he said Jimmy Chalmers and I were the two truck drivers. He drove the ammunition truck and I drove the fuel truck. He said when we get back, we are going to start a transport company in Winnipeg, about a week later the poor guy got killed, blew the bloody tank right up,” Kuharski remembers.

When word came of the allied victory, Kuharski was in Oldenburg in the north of Germany. Celebrations and slight shenanigans ensued with Kuharski crossing a canal in a canoe to fetch some drinks.

“He got out of the front of the canoe, and I was sitting in the back (and it almost tipped over) and I yelled ‘for god’s sake get a hold of that thing,’ he pulled it down again, and I would have drowned because I can’t swim,” Kuharksi says. “When we got back into camp, Sgt. Major. Tuff his name was, he was pretty mad when we left, but pulled out a bottle. We knew he liked to drink. He just smiled and nothing more was said.”

Kuharski was recently awarded the King Charles III Coronation medal, a fitting honour for the 104-year-old soldier who is one of the few remaining veterans who can say they fought for peace on the world stage in the service of King and country.

by Michael Reeve

‘I can’t help but remember’; Veteran John Kuharski shares his story of bravery and sacrifice fighting through Europe after landing at Juno Beach

Our Community