Gerry, Russell Frederick

Enlistment # A-107104

Trooper

“A” Squadron, 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment (Kangaroo Corps)

Russell Frederick Gerry was born on December 16, 1924 to Robert Randolph Gerry and Margaret Elizabeth Davis Gerry of Adelaide Township. He was the youngest of five boys. His four older brothers were George Edward, Robert James, Thomas Henry, and Richard Franklin. The family lived on a farm near Strathroy, and the father worked for several years at Canadian Canners Limited.

Russell had blonde hair, and he was often called ‘Russ’ by his family and friends. He was not married.

He enlisted with the Canadian Armoured Tank Corps in London, Ontario on June 17, 1943. He received his training in Listowel and at Camp Borden. He went overseas, arriving in England on May 6, 1944. Two of his brothers also served overseas, Robert with the Royal Canadian Medical Corps, and Richard with the Canadian Army.

While in Europe, he served as a trooper in “A” Squadron of the First Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment (Kangaroo Corps). Each tank had a crew of three men: A driver, a wireless operator, and a troop commander. They were responsible for safely transporting soldiers to the front lines.

Russell went to France and participated in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Later he fought in Belgium and Holland. He was killed in action on February 9, 1945, in Cleve, Germany, during “Operation Veritable”. The two other members of his crew, Trooper A. DeLisle and Trooper J. W. Park were also killed. Russell was 20 years old when he died. He is buried in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in Nijmegen, Holland. General Harry Crerar, the commander of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division in Holland, ordered that all Canadian soldiers killed on German soil be reburied in the two cemeteries eventually established in eastern Holland at Holten and Groesbeek. He wanted his men to lie in ‘friendly soil’.*

[Source: Strathroy – Caradoc Museum]

[* Source: Granatstein, J.L., “The Best Little Army In The World“, p. 228]