Paul and Maria LeBlanc lived together on Ellor Street in Strathroy until Paul’s death in 2016. Maria maintains his memorabilia, including his collection of hand carved walking canes of which she is particularly proud.
A brief overview of Paul’s military career:
“Paul LeBlanc was born on November 19, 1925, in Sept-Iles, Québec. He enlisted in the Scottish Regiment in Toronto in June of 1942. No one understood his French, nor did he understand the English, so he transferred to the R22eR (Le Royal 22e Regiment – the Van Doos) at Valcartier, Québec, for his basic training and was shipped overseas in the fall of that year.
He took part as a Commando during the invasion of Sicily, fighting his way up the horn of Italy. He was then shipped back to England in preparation for the D-Day landings in June of 1944. On June 24th he stepped on land at Juno Beach, fought at Caen and all along the coastal areas into Holland, and eventually into the Hochwald of Germany until hostilities ended on May 8, 1945.
Like so many soldiers of that terrible war, Paul was reluctant to speak of the atrocities he witnessed. Tears welled up in his eyes whenever events of that war were broached. Paul, like all of his comrades, represents the epitome of the valour shown in securing our freedom.”
Written by his brother-in-law, Hubert Timmerman
Leopold Paul Charles Leblanc: as related by his widow, Maria
“Most would say the little Leopold was dealt a bad hand early in life, losing his beloved mother at the fragile age of five. She died after giving birth to Paul’s littlest brother who also sadly died upon entry to this world.
”They told me that my mother wanted to see me. I remember seeing a lady carrying the baby down the hall. I didn’t know that he had died. I remember my mom looking down at me from the bed and hugging me close. She said that God was calling her to be with him and that I needed to be a good boy for my oldest sister.”
Mr. Leblanc didn’t know how to raise young Paul on his own and sent him to live with various relatives. “I was an active boy and was much too much trouble, I guess.”
”I remember grade 5, I put this resin on my hands so I wouldn’t feel the sting of the strap. When the teacher was giving me a licking, I was laughing. She figured out what I had done and next time turned my hands over. That was not very funny!”
Even as a young boy, Paul had an interest in the trades. He often stopped at a blacksmith’s shop on the way home from school. There he helped out and was glad to make some money. Later on, having learned these skills would prove to be a valuable asset.
At 11 years old Paul was dropped off to stay with the Trappist monks at Mistassini in Québec. They had a junior seminary there.
”I got in the door and a brother showed me to a locker where I had to put my clothes away and put on a brown habit. They shaved my head and told me I could not talk. I had to get up early in the morning to pray with them and to work in the Gardens and “NO TALKING!”
That was hell for a kid.
Paul was with the Trappists for three years or so, in silence and work and prayer and SILENCE. He jumped at the first opportunity for adventure when they told him that they felt he did not have a vocation to religious life.
”I went down to the ship lines at the harbor and saw someone washing the deck. I asked him where the captain was. He said that I would know him when I saw him. He had a white beard – an English man!
I said, “Monsieur, I’d like to join your ship.”
He said, “You look a little young to be 16.”
”Well I am!”, I told him.
” What about your parents, what do they think about this?”
”I don’t have any”, I said.
”Alright then, get on the boat!”
”And that was it.”
He started doing odd jobs ranging from getting tea to swabbing the deck, and doing the laundry. As time went on he got more training
”I thought I was going to die of nausea.” He was on the Canadian merchant Navy for three years.
”We were everywhere: the Black Sea, the Red Sea, Malta, Panama Canal, the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific.” By the way, they didn’t find out that he had lied about his entry age until 1958 in Germany, many years later.
Following his three years with the Navy, Paul returned to Canada eventually making his way to a shipyard in Hamilton, where he disembarked and found work as a blacksmith, proving his skill to a fellow French-Canadian who was a supervisor on the job. After a brief stay on an English base, the commanding officer realized Paul should do his basic training in the language he could understand. He was shipped to Montmagny, Québec, on the St. Lawrence River. After living Montmagny, Paul went to Valcartier for further training. From there he was sent to Coefield Army base, in Québec city. Then he went out to Truro, Halifax. He was sent overseas from Halifax.
As a British Commando, Paul was a paratrooper and one particular jump stands out for him. ”We were dropped too high, about 1200 feet, over enemy lines. The Germans shot all of our guys, most while they were still in the sky. I fell into the trees and hung upside down with a shot finger. I pretended to be dead for three days, while the Germans continued shooting in the trees.”
He was the only survivor of the first division that night. Those Trappist monks must have been praying for their young Leopold. Paul doesn’t like to go into great detail about his life during these war years. However, he doesn’t mind sharing that he spent plenty of time in the digger, the Army jail. The army prison was no picnic. Often men would be beaten and driven to complete exhaustion and collapse from their punishments. It seems Paul’s lack of fear got him into lots of trouble.
”One time I was at an outdoor lecture and I fell asleep. The speaker, a captain, said, ”LeBlanc, maybe you can tell us what I just said?”
”I don’t know, I was sleeping!”
He said, “Well then, why don’t you come up here and give the rest of the lecture?”
Paul retorted, ”I could give the whole lecture, I know this stuff so well.” Paul went on to challenge him saying, “Why haven’t you been made a General. if you’re so smart?”
”Leblanc!” he said, “To the digger!”
One time in the digger the priest came to see me. I told him that the guards have been beating me up. Well, he reported them in the next day it got worse! “Finally I got up with fed up and hit the guard over the head with a pail.”
”Two more weeks in the digger, Leblanc!”
Paul was not always getting into trouble. He was one to get things done and was often commended by his superiors for his skilled workmanship and his problem-solving ability. It seemed that there was not a problem that he could not figure out a solution for. During the war, many of the men were grateful for the showers that Paul rigged up with odds and ends.
Paul’s philosophies are simple: “The Lord gave you a head to use. Use it!”
”Listen to people talk and watch what they do, that’s how you learn. That’s how I learned.”
By Maria Leblanc
Trades: Paul Leblanc did not receive a lot of formal education as we define it today. He did acquire a high degree of skill in the trades. These skills were very useful to the Canadian Army. Paul served in the R.C.E.M.E., the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers from July 10, 1951, August 10, 1964.
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Medals: Paul Leblanc saw action in several military theatres of war, and earned several medals.
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