One of P.E.I.'s last WW II veterans shares his wartime memories
Lloyd Gates recalls his 3 years of service — and a near-death experience
Lloyd Gates, who will turn 100 on Nov. 20, is one of the few surviving Second World War veterans on Prince Edward Island.
Gates served as a radio telegraph operator in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1943 to 1945, then helped the military tidy up in Europe for 10 months after that. Upon returning home, he joined the reserves for 12 years.
He still dreams about the war every night, even though it's been over for almost 80 years.
"Oh every night it comes back, when you sleep," Gates said during an interview with CBC News from the tidy apartment he shares with his wife Mary in Charlottetown. "Can't do anything about it, I guess… not nightmares, but it all comes back."
Gates doesn't make a big deal of the PTSD he still suffers, or the pain of the past, but neither does he forget.
His brother Bob, also in the air force during the war, died in a plane crash over Italy.
"I was in Holland then. I wanted to shoot every German I could find," Gates said. "I was mad. Angry. Still angry. Because he and I were almost like twins; he was a year and a half older than me. Wherever he went, I went. That hit me pretty hard."
Gates stayed angry on occupation duties after the war, helping gather up arms for disposal.
"I picked up two revolvers, nine-millimetre Mauser revolvers, and a holster that belonged to a German officer, I guess. I strapped those on, and I used to go into Hamburg with those under my greatcoat. If anybody got nasty with me, especially if they were German, they were loaded all the time," he said.
"The war was over then, but you don't forget."
'Go home and grow up'
Lloyd and Bob Gates came to love planes growing up on a farm in West Royalty, near the old Upton Airport northwest of Charlottetown.
"It was amazing watching those planes come in. It'd be snow, you couldn't see from here to the window, and they'd come in there and over the trees and land. I don't know how they did it — just flew by the seat of their pants," he recalled.
When hostilities broke out, the Gates brothers wanted to join the air force and go to war as soon as possible. Enlistment officials were not co-operative in his case.
"I went in with my brother — he was 18 and I was 17 — and I tried to join. They told me to go home and grow up," Gates said with a laugh.
He joined as soon as he turned 18 and was posted to an air base in Eindhoven, Holland, where he tested airplane radios. Death tolls were high, and he believes that if he'd been a pilot rather than ground crew, he would not have lived.
'I never prayed so much in my life'
His worst day came on New Year's Day, 1945. The base faced a surprise attack by 73 German fighter planes, which strafed the planes on the ground for 23 minutes.
"I looked, could hear them coming on the horizon, right down to tree level… Three of us were there and I said: 'We got company,'" Gates said.
At first, he and others thought the planes were British Spitfires, but when they came into view, they were dismayed to see German planes.
"I just lay on the ground," he said. "I never prayed so much in my life, I don't think… I was never so scared in my life."
All of a sudden one or two bombs exploded. We were blown about 35 feet into the field… You wonder why I wear hearing aids?— Lloyd Gates, Second World War veteran
The attack was part of the Germans' plan called Operation Bodenplatte, designed to wipe out every air base in Holland, France and Belgium.
The Germans fired relentlessly on the grounded Allied planes, which caught fire. Many had just been loaded with bombs — something Gates didn't think about until eventually the gunfire stopped and the men got up to survey the damage.
"All of a sudden one or two bombs exploded. We were blown about 35 feet into the field… You wonder why I wear hearing aids?" he said.
"I don't know why I was not hurt then."
Another low point for Gates was being sent to rest camp after landing on the beach in Normandy shortly after D-Day.
"I couldn't sleep at night. There was so much noise, gunfire all the time, y'know. And we're not used to that, being on the farm," he said. "I wished I had sleeping pills then."
'An awful shock to us'
Gates did have some adventures. He says a high point was going to Paris for the Armistice Day parade.
"There was 50,000 troops in that parade. It went for hours. And I remember there was a man there with a little girl three, four years old. I put her up on my shoulders so she could see," Gates said.
He and his comrades went to The Paradise Club in Paris, the only nightclub he had ever set foot in.
"The dancing girls were there and everything, and they were only half-dressed — an awful shock to us young fellas 18, 19 years old," he said. "We bought a bottle of champagne. It was $25 of our money. We had a great, great time.
"That's the only time I was in a nightclub to this day. I guess the shock was too great!"
'Funny things you still remember'
Then there was a funny moment from a rural part of France.
"One night I was on patrol duty at night and I had my Enfield rifle with me, checking the planes. All of a sudden I hear a noise and I snapped off the safety and I said: 'Password?' 'Mooo.' Haha, it was a cow!" he laughed.
"She was lucky; we just about had steaks that day," he said. "Funny things you still remember."
Another recollection was a strange procession he witnessed in Creully, where soldiers were marching about a dozen girls with no hair down the street.
"I asked one of the fellas on the street [who] could speak the language, what's going on? He said they were fraternizing with Germans so they shaved all their hair off."
'Got to be a better way'
There at least two other Second World War veterans on P.E.I., Jean MacLean and Lois Brown, both 100 years old.
Gates credits his own longevity to "being married. Good wife and good life."
He has been back to Europe several times, to visit his brother's grave and for services honouring veterans. On that topic, Gates thinks the respect and attention paid to celebrating Remembrance Day on November 11 is diminishing each year.
He said he doesn't regret his service, and would do it again.
His feelings on war, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon?
"There's got to be a better way. I don't know what it is, but there's always been war since time began and I guess there always will be," he said.
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