• Normandy Massacres

Date of birth:

March 11th, 1919 (Midland/Ontario, Canada)

Date of death:

June 17th, 1944 (Mouen, France)

Buried on:

Canadian War Cemetery Beny-sur-mer
Plot: XVI. Row: E. Grave: 12.

Service number:

B/138240

Nationality:

Canadian

Gerald Leslie Willett was the son of Josephine Willett, who lived at 262 Seaton Street in Toronto, and she remained his listed next of kin throughout his service. Willett was Roman Catholic and had completed Grade VIII and part of Grade IX in school. Before enlistment, he had held several jobs, including plasterer’s helper, apprentice buffer and polisher, and farm worker. His attestation papers also note that he had three years of previous service with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (Reserve).

He enlisted in the Canadian Active Service Force on 11 January 1943 at Toronto, Ontario, and was taken on strength with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. He was assigned the regimental number B/138240 and rank of Rifleman. His medical and personnel selection records describe him as five feet seven inches tall, weighing about 135 pounds, with a slim build and some prior ear trouble (perforated eardrums), but otherwise fit for infantry service. Examiners recommended him as a suitable non-tradesman infantryman, and he progressed satisfactorily through training.

After training in Canada, Willett embarked for overseas duty. His records show him posted to the United Kingdom and later to northwest Europe as part of the Canadian reinforcements committed to the Normandy campaign following D-Day.

His service ended during the bitter fighting in Normandy. The earliest casualty notification telegram in his file reported him as “killed in action 11 June 1944.” However, later documentation from a Court of Inquiry into the deaths of several Queen’s Own Rifles soldiers clarified that Willett and his comrades were killed “on or about 17 June 1944 at or near Mouen, Normandy.” This discrepancy remained in the record, and both dates appear in different documents.

Initially buried in a field grave, his remains were later exhumed and reinterred in the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Calvados, France, where many of his regiment who fell in June 1944 rest. His grave bears the details submitted by his mother and was marked by a permanent headstone after the war.

His campaign medals along with a Memorial Cross and memorial scroll, were sent to his mother. His estate file records the payment of his war service gratuity and the settlement of his personal effects.

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• - Service record(s)

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