“VE-Day is an extremely important day for those who came out from under the boot               [German occupation] after five years. It’s a day that they will never forget.”  

VE-Day was declared on May 8, 1945 to celebrate the victory of
the Allied forces         fighting in Europe. The German army had surrendered a day earlier.

About 50 people from Vancouver to Halifax have signed up for the 18-day tour  organized by McLeod.  

The majority are family members or close friends of South Alberta Regiment veterans. 

Some are also relatives of the Canadian men and women who were killed in the war, McLeod said.  

They’re going because they want to see where their loved ones are buried.  

Visiting battlefields and cemeteries is often an emotional experience for veterans, McLeod said.

 “But it’s a healthy one,” he said. “It refreshes them in many ways. It also gives their family a chance to understand.”  

McLeod has organized the European tour for his former regiment’s veterans eight or nine times over the past 20 years.  

“When I go back, it’s about paying respect,” he said. 

Some of the veterans landing in Paris today haven’t returned to Europe or the battlefields since the end of the war.

Kingston resident James Stoness and his wife, Sylvia, are also going on the tour.  

The French leg of the tour includes visits to Juno Beach in Normandy, Arromanches and Courseulles-sur-mer.  

 “It’s just one big battlefield from start to finish,” McLeod said.  

The itinerary also includes a tour of Antwerp and the Scheldt as McLeod leads the group by bus through Holland and Belgium.  

McLeod said he has arranged for war experts to help him explain the historical significance of some sights on the tour.  

The group plans to honour their fallen Canadian comrades by laying a wreath at every Cross of Sacrifice they visit.  

McLeod was 17 and living in Medicine Hat, Alta., when he and a few friends dropped out of high school and joined the South Alberta Regiment.

“We were hearing about the atrocities that were going on in Europe,” McLeod said.  

 “Drugs were not an issue back then but what was an issue was the terrorism, communism and fascism that was going on in Europe.”  

Naive and intent on making a difference, McLeod and his friends enlisted as soon as Canada declared it had joined the Allied forces.  

The decision to fight overseas was an easy one for the young friends, McLeod said.  

“We saw the first train [of soldiers] leave and there was no doubt in our minds that we would be on the second one.”  

McLeod started as an infantry soldier before his division turned its concentration to armour and joined the tank corps.

McLeod knew he was in good hands when he learned that his top commanding officer had survived the First World War despite being wounded five times. 

“We had excellent training. They were adamant that we were not going to fight a war like they did,” he said.

“It was a very short time before we started looking like real, experienced soldiers.”

McLeod quickly became a lieutenant, and taught a battle instruction course to new soldiers in Woking, England, for a few years before he was called back to his regiment in 1944.  

“You don’t ask, they tell you,” he said.  

By that time, the South Alberta Regiment was moving into France. 

“From day one it was continual training and preparation for battle,” McLeod said.  

Approximately 2,300 soldiers signed on with the South Alberta Regiment throughout the Second World War. Between 100 and 125 are alive today, McLeod said.  

“We don’t like to keep count anymore,” he said.  

McLeod rose to the rank of major and moved to Kingston in 1960 and currently works as a car salesman at Taylor Chevrolet Oldsmobile Cadillac Ltd. on Princess Street.

Canadian memorial services held each year at home are appreciated but they pale in comparison to the ones held for veterans in European countries such as France and Belgium, McLeod said.

One of the larger celebrations planned to mark this year’s anniversary of VE-Day is taking place in the city of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.  

 “The [soldiers] are only dead when they’re forgotten,” McLeod said.  

 “In Canada, I think they’ve been forgotten.”