🇨🇦WWII uncovered: Legends of D-Day: 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion: Lieutenant Colonel Fraser Eadie

🇨🇦WWII uncovered: Legends of D-Day: 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion: Lieutenant Colonel Fraser Eadie.


"Lieutenant Colonel Fraser Eadie was part of Canada’s very first elite airborne regiment, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, which landed in Normandy on D-Day. Eadie fought there for weeks alongside the British, helping to break the German army in France. 

Fraser served as the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion’s second-in-command for the Rhine drop. He quickly assumed command when Lt.-Col. Jeff Nicklin the Commanding Officer was killed.

 He and Nicklin had not only been fellow officers, but had also been good friends and athletes in Winnipeg before the war. 

Nicklin had been a renowned Winnipeg Blue Bomber and two-time Grey Cup winner, while Eadie had been a hockey player with the University of Manitoba and the Chicago Blackhawks. 

They had both decided to join the airborne regiment after it was created in 1942." (Source: National Archives of Canada)

As the war was coming to an end, Eadie said that he and his troops marched eastward and captured Wismar, Germany, which was the furthest point east reached by any Commonwealth troop. 

A highly decorated veteran Lieutenant Colonel Eadie was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Order, 39-45 Star, France and Gemany Star, Defence Medal, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Class, War Medal 39-45 and the American Silver Star.

After the war Fraser worked with the Ford Motor Company for 46 years. Lieutenant Colonel Fraser Eadie passed away in Ontario Canada on August 11, 2003 at the age of 86. 

He lies in rest at the Trafalgar Lawn Cemetery in Ontario. Lest We Forget.

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