KAMSACK — The Second World War experience of a former Kamsack resident, who is a hero in France, was recalled during the Remembrance Day service held in the Victoria School in Kamsack beginning at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.
Rev. Stephen Ruten told the story of Peter Dmytruk, a 23-year-old who had been born in Radisson, lived at Kamsack where he had attended school, and then moved to Wynyard, where he joined the Canadian Air Force.
The chaplain for the Kamsack branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, Ruten participated in the service that included Gordon Craig as Parade Marshall and Sergeant-at-arms; members of Legion branch serving as the Colour Party; Karen Tourangeau, Legion president and commanding officer of the Kamsack squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets; members of the Kamsack detachment of the RCMP; members of the Kamsack Community Choir under the direction of Susan Bear; the Kamsack school band directed by Darren Kitsch, and Kerri Lindsay, the piper.
Rev. Nancy Brunt was emcee for the program, which began with the singing of O Canada, the reading of the Honour Roll by Ruten, The Last Post, a two-minute silence, Reveille and the Act of Remembrance recited by Karen Tourangeau.
After an opening prayer and the singing of the hymn Rock of Ages, wreaths were laid by more than 50 persons on behalf of various persons and organizations. The school band performed Jupitor, the choir sang In Flanders Fields and Rev. Brunt provided scripture readings.
In the homily, Ruten said that Christopher Moore had walked the full length of Durie Street in Toronto and then said, “On the way, I passed at least 27 addresses that were homes to young men who went out to serve in Canada’s wars, and never came back.”
A program was developed called They Walked These Streets to help Torontonians make connections with hometown Canadian soldiers who had made the ultimate sacrifice, Ruten said. Again and again, people were heard expressing with wonder: ‘Oh, he lived on my street.’
“It’s impossible to make a personal connection with over 100,000 soldiers who have been killed in Canada’s wars, but we can connect with one,” Ruten said. “I want to help us make a personal connection today with one Canadian soldier, a hero of the Second World War.
“There is a town in France that believes this Canadian soldier, by sacrificing his life at age 23, saved their town.
“This young soldier walked the streets of our town (and) attended high school in Kamsack. He wasn’t born here, but moved here for a few years with his parents. His dad was a mechanic in a farm equipment dealership, (which was) good for the son, because he gained mechanical experience maintaining and repairing equipment, valuable skills on the battlefield and in his activities to frustrate the German Nazis in France.”
On Mar. 12, 1943, over France on a bombing mission to Germany, a German fighter plane attacked the Lancaster on which this soldier was the rear gunner, Ruten said. He survived the crash of his plane and escaped to the Auvergne region. He connected with members of the French resistance who offered him an escort to freedom in Spain.
But when he saw the awful condition of the French under German Nazi oppression, he admired the work of the French resistance workers were doing and he came to an important decision: he decided he would not seek his own escape and freedom through Spain; instead, he would stay and help the French resistance.
He became one of their own, known as Pierre le Canadien (Peter the Canadian).
Members of the French resistance became endeared to his “boyish charm and “genuine friendliness. He quickly established a reputation for being “fearless and willing to go anywhere, and do anything.”
The work was tough, one of his French comrades had recalled after the war. “We slept little in between attacks, but Pierre was strong, mentally and physically and he never complained. After a while, we almost stopped thinking of him as Canadian. He was one of us.”
Dmytruk, who spoke English with a thick Ukrainian accent, started picking up on the French language when he got sweet on a local girl, a hairdresser, Ruten explained. The more she talked, the more his French improved.
Dmytruk helped his newfound “brothers” in the resistance for 10 months, hijacking ammunition trucks, disrupting German communications, hauling off German supplies, blowing up railroads and hiding Allied airmen who had been shot down.
“Everything this young man did shouted loud and clear to the Germans: ‘Go home. This is not your country. Go home,’ (which is) just the message Russia needs to take to heart in Ukraine now in 2025,” Ruten said.
On Dec. 9, 1943, this Canadian was part of a group that attacked a German ammunition supply train at the town of Les Martres-de-Veyre in central France. The destruction of the train enraged the local German commander, who did a common Nazi thing at the time: he ordered all the men in the town to be rounded up and executed. But when they captured Peter Dmytruk, that was enough for the German commander.
Dmytruk was killed, but the other men in town were spared.
Dmytruk was the one they had been wanting to get their hands on.
“This young man who walked our streets, went to school in our town, we honour him for sacrificing his life for our freedom and the freedom of that French town. They felt he had saved their town by his death and he was given high honours locally and by the government.
“In our province, he was honoured by having a northern lake named after him: Dmytruk Lake, just south of Lake Athabaska.”
Ruten said that Kamsack residents and Canadians in general recognized Dmytruk in a personal way, acknowledging “our debt” to him and to tens of thousands of others.
“The Bible says that Jesus also made a deliberate choice to leave Heaven and become one of us,” Ruten said. “He pitched His tent among us. He walked streets in our world, suffered and died for our sins.
“God is often intervening in wars people have with each other in battlefields, neighbourhoods, in living rooms, even in churches. God intervenes in your life and mine with this word from Jesus read today: ‘This is my command: love each other.’”
Give up holding grudges and bitterness, Ruten said. That’s a form of warlike hostility. Follow Jesus’ lead in love and kindness.
“I, Stephen, was under sentence of death because of my sin, just as the men of Les Martres-de-Veyre in central France were facing death by a Nazi commander’s order. For them, Peter Dmytruk showed up and they felt he died for them, in their place, because by his death their execution was cancelled.
“Years later, one of the townspeople said, ‘The town exists only because Pierre died.’
“Jesus died for me and for you, if you’ll believe that truth to give gifts of forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe.
“We will remember them, including Pierre le Canadien, but in remembering, we must remember Jesus.”
To conclude the service, Susan Bear sang Sand, a song which she had composed. Ruten said a closing prayer, those assembled joined in the singing of God Save the King, and the Colours were “marched off.”
