Remembering veterans at Field of Honour

WINNIPEG – Nearly 100 visitors spent Saturday remembering the more than 11,000 war veterans from the first and second World Wars who rest in Winnipeg’s Field of Honour.

The group toured the vast Brookside Cemetery, one of the country’s largest and most significant military interment sites.

“It’s massive and so impressive,” said Pat Ledieu, cemetery visitor.

Along with the guided tour, visitors heard firsthand war stories from veterans like John Stoyka who fought with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles in France during World War II.

“I enlisted at 18, by 19 I was on the front lines,” said Stoyka, Rifleman in World War II with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.

Stoyka remembers those front lines clearly.

“You’ve got to watch because as you’re moving along there’s snipers in the field, they’re covered up, you can’t see them, and all of a sudden crack, crack, crack, you’ve got to hit the ground and find out where that came from. I could have got shot through the head, the fellow in front of my got it,” said Stoyka.

Stoyka was later captured by Germans and held prisoner for 40 days.

“I was 168 pounds when they took me prisoner and when we came out I was 129,” said Stoyka.

A bleak memory Stoyka doesn’t want Canadians to forget.

“Very interesting and eye opening to hear what they went through,” said Cliff Charbonneau, cemetery visitor.

On the tour visitors also stopped and heard stories at the final resting places of two of Manitoba’s most famous veterans.

Major Harry Colebourn, the soldier who owned Winnie and inspired the children’s book series, along with Sergeant Tommy Prince, the most decorated aboriginal war veteran.

“It’s a somber day, it’s a way of commemorating and giving thanks to the people who sacrificed there lives for us and our freedom,” said Ledieu.

Free tours for school groups and the public will be available throughout remembrance week at Brookside Cemetery.