Canadians at war, con'td.

“Company A of the cape Breton Highlanders were ‘ordered to secure the bridge at the village of Fiumincino’ near rimini. In the early hours of the 28th, after wading the river, the company was surprised by the tank and infantry fire of the 26 Panzer Division. After the ‘unequal fight’ the enemy withdrew with 53 captives, ‘leaving behind one wounded and nine dead Canadians.’ The one wounded man, left for dead, was George Langen , 20, only one month out of his teens.”

The chronicle concludes, “The failure taught a useful lesson : not again in Italy in the 11th Brigade was a company dispatched to take a battalion objective.”

My dad, Private George Langen, sustained shrapnel wounds across his knees and a severe bullet wound to his right shoulder, just missing an artery. He eventually waded out of the river and found a barn into which he collapsed. He was tended to there by two German soldiers who had surrendered to him, themselves weary of war, and Dad escorted them as his prisoners back to his camp.

After expecting (and willing) to return to the front, he was assigned to guard duty in Ireland. It was decided that he had taken enough damage.