Sapper (Retired) Léopold Thibeault

Léopold Thibeault was 21 when he joined the military in Rimouski, Quebec, in 1941. He was not the only member in his family to serve: his brothers were members of Canada’s military, and his uncle fought in the First World War. In April 1942, it was Léopold Thibeault’s turn  and he joined the army; Thibeault  left for England as part of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Corps of Engineers.

It was late in the evening on 7 June 1944, when Thibeault landed on Juno Beach after the infantry had secured safe passage.

During the Second World War, he also served in France as a Sapper, doing road repairs, constructions and demining land until 1944. Thibeault then served in Belgium supplying materials for the construction of the Ostend-Ghent pipeline. He did this until January 1945 when he was re-assigned to Holland.

“It was dangerous, very dangerous. But we… had to do it.”

Thibeault recalls working under the cover of darkness with thousands of Canadian and British engineers on a Bailey bridge over the Rhine in Holland. He paints a vivid picture of men on each side of the bridge who were working as fast as they could to assemble the prefabricated pieces as the Germans and the Allies exchanged gunfire overhead.

Many men lost their lives that day, he said, but his work – and the war – raged on.

“No job, no trade. Because I was a mechanic, but I mean, you had to start from scratch.”

When the war ended, Thibeault questioned his future.

Like many other Second World War soldiers, he retired from the Canadian Armed Forces on 25 October 1945. At 26 years old, he had to find his way and transition into a new career and life after service. His military life was routine – he was told where and when to go, and when to eat. Now he could choose his own future. He chose to become a railway engineer for the Canadian National Railway, from which he retired in 1983.

For his service, Thibeault was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal (with clasp), the War Medal 1939-45 and he has received the French Légion d’honneur for his service.

Thibeault says he is honoured and grateful to be part of this year’s delegation for the 80th anniversary. He has already attended events for the 40th anniversary of D-Day anniversaries in Europe with fellow allied soldiers and had the chance on this first trip to revisit Juno Beach, where he originally landed on that fateful day in 1944. He said that while these trips were emotional times for many of his fellow Veterans, he chose to reflect on happier memories. While standing on those beaches he reminisced about the times when he and his fellow soldiers cracked jokes and made up stories to distract themselves from the horrors of war they were witnessing.

Connecting with the next generation

In May 2023, he received a letter from Dutch students who were learning about the role of the Canadian military and other Allied Forces in the Netherlands. Even now, at almost 105 years old, he makes it a priority to educate today’s generation of youth about the impacts of war.

His message for youth is :

“If, early in their education, young people are exposed and clearly informed about the realities of war: the impact, the horror and the human cost of such conflicts, hopefully it will inform their decisions later on in their lives and lead them to avoid creating situations that lead to similar conflicts, to refuse to become engaged in situations that lead to war.”

The source interview was done in French and was courtesy of the Canadian War Museum’s In Their Own Voices project.

Discover more stories about other Canadian Veterans like Léopold Thibeault.