My Friend Jack!

Well, I never got to know any soldiers except Jack Chimaraque. I guess I kind of saved his life you know in a way. I never said that. He could speak a bit of German or Polish and there was about 6,000 people from a regiment that surrendered at Tobruk and he got friendly with them and he left me there. They were prisoners of war about six years them guys. They were well organized, they knew everything and he got in with them and went off on his own. But anyway after the war he’d come back, I met him in England. I was in Brighton, I was down having a drink in a pub and he come in and said, “Lend me ten pounds George.” I said, “Yeah, I got some money.” Lent it to him. I thought there, I’ll never get that back. You know he married an English girl that’s why he wanted to get the prisoner of war and after the war they must have had about six or eight children and they came back to Manitoba. He lived up in Fort Osborne and well he’s a real glamour boy, he’d dance all night and that type of guy, real good. So I thought I’ll never see him again and I was drinking in what they called a Merchant Hotel in (inaudible) Manitoba on a nice day and we ran to the beach for the Moonlight Special, a train that run down, the people of Winnipeg would go down there and have parties and go back. And all of a sudden the door of the hotel open and Jack came in and he said, “Here’s your money George!” And I never expected that.

Mr. Couture shares some happier moments about his friend, a repayment he never thought would happen!!

George Couture

Mr. George Couture was born in Pennsylvania, United States on November 5, 1924. At three years of age his widowed mother moved the family of five children to Selkirk, Manitoba at a time when Canada was experiencing the Great Depression. Signing up to serve his country, Mr. Couture tried two times and on his third attempt joined the infantry with the Winnipeg Rifles. He traveled overseas on Isle de France and through coincidence this was the same ship he returned home on after the war. Mr. Couture volunteered for service which resulted in him being part of the D-Day invasion on June 6, then on June 8th was captured as POW. Spending time in the prisoner of war camps and suffering the life of starvation and disease, Mr. Couture survived and was liberated on April 23, 1945. Returning home to Winnipeg, Mr. Couture continued to serve in the military and volunteered for the Korean War. After thirty years military service he retired from the Canadian military. He now resides in Calgary, Alberta.