Crossing the Rhine

Heroes Remember

Crossing the Rhine

One of our highlights was after, after, when was it, oh about the 8th of February, 1945, when we went into the Reichwald, or the Hochwald on the south shore of the Rhine, clearing that area. Eventually, the German commander felt that he had to withdraw his artillery on the other side of the river because if he doesn't do it in time, he's going to lose it. And it was a plain language message that he wants the artillery and he gave the timing, the number of guns, the number of units, which bridge to use and then which ferry to use to get out. And we got so excited, and this is true, they sent a light air craft to our unit to pick up the message because the message was also copied by an American unit and a British unit, but not, they didn't get it all. They didn't, you know, atmospherics or stuff like that, all sorts of conditions, but we got the whole damn thing. And they sent up a staff officer to pick up the message. Can you imagine? And we ended our war at Bad Zwischenahn. We started intercepting the Bad Zwischenahn Zenith, we ended the war in Bad Zwischenahn.

Mr. Pollak describes an incident while crossing the Rhine where the Canadian unit were able to decode more effectively than the British or Americans and they subsequently averted serious casualties from an artillery barrage.

Fred Pollak

Mr. Pollak was born May 20, 1919, in Vrezno, Czechoslovakia, a small town in the German part of Bohemia. In September of 1938, his family was expelled from Vrezno and had to go inland to Prague. They arrived in Canada as refugees in August of 1939 and lived in Prescott, Ontario. Mr. Pollak eventually joined the Canadian Army, enlisting as a typist. At the end of the war, Mr. Pollak monitored radio transmissions for German traffic and was also employed as an interrogator of war criminals in Belsen.

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:29
Person Interviewed:: Fred Pollak
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: France
Battle/Campaign:: Northwest Europe
Branch:: Army
Occupation:: Signals Intelligence

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Date modified:: 2024-12-30