As two French-Canadian snipers were silently advancing through the Nazi-occupied city of Zwolle
in April of 1945, one of them, Corporal Arsenault, was hit by machine-gun fire.
The soldiers were trying to gauge the German garrison's size and contact the Dutch resistance.
Enraged, Private Léo Major rushed to the German position
and decided to avenge his friend by singlehandedly liberating the city.
And even though the one-eyed soldier is considered a hero in Zwolle,
the story of the so-called Quebecois Rambo only became widely known 75 years later...
I'm A Sniper!
Léo Major was born in February of 1921 and grew up in working-class Montreal.
As a teenager, he and his father did not get along, so he was sent to live with his aunt.
When Major grew up and turned 19, he enlisted in the Canadian Army,
determined to prove himself to his father.
From early on in his career and time and time again,
Léo demonstrated to be one of the finest soldiers Canada had to offer.
Then, during the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944,
Major served with the Régiment de la Chaudière, a Canadian Primary Reserve infantry regiment,
and was chosen for a reconnaissance mission.
During the operation,
Léo captured a German armored vehicle containing sensitive communication equipment all by himself.
Days later, after taking down four soldiers during his first encounter with a Schutzstaffel
patrol team, one of the men ignited a phosphorus grenade, blowing out his eye.
While receiving medical care, his superiors attempted to discharge him honorably,
convincing him that although he made his country proud, his injury meant the war was over for him.
However, Léo disagreed: [QUOTE] "No, it's not over. I'm a sniper. I only need one eye."
After his recovery, the soldier returned to the
battlefield sporting an eye patch and still as motivated as ever.
Major arrived just in time to join the Battle of the Scheldt in the Southern Netherlands
in October of 1944, where he would serve in a series of operations led by the First Canadian
Army to open up the shipping route to Antwerp so that the port could be used by the Allies.
During a reconnaissance mission, a lonely Major escaping from the rain in an old house
spotted two German soldiers walking outside.
After capturing the first German, he attempted to use him as bait for the other.
The latter tried to use his gun, but Major quickly took him down with his armament.
One by one, Major began to capture men from the German squad
until he apprehended their commanding officer.
The Germans, misbelieving that Major was only the first of hundreds of
Canadian soldiers in the area, opted to surrender.
Although SS soldiers spotted Major leading his prisoners,
he calmly marched back to base with nearly a hundred of them.
The soldier was eventually chosen to receive a Distinguished Conduct Medal
for his heroic actions that day, a decoration for gallantry second only to the Victoria Cross.
However, Major refused the medal when he learned that the distinction would also be bestowed
upon his superior, Field Marshal Montgomery, whose tactical decisions he disagreed with.
Another Injury
In February of 1945, while helping a military chaplain load fallen soldiers
from a damaged Tiger tank into a Bren Carrier, the vehicle struck a landmine.
During the attack, the Chaplain perished, while the one-eyed Major suffered two broken ankles,
several broken ribs, and three major spine injuries.
As Léo was rushed to the field hospital,
medics had to administer morphine shots to the soldier every fifteen minutes.
Still unwilling to give up,
Major escaped the hospital a week later to find somewhere else to recover.
Major's Sniper Platoon came very close to declaring him AWOL, but he was reunited with
the Régiment de la Chaudière's Scout a month later after a Dutch family nursed him back to health.
Zwolle
By early April of 1945, the advancing Régiment de la Chaudière was approaching
the Dutch city of Zwolle, known for having strong Nazi resistance.
When the platoon's commanding officer asked for two volunteers to scout the area before
launching an artillery attack and contacting the Dutch resistance, Private Major and his friend,
Corporal Willy Arsenault, accepted the perilous task.
However, Arsenault accidentally revealed his position early on in the mission
and was hit with artillery.
But Major carried on and soon overtook a German soldier and his vehicle.
Once captured, his prisoner took him to his superior, who happened to speak French.
As a native French Canadian, Major took a significant risk
and bluffed his way around an impending allied artillery barrage,
warning the German officer that the casualties and damage would be substantial.
Private Major then let the officer go, hoping that he would spread the word about the fake
attack and possibly trigger a retreat. The decision worked,
and fear and confusion amongst the Nazi occupiers quickly spread.
Major wanted to properly avenge his fallen friend, and he then began running around the city,
firing his machine gun and throwing grenades, simulating the army barrage by himself.
Major also burned down the Gestapo headquarters in the area and engaged with furious SS officers,
defeating four men and uncovering a team of German soldiers disguised as Dutch resisters.
Throughout the night, Léo Major captured over 50 Germans, eight to ten at a time,
who all followed the soldier, believing that the entire Canadian army had stormed into the city.
By the following day, the sniper had wreaked so much havoc that the Germans
had abandoned Zwolle entirely. The ‘One-eyed Ghost,’ as he became known to his platoon,
had become a one-man army and the sole liberator of an entire city.
Thanks to his efforts, the planned shelling after his mission was called off,
and the Régiment de la Chaudière entered the city without a fight.
And although medics tried to evacuate Corporal Arsenault's body,
Major himself volunteered to carry his perished friend by himself.
For his actions, he was selected to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
This time, he accepted.
Korea
In 1945, Major returned to Montreal to work as a pipefitter.
But although World War 2 was over, Private Léo Major had much more to give to his country.
By the early 1950s, the Chinese had joined the Korean War
and had pushed the United Nations forces back.
Major then re-entered the frontline in 1951 despite his injuries,
joining over 26,000 Canadian soldiers in the front.
He was assigned to the Scout and Sniper Platoon of the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade.
During the First Battle of Maryann San, a six-day confrontation between the United Nations Command
forces against the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, Major scored another remarkable feat.
Located 25 miles north of Seoul, Hill 355,
nicknamed ‘Little Gibraltar’ by UN troops due to its prominent size
and many defensive positions, was one of the most sought-after mounts in the conflict.
The hill was also the highest ground overlooking all surrounding front lines and materiel routes.
After the US Army 3rd Infantry Division lost Hill 355 and failed to retake it, Léo Major was
placed in command of an elite United Nations assault team and was ordered to reclaim it.
Although the team initially managed to climb Little Gibraltar undetected,
the Chinese eventually spotted them.
An immediate fire from the elite assault team panicked the Chinese into a retreat.
However, Major's superiors knew the counterattack would come soon after.
With only 18 men at his disposal and heavily outnumbered, Major was ordered to withdraw his
unit back to safety, but in typical fashion, he refused and led his men to scant cover.
When the Chinese launched the counterattack in huge numbers,
Major ordered his men to hold their position as long as they could until reinforcements arrived.
Major and his 18 men then held the enemy off throughout the night.
Mortar platoon commander Captain Charly Forbes would later write: [QUOTE] "An audacious
man ... not satisfied with the proximity of my barrage and asks to bring it closer...In effect,
my barrage falls so close that I hear my bombs explode when he speaks to me on the radio."
For his service during the First Battle of Maryann San, Major was awarded another Distinguished
Conduct Medal, making him the only Canadian to receive the medal in two separate wars.
Legacy
When the Korean War ended in 1953, so did Major's service.
By then, the 32-year-old soldier returned to his native Canada,
where he married, had children, and lived a quiet life until his passing in 2008.
Despite his bravery, his heroic actions didn't inspire any parades
or celebrations back in Canada, as Major kept his war stories mostly to himself,
believing that most would think they sounded too incredible to be true.
Still, Major's Distinguished Conduct Medals were genuine rarities amongst Commonwealth officers.
Only three percent of all British medals and awards earned in World War II were DCMs.
During Korea, only eight Canadians received it, including Léo.
To this day, the people of Zwolle remember him as a hero,
and the story of the man who saved the city is still taught in all local schools,
while Major's namesake is immortalized forever in a street named after him.
According to Jan Meijer, former mayor of Zwolle: [QUOTE] "We
honour Léo Major. He is a symbol of our freedom."
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