As remembrance services take place across Canada in honour of those who fought in war, an 86-year-old Okotoks man can’t help but think of his father.
David Zilm’s father Richard spent four years in WWI as a gunner in France and Germany in the 78th battery, having signed up at the ripe age of 17.
Like many young folks who committed to serving their country in WWI, young Richard didn’t know just how horrific the experience would be.
Having read numerous details documented in a diary Richard took along with him, Zilm learned exactly what his father saw during those years.
“He saw some terrible things in the war,” he said. “The second day he was in combat the shell came over and blew up eight of his horses and blew up his buddy that was by the cannon.”
Although Richard wanted to join the air force, Zilm said he didn’t have the education required and was instead trained to operate horse-drawn cannons.
Zilm said his father was the oldest of three boys. They lived in Illinois until Richard was 12 and his parents took ill and died, forcing the children to move to Saskatchewan to live with their uncle. About two years before he enlisted in the war Richard moved to Alberta to work on a farm.
Zilm recalls stories his father told of dragging a wagon to the nearest rail depot to pick up a load of cannon shells.
“Can you imagine going though a battlefield with a load of cannon shells,” he said. “The whole bunch of them would have been blown up sky high.”
Richard’s diary described in detail arriving in France and Germany and the awful sites he saw including buildings that were bombed to ruins, open graves, houses torn down and shell holes. In one account, he wrote that he couldn’t see the area returning to decent condition again.
Like all the brave soldiers who fought in WWI, Richard’s tasks were many. He was responsible for taking care of the horses, cleaning at camp and hauling ammunition.
Despite the horror he experienced those four years, met his future wife, Katherine, while billeted in Germany.
Zilm said Richard was billeted with Herr J. Klouth, his wife, two daughters and son, which in his Dec. 13, 1918 diary entry he described as “very nice people.” The horses were kept in stables in a brick kiln about a kilometre away.
Following the war, Richard and Katherine married and in 1926 David was born on the back of a wagon in December, delivered by his father.
Zilm said his father took him and his mother to a doctor in the nearest town who promptly checked them both over and charged $5, a lot in those days. Zilm said coincidentally his father came across that same doctor months later when his vehicle was stuck in a ditch and helped him out, charging him $5.
But life was not good in Germany after the war, said Zilm.
“Germany at that time was in terrible shape,” he said. “My mother said they were eating bread half made of sawdust at that time.”
The year after Zilm was born, his family moved to Olds, Alberta.
Seventeen years later, Zilm joined WWII as an air gunner, but never did get overseas.
“I got my wings but the war was coming to an end,” he said. “They gave us two months leave without pay. I was put on special reserve for about five years and then discharged.”
But the war has always fascinated Zilm. He and his wife have visited most of the battlefields and many of the cemeteries in Italy and France, and Zilm accompanied his son-in-law to Vimy Ridge where they met Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Excerpts from Richard Zilm’s diary
“In afternoon ordered to pack up and we marched to Arras. Passed through Arras a little piece and found our headquarters. Arras was all shot to pieces; only saw two civilians there, an old lady and a child. We found our Division Headquarters and I was assigned to the 2nd Section Div. Amm. Column. A guide took us over to the outfit where we arrived about 4:00 p.m. We were taken on roll and told to get a billet or dugout. I got a spade then looked for a place to dig. Found a small shell hole, which I enlarged some, then found an old piece of sheet iron in a nearby factory which I put over my hole for a roof. Some house I had.”
~ August 26, 1918
“I was late for breakfast so was eating a can of pork and beans I brought from the base with me at the door of my dugout when whiz-bang, one of the Heiny’s shells exploded nearby. I fell into my dugout just as a shell splinter about six inches long went right past where I had been sitting and buried itself in the bank. I thanked my stars for ducking. Found later the shell had blown one of the boys to nothing and killed seven or eight horses. The outfit immediately packed up and moved out of this position to one in some trenches about a mile in front of Arras or where we were. A couple of the boys and I made a fair dugout in a trench here.”
~ August 27, 1918
“Day of all days. Received word of the signing of the Armistice.”
~ Nov 11 1918
