Skip to main content

Honouring the Heroes We Lost: Private Andrew John Jerad McNally of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion

 Honouring the Heroes We Lost: Private Andrew John Jerad McNally of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.


Andrew "Andy" John Jerad McNally, of Edmonton, Alberta immigrated to Canada when he was 2 years old from his birth town of Randalstown Northern Ireland. 

Andy, the eldest of 11 children had aspirations of becoming a machinist. These dreams would be put on hold with the outbreak of World War II.

"In October 1941 at the age of 17 years old Andy joined the 2nd Battalion of the Edmonton Fusiliers, a reserve unit of the Canadian Army. 

He was a high school student in the 10th grade when he dropped out of school and entered active military service on January 16, 1942. 

Andy was only 17, although his military records list an incorrect birthdate putting him at age 18 at the time. Following basic training Andy took driver's training at Red Deer, then transferred to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. 

Following advanced training at Currie Barracks in Calgary he joined the battalion in January 1943 and qualified as a paratrooper on March 14th. Andy received his parachutist training at Fort Benning, Georgia and Shiloh, Manitoba." - Find a Grave Database 

"Private McNally was assigned as a Bren gunner to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion's C Company. Andy and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion sailed aboard the Queen Elizabeth to the UK in late July, disembarking on July 28th. 

The battalion was attached to the 3rd Parachute Brigade, British 6th Airborne Division. Stationed at Carter Barracks in Bulford, England they continued training for the next year in preparation for airborne operations."

"In the early hours of June 6, 1944, Private Andy McNally and the rest of C Company became the first Canadians on the ground in France on D-Day, parachuting in ahead of the rest of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and the 3rd Parachute Brigade during Operation Tonga."

"On Christmas Day the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion headed for Belgium to take part in the Battle of the Bulge, the only Canadian fighting unit on the ground to do so. 

At around 0500 hrs on the morning of January 27, 1945 in the Ardennes Andy was wounded in action for the second time and evacuated to the 84th British General Hospital. 

After several weeks of recovery on February 19 he rejoined the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion which was now fighting in the Netherlands." - Find a Grave Database

On March 24, 1945 the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion took part in Operation Varsity. 

Private McNally was fatally wounded during this operation. Andy was 20 years old.

Private Andrew John Jerad McNally lies in rest at Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and Memorial in Groesbeek, Berg en Dal Municipality, Gelderland, Netherlands. Lest We Forget.

Thank you for reading.

Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meet The Man Who Broke World Record By Sleeping With 57 Women In 24 Hrs But Later Rushed To Hospital

Meet The Man Who Broke World Record By Sleeping With 57 Women In 24 Hrs But Later Rushed To Hospital Meet a man who managed to make it to the Guinness book of records after breaking a long standing world record of sleeping with 57 women in a span of 24 hours.  The 34 year old man hailed from Singapore and broke the record in Prague, the capital of Czech Republic, in an annual event run by a local brothel. According to reports, the unnamed man disclosed that he had been training hard for months to break the previous record which stood at 55 and he was delighted that he broke it. Quoting him, he said, “I've always been a bit of a sex addict, and when I learned that the brothel was having a world record attempt I knew I had to come and give it a go.  I take it really seriously and train for it just like an athlete would prepare for a marathon. In some ways, it's actually much harder than a lot of professional sports.`` The Singapore man was very focused on his goal in that by mid...

Honoring Leo Henry Schweiter: Veteran of World War II, The Korean War and The Vietnam War

Honoring Leo Henry Schweiter: Veteran of World War II, The Korean War and The Vietnam War Leo Henry Schweiter was born in Wichita Kansas on April 16, 1917.  Leo enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. He then transferred to the 101st Airborne Division. While serving as Captain and Assistant Chief of Staff G-2 Intelligence Officer Schweiter took part in the Normandy airborne landings on June 6, 1944. During this time he was knocked unconscious by a grenade blast. Captain Schweiter was subsequently captured by the Germans but released a day later upon their retreat. A veteran of Operation Market Garden, the Siege of Bastogne and the counter attack at Haguenau, Schweiter remained in service with the US Army after World War II. Leo Henry Schweiter would go on to serve with the 7th Infantry Division during the Korean War. In 1959 he was named Chief of Staff of the 8th Infantry Division and later became Assistant Chief of Staff, G2, Headquarters, in the XVIII Airborne Corps.  During...

The Holocaust: 18. War Crimes

**The Holocaust: 18. War Crimes** G.M. Gilbert was one of the prison psychologists during the Nuremberg war crimes trial. On April 9, 1946 he had a brief conversation with Colonel Rudolph Hoess, who had been the commandant of Auschwitz. The following is an excerpt of his book *Nurember Diary*: We discussed briefly his activity as the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp from May, 1940, to December, 1943, which camp was the central extermination camp for Jews. He readily confirmed that approximately 2 1/2 million Jews had been exterminated under his direction.  The exterminations began in the summer of 1941. In compliance with [Hermann] Goering's skepticism, I asked Hoess how it was technically possible to exterminate 2 1/2 million people. "Technicall?" he asked. "That wasn't so hard -- it would not have been hard to exterminate even greater numbers." In answer to my rather naive questions as to how many people could be done away with in an hour, et...