WARTIMES.ca

Hey folks,

My grandfather, John Louis Corbin, was a quiet man when it came to his war service. He suffered from depression and details about his actions were difficult to extract. He died at 93 in September of 2018. My mother found an old war journal he kept, and unfortunately lost it; driving away with the journal on the roof of her vehicle.

I remember he spoke once about walking through French towns single file and coming under fire multiple times, and his service times lines up with the D-Day operations. (enlisted some time in 1943, medically discharged December, 1944)

I have an opportunity to participate in the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landing in Normandy, France, and I don't have a lot of time to prepare (9 days)

I'm looking for a bit of guidance: Where should I go for my best chance on a bit of research. My application to participate in the anniversary must include that I have an immediate family member who was present for the D-Day Landings. All I know is what I've been told from my mother, and those few times that my grandfather was in the mood to talk in his own obfuscated ways about what had occurred.

I noticed Temujin had posted a photograph of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, in and around the time my grandfather was enlisted.

Please help, I'm new to this and I don't have much time!

Short time frame, but I’ll see what I can find……..the BEST source is his military records, which you can order thru LAC……BUT, the issue is it can take as long as one year to get them, so your probably out of luck ………BUT (one more but) maybe you could phone LAC, tell them your info and see if you can get someone to look them up right away.

Another option is to actually visit LAC and look at the records yourself……..

And a third option is to go to LAC website, they have a list of people who are willing to do research (for a cost) and possibly they may be able to find his records right away???

Just some suggestions, in the mean time I will see if I can find anything, I’ve been looking thru my sources and haven’t found his name yet. I HAVE FOUND a L.W. Corbin, but not a John Louis Corbin

Still looking

Cheers

Just to confirm, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders DID LAND on d day as part of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade……so if we can confirm he was with the Battalion at that time, he most likely landed on D Day

Here’s a link to the Battalion’s war diaries for that time period

https://u5o4e4.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/ ... anders.pdf


And here’s a link to a book I helped write, on the Canadian Landings on Juno Beach, you will find info on where and when and which landing craft etc the NNSH landed on that day

https://wartimes.ca/wp-content/uploads/ ... -v13.4.pdf

Awesome, thanks for your help. I'll be calling the LAC today and see if the urgency can help me in their queue.

In the meantime, my mother found his enlistment papers at least (which is good, because he lied about his age in order to enlist at the time)

Once I get some information, I'll share what I've learned about the process, and my grandfather, with you folks.