At a certain point, humility goes too far. We’ve reached that point.
Have you ever heard of Leo Major?
If not, here’s what you need to know, courtesy of Valour Canada:
“On the evening of April 13, 1945, two French-Canadian snipers silently advanced on the Dutch city of Zwolle. They had been ordered to gauge the size of the German garrison stationed there and to contact the Dutch underground. Shortly after midnight Corporal Welly Arsenault was killed by enemy machine-gun fire outside the city and an enraged Private Leo Major rushed the German position. To avenge the death of his friend he decided that he would singlehandedly liberate Zwolle.
By all rights Leo Major’s war should have been over when he was partially blinded by a phosphorous grenade during the D-Day invasion. However, he refused to be invalided back to England and persuaded his commander that snipers only needed one good eye. After Arsenault’s death, Major infiltrated Zwolle and contacted the Dutch underground. With their help, he was able to convince a German officer that the city was surrounded by thousands of Canadian troops and by the following morning, the German garrison stationed in the city had vanished.
Almost eight thousand young Canadians, including twenty-five-year-old Welly Arsenault, sacrificed their lives to liberate the Netherlands; the Dutch people have never forgotten this sacrifice. Every year thousands of tulips bloom in Ottawa, a gift from the Dutch government, and Dutch schoolchildren are taken to Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries to learn about the Canadians who sacrificed their lives for Dutch freedom. In Zwolle, repeated tales of the one-eyed Canadian sniper who liberated the city from Nazi tyranny have turned Leo Major into a household name.”
The Canadian Encyclopedia goes into more detail about Leo Major’s heroic actions:
“On 12 April 1945, the Chaudières occupied positions outside of Zwolle, a German-held city of 50,000 people in central Holland. In preparation for an attack, Major and Corporal Wilfrid Arsenault volunteered to scout the enemy defences. At 9:30 p.m. on 13 April, the two friends moved out. They encountered a German outpost and killed its occupants, then hid for a while. Heading out again at eleven o’clock, Major crossed a railroad track, but Arsenault was killed as he crossed. Major decided to carry on alone, but first “…I got rid of the ones who were responsible for [Arsenault’s] death.”
Armed with two Sten guns and several grenades, Major arrived in the city centre about 1:00 a.m. to find the streets deserted. He went through the city for several hours, firing his weapon and throwing grenades, tricking the Germans into thinking a large force was attacking them. When the last German left, an exhausted Major returned to his unit with Arsenault’s body.
Major was awarded the DCM for liberating Zwolle. His citation reads in part, “The gallant conduct of this soldier, his personal initiative, his dauntless courage and entire disregard for personal safety, was an inspiration to all.”
Leo Major should be famous nationwide
If you haven’t heard of Leo Major, it’s not surprising.
Quite frankly, our country does a dismal job of promoting our national heroes.
Imagine if Leo Major was British, American, or French.
There would be dozens of movies about him, comic books, schools named after him across the country, statues in every province, and more.
A one-eyed sniper who avenges the death of his fellow soldier and – through sheer courage and brazen force of will – manages to trick a bunch of fascists into leaving a city of 50,000 thousand people, is about as good as it gets in terms of an idea for a war movie.
Heroes give us confidence
A nation needs heroes. Heroes give us a sense of confidence as Citizens, and that confidence can lead to more heroic actions, which then spurs more confidence. When we hear about what a brave Canadian like Leo Major was able to accomplish, it helps us get a better sense of what Canadians are capable of, and what our country means not only to ourselves but to the world.
Leo Major showed courage, ingenuity, and defiance in the face of a massive concentration of enemy troops, troops who were part of a genocidal war machine. At a time when authoritarian regimes like China and Russia are building up for a broader war, Leo Major sets an example of how Canadians can respond in the face of fear.
Yet many Canadians have never heard about Leo Major, because for too long, Canada has embraced a sense of humility that – while beneficial in some respects – has gone too far.
At a time when our nation is having a crisis of confidence, when many have doubts about the future, and when our identity seems to be up in the air, we need heroic stories now more than ever.
Canadians are capable of amazing things, and we have much to be proud of as a country. Our future can be prosperous and free, but only if we summon the strength and the courage to confront our challenges and rise above them.
We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.
And to help make it happen, we need to start telling more stories about Canadian heroes like Leo Major.
Spencer Fernando
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