By Jimmy Hilgen

Where do I start this most incredible journey which had its highlight in July 2023?

A good question, so I think it’s best to start at the beginning!

In the Summer of 2019 I was on holiday in Sicily reading the book “Operation Husky”. It was about the first major Allied landing where the Canadians took part in during the Second World War after the ill-fated Dieppe raid in August 1942. I always sensed an interest for Operation Husky but why? I think because it was one of the lesser known campaigns during the war. Most of the stories and movies are about the well-known battles and operations like Market Garden, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Pacific and so on.

During the holiday in Sicily it made me curious to see the places like Pachino, Enna, Agira, Assoro, Leonforte etc to see and feel where the boys had been during the campaign in Sicily. I also wrote down the names mentioned in the book, so I could look their graves up at Agira Canadian War Cemetery. To be honest, I had never heard of Agira let alone about the Canadian War Cemetery there. I live in The Netherlands which was liberated for the largest part by the Canadians and near my hometown is a large Canadian War Cemetery. 

I tried to find some online information about monuments and places where the Canadians had been during Operation Husky. Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot to be found online, so I needed to do it with the information from the book. Luckily my wife, who doesn’t have any interest in war history and sometimes hopes to go to places where the Second World War didn’t take place, wanted to join me to the various places mentioned above. 

After seeing the places and being blown away by the beauty of Agira Canadian War Cemetery I decided to set up a Facebook group called Agira Canadian War Cemetery. Back in The Netherlands there were various groups online where photos from the men buried at for instance Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery were shown. I always missed the additional information with the photos. I wanted to know more about the lads and not only to see a photo with a name, so that’s why I started this page to dig in deeper in the stories of the “Agira men”. 

Back home I started collecting photos from the lads buried at Agira Canadian War Cemetery. At first with little information which was available online but later I had found out that there were websites with all the military files. What surprised me was that there was quite some interest in the Facebook group mainly from Canada, but also from Italy and other countries. 

Somewhere in January 2021 one of the followers of the Facebook group, Mr Roger Chabot from Canada, sent me a message that he wanted to talk to me during a video call about a plan he had. Of course I was interested and Roger told me that he made documentaries about Canadian soldiers in the Second World War. Roger, a former Canadian soldier and also a war artist, and I had a very nice first conversation online. Roger asked me if I was able to come to Sicily in November 2021 when he was planning to go there with a film crew to shoot documentaries about Operation Husky and the Canadians in Sicily and later on Italy. He wanted me to be there with my knowledge about the men buried at Agira Canadian War Cemetery. Of course I couldn’t refuse such an offer, but going there with my wife wasn’t going to give her a pleasant stay there. 

Just some months before Roger’s offer I had teamed up with my buddy Tjarco Schuurman who I knew from earlier meetings we had at our favorite B&B in the Belgian Ardennes. We both shared the same interest in the Second World War and Tjarco often went to the Ardennes with his father Simon to visit commemorations and search for places where the Americans had fought. Tjarco was also following the Agira Canadian War Cemetery Facebook page. We had been doing some battlefield research in the area around Nijmegen where Operation Veritable took place too, so I asked him if he would like to join me in November 2021. This was something he didn’t want to miss too, so plans were made and together we had several online meetings with Roger. One small thing; Tjarco didn’t know anything about Operation Husky (yes only that it took place in Sicily).

In the Summer of 2021 Tjarco and I thought about doing “something” for November 2021 to make it extra special. We had been at Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in The Netherlands several times during Faces to Graves. This Dutch based organization places photos in front of the headstones on the cemetery. We knew this was also done at other Commonwealth war cemeteries in The Netherlands, but we had never seen this in Italy. Here the seed was planted for Faces of Agira.

We had collected over 350 photos from the “Agira men”. I write “about” because we forgot to count the exact amount of photos… Anyway, all photos were printed, but needed to be cut out and laminated too. This was something we did on a Sunday in September when we got help from Simon to complete our Faces of Agira photos.

In the first week of November we went to Sicily and it was Tjarco’s first time there. Despite it being November the weather was ok and we went to a hotel near Enna where Roger and his crew also stayed. Another Canadian who we also met online a couple of times, Mr Steve Gregory, was also there. We knew that Steve had done several large commemorations in Sicily in 2013 and 2018. Meeting Steve, Roger and the film crew was amazing and we felt we had a mission to give more attention to the Canadians in Sicily. 

We also met our Sicilian friends Santino and Salvatore for the first time and later on our friend and retired general Mario too. 

Roger and Steve had asked us to do a Roll Call at Agira Canadian War Cemetery during a commemoration and we had picked one soldier from every Canadian Province. To give it a Dutch twist we also added one of the two Dutchmen buried at the cemetery to the list; Sergeant Ted Kroon. In the meanwhile we had placed the 350 photos in front of the headstones for the ceremony. Due to severe weather predictions the commemorations at the cemetery were cancelled and held in a sports facility in Agira. 

After the commemoration in Agira we went with the Canadians to the cemetery and this was a very emotional moment. Roger and Steve were touched by seeing all these photos, but what made the most impression on us all was the fact that the two gardeners of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission came to us and told us in Italian that they worked there for many years and for the first time they saw a face to the grave they cared for… 

We promised to try and find all 490 photos for the 80 years remembrance in July 2023 and place these.

When we were back in The Netherlands we started with the help of volunteers and Regimental Associations to find more photos from the Agira men. Oh and before I forget, we also set up an official foundation: D-Day Dodgers Foundation as an honour to the so called D-Day Dodgers, the Allied soldiers in Italy. 

In March 2022 we went back to Sicily for a battlefieldtour on the island but this time also the British and American sectors. A week with many impressions and meeting new and old friends on the island. To our surprise the photos were still there while we had an arrangement with the CWGC that they would only remain there for two weeks in November 2021.

July 2023 seemed so far away, but we did a lot of searching and contacting people in Canada and the UK for photos. We also thought if would be nice if the lads buried at both Catania and Syracuse War Cemeteries weren’t forgotten, so with help from our volunteers we found many photos from these cemeteries too (over 800 in total). Tjarco also came in contact with the relatives of Sergeant Ted Kroon who was original from Hillegom, Netherlands. He visited the nephew (named after his uncle) and niece and told them about their uncle. We got a photo from one of their family albums for our collection. If you want to know more about Ted, go to our Facebook pages or maybe we will make a blog about him in the near future.

Before the Summer of 2023 we had the photos of the Agira men printed on special foam plastic boards and shipped to one of our local friends in the Agira area. We didn’t want to do the same like in November 2021 when we had one suitcase filled with photos and wooden sticks to place the photos in the ground. 

Then the big week came in July! Something we had looked out to for a very long time! 

It was supposed to be the icing on the cake. The kick off wasn’t like we had in mind due to a fire on Catania airport and some inconveniences which you don’t want to have when starting a trip. 

The inconveniences didn’t hold us off from having a fantastic and unforgettable week! In the prelude to the whole commemorations we had many video calls with Steve Gregory and his team and we had brought him in contact with the pipers and drummers of the 48^th Highlanders of Holland and the re-enactors of “A Canadian Soldier” both from The Netherlands. Both groups were wearing uniforms of the 48^th Highlanders of Canada, one of the regiments who fought in Sicily in July and August 1943. Two amazing groups of people!

We attended at various commemorations organized by Steve Gregory and his Walk For Remembrance and Peace team where we were also a part of with our D-Day Dodgers Foundation. A march had taken off at 10 July on the beaches south of Pachino all the way in the footsteps of the 1^st Canadian Infantry Division. In every town liberated by the Canadians commemorations were held for both the local Sicilian casualties as the Canadian ones. 

Our stay in Agira was one we won’t ever forget. The locals were very open and helpful to us and the re-enactors who stayed in barracks of the Civilian Protection got food and drinks every night (grazie Bennie and Gabriel). We had asked the re-enactors and Bennie and Gabriel of the Civilian Protection if they were able to help and even a lady from Scotland, whose uncle in buried at Catania War Cemetery and who we came in contact with while looking for photos from Catania men, came over to help us placing the photos in front of the headstones at Agira Canadian War Cemetery. It was amazing to see that the re-enactors of A Canadian Soldier were there in the heat in their original khaki drill uniforms and after the placing of the photos, 474 in total, we had goosebumps despite it being 43c on the cemetery… It was so special to be seeing all these photos in front of the headstones! 

We also had the idea of placing electric candles on the headstones on the day of the big remembrance which would take place on July 29. 

During our week in Sicily we did so many unforgettable things like taking the re-enactors to an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere which was a Canadian Aid Station in July 1943 during the Battle for Monte Assoro. We reminded the re-enactors that they were possibly the first men in Canadian uniforms in that building since July 1943. The building itself was nothing more than a carcass with cacti growing out of the roof, but the silent witnesses were still there with bullet and shrapnel holes. 

What we will never forget either was the meeting of relatives of Canadian soldiers buried at the cemetery. For the first time they had visited the graves of their loved ones; Private Emile Banville, Trooper Reuben Earl Heerebout, Lance Corporal James Frederick Giggey. It was special to be standing at their side when they kneeled down for the first time at their loved ones graves…

Also unforgettable were the commemorations in Leonforte, Assoro, Enna, Agira, Catenanuova and Nissoria. Last but not least was our trip with the Kroon family who had made the trip to Sicily too and stayed in the same B&B as we did. They had never been to Sicily before and had never visited their uncle’s grave. Ted Kroon’s nephew (82) and niece (86) saw their uncle’s grave for the first time in their life. A very emotional moment to be a part of. At the end of the week we took them on a battlefieldtour towards the spot near Ispica where their uncle was killed during an air raid by the Italian Air Force. 

All in all it was an epic week which we won’t ever forget and where we are very proud of. 

Did I forget something? Oh yes, the commemoration on July 29!

On July 29 in the afternoon the large commemoration at Agira Canadian War Cemetery took place. Many people were there to attend and place the candles at the headstone and a roll call was held by Steve Gregory. Each and every name was called on the cemetery and people standing at the grave had to say: “present!” After the sun had set the view of all the candles was magical.

The icing on the cake wasn’t for me unfortunately. Due to cancellation of my flight the next day I had to go back home when the candles ceremony took place. With mixed feelings I boarded the airplane towards The Netherlands, but looking back it was good. We had done so many beautiful things and witnessed so many beautiful moments that it was ok to be going home again and have vacation with my family.