Legendary soldier who led Canadian paratroopers on D-Day has died
John Ward
Canadian Press
Thursday, March 30, 2006
OTTAWA (CP) - James Hill, a legendary British soldier who commanded the Canadian paratroopers who dropped into France on D-Day, has died at the age of 95.
Brigadier Hill inspired devotion among his soldiers, especially the rough-hewn young men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, which was part of Hill's 3rd British parachute brigade.
They were prepared to follow the big, brawny brigadier "down the barrel of a gun," said historian Terry Copp of Wilfrid Laurier University, who knew Hill in his later years.
"He is an icon of all airborne soldiers not only British but Canadian, of course, and he's well known to American airborne forces as well," said 83-year-old Ronald Anderson of Toronto, who was a platoon sergeant in the Canadian battalion under Hill.
"He wrote the book on leadership, as far as I'm concerned."
Hill was one of the last men evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk when the British army was driven from France in 1940 and he was in the vanguard when the allies returned to the continent in 1944.
On D-Day, Hill's brigade was scattered far and wide by contrary winds during the parachute drop, Copp says.
"He landed about 30 miles away from the drop zone where he was supposed to be. He gathered together a number of people, partly his headquarters group but partly just stragglers, and started walking."
The group was strafed by their own aircraft under the illusion that anyone walking toward the landing zones would have been German.
"He was wounded in, as he would say, the right bum cheek," Copp said. "He made it the rest of the way on a bicycle and then commanded the brigade for the next two days, as he said, sitting on his left bum cheek."
The historian once asked Hill why he wasn't evacuated to hospital.
"He said he hadn't trained the brigade for all that time in order to leave it in the midst of the action."
Anderson said Hill led from the front, armed only with a long, carved, ebony walking stick.
"I remember being under fire in Germany as a lead platoon and within four or five minutes the brigadier was at my back with his poke stick," Anderson recalled.
"He used to poke me in the back with a smile on his face when I was cowering in a ditch somewhere. He would poke me and say, "Son we've got to do something about this.'
"Which meant get up off your ass and move ahead."
A graduate of Sandhurst, the British military academy, Hill left the army in the 1930s for a business career, but rejoined with the outbreak of war.
He became a paratroop expert and first fought in North Africa, where he was badly wounded. He was flown home and told he would be pensioned off.
"He said I didn't join the army to get a pension," Anderson remembered.
He was eventually tapped for command of the 3rd brigade, which included the Canadians.
He led the brigade from Normandy in 1944 to the shore of the Baltic Sea in 1945.
He had a paternal regard for the Canadians, whose average age was 22 and who exhibited a sometimes frightening taste for action.
"He always said he had to watch the Canadians carefully because he didn't want a bunch of dead heroes," Copp said. "He thought they were all young and little more anxious to get get at the enemy than the circumstances required."
Hill was twice awarded the Distinguished Service order and the Military Cross for his bravery and leadership.
Copp said Hill was both a superb commander and a great leader.
"Some people are good commanders because they have the technical skills and some are good leaders but you don't always get the two combined.
"James was an exceptionally skilled soldier . . . but at the same time he had the leadership qualities that made men want to follow him down the barrel of a gun."
"That's exactly it," said Anderson.
He said when the Canadians were heading for home after the war, Hill showed up at the rail station and insisted on shaking the hand of every one of the 700 left in the battalion.
"He told the engine driver you aren't going anywhere until I've had the chance to shake hands with every man here and thank him."
After the war, Hill returned to business. He worked in Montreal in the 1950s and was an honoured guest at many paratrooper reunions.
One of his last trips to Canada was a decade ago, when the Canadian Airborne Regiment was disbanded after the Somalia affair. Hill insisted on being at the final parade, Anderson said.
"He said they're not going to hang up our colours without me there."
Hill, who died last week in a nursing home in Chichester, England, will be buried in a full military funeral organized by the Parachute Regiment on April 5. Brig.-Gen. R. R. Romsie, a Canadian officer who spent two years on exchange with the British paras, will represent Canada.
Anderson said Hill planned the details of the funeral, down to the readings and the music.
"He wanted a rousing service. He didn't want anything sombre. No dirges. That's typical."
James Hill was born March 14, 1911 and died March 16, 2006.