How did one man liberate a whole city from occupation by an army? It sounds like something from a Rambo film but this scenario actually occurred during World War II.
Sergeant Léo Major was a French Canadian soldier in the Canadian infantry regiment in the Second World War. He was the only Canadian to ever receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal twice in separate wars.
Major grew up in Montreal and was 19 when he joined the army in the summer of 1940.
On D-Day Major was taking part in a reconnaissance mission in France as part of the Allied landings. His first significant achievement was capturing a German armoured vehicle single-handed. The vehicle contained German communication equipment and secret German Army codes.
A few days later, Major encountered an SS patrol for the first time. He killed four soldiers but one of them managed to light a phosphorus grenade. After the explosion from the grenade, Major lost an eye but he continued to fight. He carried on serving as a scout and sniper insisting he only needed one eye to sight his weapon.
In the summer of 1944, Major was stationed in the Netherlands. He took part in the Battle of the Scheldt, where he single-handedly captured 93 German soldiers during the battle. During a reconnaissance mission whilst alone, he spotted two German soldiers walking along a dike. He captured the first German and attempted to use him as bait to capture the other. The second attempted to use his gun, but Major quickly killed him. He went on to capture their commanding officer and forced him to surrender. The German garrison surrendered completely after three more were shot dead by Major. In a nearby village, SS troops who witnessed German soldiers being escorted by a Canadian soldier shot at their own soldiers, injuring a few and killing seven. Major ignored the enemy fire and kept escorting his prisoners to the Canadian front line. He then ordered a passing Canadian tank to fire on the SS troops.
He marched back to camp with nearly a hundred prisoners. As a result of his actions, he was chosen to receive a Distinguished Conduct Medal but declined the invitation to be decorated by General Montgomery, who was giving the award, due to his disdain for the man.
In February 1945, Major was helping load corpses from a destroyed tank into an armoured carrier vehicle. After the bodies were loaded, the carrier set off with Major sitting on the back of the vehicle. The carrier soon struck a land mine. His body was thrown into the air and smashed down to the ground landing on his back. He lost consciousness and was transported to a field hospital 30 miles away, stopping every 15 minutes to inject morphine to relieve the pain in his back.
A doctor at the hospital informed him that he had broken his back in three places, four ribs, and both ankles. They told Major that the war was over for him. A week went by and Major had the opportunity to flee. He managed to get a ride from a passing jeep that drove him to Nijmegen, a town where he had previously met a family. He stayed with that family for nearly a month. He went back to his unit in March 1945.
On the night of 13th April 1945, Major single-handedly liberated the city of Zwolle in the Netherlands from German army occupation. This action earned him his first Distinguished Conduct Medal.
In the beginning of April, Major’s infantry regiment were approaching Zwolle, which offered strong German resistance. The Commanding Officer asked for two volunteers to investigate the German force before the artillery began firing at the city. Private Major and his friend Corporal Willie Arseneault stepped forward to undertake the task. In order to keep the city intact, the pair decided to try to capture Zwolle alone, though they were only supposed to study the German numbers and attempt contact with the Dutch Resistance.
Around midnight his friend was killed by German fire after accidentally giving away the team’s position. Enraged, Major killed two of the Germans, but the rest of the group fled in a vehicle. He decided to continue his mission alone. Upon entering Zwolle he came upon a staff car. He ambushed and captured the German driver, and then led him to a bar where an officer was taking a drink. Inside he found that they could both speak French, and Major told him that at 6:00 am Canadian artillery would begin firing at the city, causing numerous casualties among both the German troops and the civilians. As a sign of good faith, he gave the German his gun back.
Major then proceeded to run through the city firing his machine gun, throwing grenades and making so much noise that he fooled the Germans into thinking that the Canadian Army was storming the city in earnest. As he was doing this, he would attack and capture German troops. About 10 times during the night he captured groups of 8 to 10 German soldiers, escorted them out of the city and gave them to the French-Canadian troops that were waiting in the vicinity. After transferring his prisoners to the troops, he would return to Zwolle to continue his assault. However, four times during the night he had to force his way into civilians’ houses to get some rest. He eventually located the Gestapo HQ and set the building on fire. Later stumbling upon the SS HQ, he got into a quick but deadly fight with eight ranking Nazi officers: four were killed, and the other half fled. He noticed that two of the SS he just killed were disguised as resistance members. The Zwolle resistance had been (or were going to be) infiltrated by the Nazis.
By 4:30 am, the exhausted Major found out that the Germans had retreated. Zwolle had been liberated, and the Resistance contacted. Walking in the street he met four members of the Dutch Resistance. He informed them that the city was now free of Germans.
Major found out later that morning that the Germans had fled to the west of the River IJssel and, perhaps more importantly, that the planned shelling of the city would be called off and his Régiment de la Chaudière could enter the city unopposed. Major then took his dead friend back to the Van Gerner farm until regimental reinforcements could carry him away. He was back at camp by 9:00 am. It was for these actions that he received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Léo Major later fought in the Korean War, where he was awarded a bar to his Distinguished Conduct Medal to indicate he received the medal a second time, for capturing and holding a key hill.
This position was being controlled by a US Infantry Division of around 10,000 men when a Chinese Army group of around 40,000 men lowered a significant artillery barrage. Over the next two days, the Americans were pushed back by Chinese divisions.
They tried to recapture the hill, but without any success, and the Chinese had moved to a nearby hill, practically surrounding the US forces. In order to relieve pressure, a US commanding officer brought up an elite scout and sniper team led by Léo Major. Major and his 18 men silently crept up the hill. At a signal, Major’s men opened fire with their machine guns, which panicked the Chinese who were trying to understand why the firing was coming from the centre of their troops instead of from the outside. By 12:45 am they had retaken the hill.
However, an hour later two Chinese divisions totalling around 14,000 men counter-attacked. Major was ordered to retreat, but refused and found limited cover for his men. There he managed to hold the enemy off throughout the night.
For three days his men held off multiple Chinese counter-assaults until reinforcements arrived. It was for these actions, Major was awarded the bar to the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Major died in Quebec, Canada on 12 October 2008, aged 87. He was survived by his wife of 57 years and their four children.