41 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND BAWTINHEIMER, John Westley John was born in South Porcupine, Ontario on December 17, 1913. He joined the Army (Regular Force) with the RCAMC on September 11, 1941, as a Private and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant after being commissioned in 1945. Although he volunteered for the Pacific Theatre, he was never sent there. John was released on January 25, 1946. After the war, he moved to Thunder Bay and worked as an Addiction Councilor at St. Joseph Hospital. He was a resident of Thunder Bay from 1965 until his passing on April 7, 1983. BENTON, John A. “Jack” Jack served as Warrant Officer in the Air Force (Regular Force). He received the Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-1945, 1939-1945 Star, and Burma Star. Jack was a 26-year member of The Royal Canadian Legion Milton Wesley Branch 426 and was the president of the branch in 1977. He sat as executive member for four years. Jack passed away on January 12, 2001. BELYK, Frank William Frank was born in Hafford, Saskatchewan in 1925. He joined the Army (Regular Force) with the Royal Regiment of Canada in January 1944. He trained in Petawawa and embarked from Canada on June 22, 1944. The Lee-Enfield had its bolt on the right side of the rifle. Frank was left-handed and would have to use a cross-over motion to cock the gun. He advised his commanding officer and was given a position of medic. In September 1944, in Holland as part of Operation Market Garden, his platoon was observing a farmhouse from a ditch. The platoon came out of the ditch and under fire from Nazi artillery. Frank was wounded in the neck by shrapnel and fell back into the ditch. A Canadian soldier was dead beside him and a wounded German soldier to his left. As he bent over the German to dress a wound, a bullet passed by his head and he heard the bolt action of a rifle behind him. The wounded German he was treating shouted “halt, halt” and the German behind him did not fire. Taken prisoner Frank spent the rest of the war in Stalag 11B. He was released from service in August 1945. Frank died on May 14, 2015.
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