SASKATOON -- Moose Cree man Charles Henry Byce was the most decorated Indigenous soldier from the Second World War, being awarded both the Military Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
鈥淛ust to think that dad went from residential school to Buckingham Palace, where he was decorated by King George VI on July 13, 1945,鈥� his son, Richard Byce, told CTVNews.ca in a video interview.
Byce passed away in 1994 and on Sept. 17, 2016, a bronze bust of Byce was unveiled in his hometown of Chapleau, Ont., outside the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
He earned the Military Medal for his actions during a fighting patrol while crossing the Maas River in the Netherlands in January 1945. His unit snuck across enemy lines in an attempt to capture and interrogate German soldiers. Byce took out several enemy combatants during the mission and managed to capture one. But his unit took enemy fire and the prisoner was killed. Byce, however, stayed behind until he removed the soldier鈥檚 identification and brought it back to military headquarters.
Only six weeks later, on March 2, 1945, he went on to earn the Distinguished Conduct Medal, after he single-handedly destroyed an enemy tank near the Hochwald forest in northwest Germany. Byce was forced to assume command after his superiors were killed. When his unit was overrun by enemy soldiers, he told his men to retreat while he acted as a sniper. He remained until his men were safe.
鈥淣ot bad for a little Cree boy from Chapleau, Ont.,鈥� Frank Byce, Byce鈥檚 other son, said in a CTVNews.ca video interview. Byce enlisted despite his relatively small frame of 5鈥�6鈥� tall and 57 kg weight.
Byce鈥檚 accomplishments are especially noteworthy because 21 years earlier during the First World War, his non-Indigenous father, Henry, had also earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the French Medaille militaire.
Both of Byces鈥� medals are on display in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
STOLEN BOOTS
The brothers explained that it was only in the last few years that they started to learn the extent of what their father accomplished during the Second World War. And it was even more recently when they fully learned what their father had endured and survived while attending St. John's Indian Residential School in Chapleau, Ont.
鈥淢y grandmother had seven children and at one time, there were six of them in the residential school,鈥� Frank Byce said.
His father was only five years old when he was forcefully taken from his family. During a Christmas-time visit, Byce鈥檚 mother, Louisa, a Cree woman from Moose Factory, Ont., was dismayed when she saw someone had stolen her son鈥檚 boots, which had caused his feet to turn black and frozen. No one at the school had replaced them and Byce had to be carried by one of his older brothers.
When Byce went on to serve in the military as a young man, he enjoyed freedoms and equality he hadn鈥檛 experienced while living in Canada, the Byce brothers said. But when he returned from the war, they said their father still faced many of the same prejudices he鈥檇 experienced before he left.
Richard Byce said it was disappointing that people were able to curb their racism while they were fighting alongside Indigenous men, but they hadn鈥檛 fought to end the systemic racism after the war.
鈥淏ecause anybody that came out of that Hochwald Forest came out of there alive because of Charlie Byce.鈥�
