John KOTCHAPAW^[1]

• Name	John KOTCHAPAW
  Gender	Male
  _UID	CFA8119DDC858D49A4247536B3AF909C5D46
  Death	Winnipeg, , Manitoba, Canada
  Person ID	I37299	Ryeland Family Tree
  Last Modified	19 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	William Gorsline KOTCHAPAW,   b. 28 Jul 1891, Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada d. 5 Oct 1971, Winnipeg, , Manitoba, Canada (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Bessie Alison BROWN,   b. 14 Jun 1894, Toronto, , Ontario, Canada d. 7 May 1965, Winnipeg, , Manitoba, Canada (Age 70 years)
  Marriage	23 Dec 1916	Winnipeg, , Manitoba, Canada
  Family ID	F5887	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Death - - Winnipeg, , Manitoba, Canada  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Bill wrote to his Dad on May 24, 1944: "It is one year since I got worn into the Army & believe me it has been quite a busy year. And now here I sit on the eve of an invasion "ready" for battle. When it comes, it is going to be plenty tough & alot of fellows will be dead. What I am afraid of most is not death; but being hit & suffer a permanent injury or ailment....In the army you find out what a home really is and what it means. Thanks for the home & thanks for everything." On July 25, 1944 Bill wrote:" Have to start saving me a little money after this leave. for I've got a strong hankering to take Medicine if I can rise t the occaion. You'd know what I meant if you were in Normandy." A major wrote to his father Bill about his death on Sept 10,1944: "The company ws making an attack on a strongly held German position when we came under some very heavy mortar fire. Not with standing, "Kotch" as he was affectionately called by all of us, contnued to lead his platoon forward to his objective and he had just reached it when he was killed instantly by blast from a mortar bomb that felll within a few yards of him. We buried him in a little glade near where he fell together with some oh his men who were alos killed. Our padre conducted a service over them.... Kotch's men have asked me to say that never will they have another platoon commander who they will follow with the same confidence." The finest tribute I can pay is to say that to have 30 men with such implicit faith in you that they will follow wherever you lead is a fine memorial to one of the most honest, goodlooking men I have ever known."

  
  

• Sources

  [S193] Betty Alison AUSLANDER nee ENGLISH, Betty Alison AUSLANDER nee ENGLISH Email.