Omer Lalonde, son of Joseph and Eugénie Perreault of L’Orignal, was born on November 5, 1919.

In 1941, at the age of 22, he voluntarily joined the Infantry. After a month of basic training at Farnham, he received his orders to go to Halifax for overseas deployment.

The young soldier from the de Maisonneuve Regiment of Montreal headed for Caen in Normandy, where he was responsible for landing the ship’s Bren-Gun Carrier. Upon their arrival at the Front, the soldiers found themselves facing heavy German fire. The Major on the Bren Carrier was shot and killed. A friend, Raymond Beaudry, was wounded by a bullet to the shoulder that exited through his mouth! Omer hastened to rescue him and take him to an abandoned house behind the firing line until an ambulance came to pick him up. The wounded received an injection and a black mark on their forehead, to indicate to hospital staff that the wounded man had received his injection.

Despite many deaths, the regiment’s advance towards Belgium continued. Omer Lalonde was hospitalized briefly because of “leg poisoning” caused by long marches through high brush, contaminated with the residue of bullets, shelling, etc.

He returned to the Front and ended up in Holland for two months. One of his tasks was to bury soldiers who had died in combat. It was an onerous and challenging duty: removing identification tags and personal objects, placing them in bags, taking photographs, and burying the deceased in a mass grave. It was during that time that Omer met Jean Bissonnette of L’Orignal, then provost marshal (military police) in the army. Omer Lalonde and his regiment continued their advance towards Germany, but while enroute, the war ended.

Among his many wartime memories, Omer often mentioned the food that was neither varied nor abundant: mainly corned beef and hardtack (tough cookies that had to be soaked in water to be eaten). However, while in Holland, a baker had taken pity on them and offered them bread!