A Soldier’s Life: Tommy Prince

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* Lecture Notes *

Sergeant Thomas George Prince, M.M. (1915-77) was one of the most decorated non-commissioned officers in Canadian military history. Of Ojibwa descent, Prince was born into a large family on the Brokenhead Band (formerly St Peter's reserve), north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He enlisted in the army in 1940 and began his military career as a sapper with the Royal Canadian Engineers. During the Second World War, he distinguished himself in battle in Italy and in France. He trained with the 1st Canadian Special Service Force and became a paratrooper. The "Devil's Brigade," as the Germans came to call the Special Service Force, took Prince to Italy in 1944. On one occasion, he was ordered to maintain surveillance at an abandoned farmhouse approximately 200 metres from the enemy lines. Connected to his battalion by some 1400 metres of telephone wire, Prince radioed updates about artillery placements. When the communication line was cut by dropping shells during his watch, Prince put on civilian clothes and pretended to be a farmer hoeing his field. Slowly making his way down the line he fixed the severed line and continued his reports. He repaired damaged lines a number of times in this manner during his 24 hour posting. With the information he provided, four German positions were destroyed and Prince earned the Military Medal.

Six months later, Prince's unit was stationed in Southern France.He and another soldier went behind enemy lines to locate gun sites and an encampment area. They then walked back 70 kilometres to make their report. For this bravery Prince received his recommendation for the Silver Star - an American decoration for gallantry in action. After the fighting was finished, King George VI summoned Prince to London and awarded him the Silver Star and ribbon on behalf of the President of the United States. There were only 59 Canadians awarded the Silver Star, and of those three also wore the Military Medal. Prince was in elite company.

Prince, was discharged at war's end, served briefly as the chairman of the Manitoba Indian Association, and then re-enlisted with the infantry to serve with the Canadian army in the Korean War. There he earned another three campaign medals, bringing his total to eleven in all - the most ever held by a Canadian Indian. His previous service provided him with important experience, but had also taken its toll physically: at thirty-five he was developing arthritis in his knees, made all the more painful because of cartilage damage from his days as a paratrooper. Patrolling in the rugged Korean hills caused him great discomfort, and he was assigned - against his objections - to less arduous duties overseas before being posted to a training position at Camp Borden. Ever the warrior, Prince felt that his knees improved sufficiently to apply for a second tour of duty in Korea with 3rd Battalion PPCLI. The military approved his application, and by 17 November 1952 he found himself leading a reconnaissance patrol into no man's land. In a fire fight with a much stronger enemy patrol, Prince was wounded, as were three other Patricias. Despite his own injury, he carried one of them on his back to the safety of the UN lines. A few days later, however, he left a man in the field and denied it - a symptom of the psychological trauma he had endured. By the time the war ended, Prince walked with a noticeable limp and was discharged from the army with a disability pension. He descended into alcoholism and poverty, and he died in 1977 at the age of 62.

 

Reading:

Veterans Affairs Canada, "Prince of the Brigade" (Second World War) http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/other/native/prince

VAC, "Prince Returns to Battle" (Korean War) http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/other/native/prince2

 

Further Reading:

 

P. Whitney Lackenbauer, "'A Hell of a Warrior': Remembering Sergeant Thomas George Prince," Journal of Historical Biography 1/1 (Spring 2007). 26-79.

Mackenzie Porter, “Warrior: Sergeant Tommy Prince,” Maclean's 65/17 (September 1952), reprinted and introduced by P.W. Lackenbauer, Canadian Military History 16/2 (Spring 2007).

"Sgt. Tommy Prince: the most decorated Canadian Aboriginal veteran"http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cascadiaGPS/prince1.htm

 Fallen Hero: The Tommy Prince Story, 1999. Filmwest Associates Distribution Ltd.
http://www.filmwest.com/Catalogue/videodetail/1069/

Sealey, D. Bruce and Peter Van de Vyvere. Thomas George Prince. Manitobans in Profile Series. Winnipeg: Peguis, 1981.

 

On Native Peoples and the Second World War

P. Whitney Lackenbauer, John Moses, Scott Sheffield, and Maxime Gohier, A Commemorative History of Aboriginal People in the Canadian Military, Department of National Defence, 2010.

Davison, Janet F. We Shall Remember: Canadian Indians and World War II, M.A. Thesis, 1992, Trent University.

Gaffen, Fred. Forgotten Soldiers. Penticton, B.C.: Theytus Books, 1985.

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), "Veterans" in Report of the RCAP. Vol.1. Ottawa: Supply and Services, 1996.

Sheffield, R. Scott. "The Red Man's on the Warpath": The Image of the 'Indian'in the Second World War. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004.

--- "A Search for Equity: A Study of the Treatment Accorded to First Nations Veterans and Dependents of the Second World War and the Korean Conflict." National Round Table on First Nations Veterans' Issues, April 2001. Available online at: http://www.turtleisland.org/news/afnvets.pdf

--- and H. Foster. "Fighting the King's War: Harris Smallfence, Verbal Treaty Promises and the Conscription of Indian Men, 1944," UBC Law Review 33/1 (1999). 53-74.

---. "'In the Same Manner as Other People': Government Policy and the Military Service of Canada's First Nations People, 1939-1945." M.A. thesis, 1995, University of Victoria.

---. "'Of Pure European Descent and of the White Race': Recruitment Policy and Aboriginal Canadians, 1939-1945," Canadian Military History 5/1 (Spring 1996), 8-15.

Stevenson, M.D. "The Mobilisation of Native Canadians During the Second World War," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (1996). 205-226.

Summerby, Janice. Native Soldiers, Foreign Battlefields. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1993.

 

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