Gabriel John Turcotte was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to Leonidas and Wilhelmina Turcotte. His father died when Gabriel was only three years old. He left school after Grade VII so he and his brother could support their mother and three sisters. Despite having left school early, he was able to read and write well in both French and English. Gabriel had worked five years as a farm labourer in McKague, Saskatchewan and another year with the Canadian National Railway when he enlisted in the Canadian Army in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on 22 July 1941 at Number 12A District Depot. He was assigned to the Royal Canadian Engineers and stated his desire at the time was to train as a carpenter.
Gabriel completed his basic training at Number 120 Basic Training Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan and then sent to A6 Canadian Engineer Training Centre in Camp Dundurn. On 12 December 1941, he embarked from Halifax, Nova Scotia and arrived in the United Kingdom on 23 December and sent to the Canadian Engineer Reinforcement Unit in Hawley in southern England, for continued training. On 13 March, he was posted to the 1st Battalion, RCE and participated in the many construction and defence works projects they completed. In December 1942, he returned to the CERU, now qualified as a Carpenter Group ‘C’. He was soon qualified Driver Class ‘C’ and sent on a Driver Operator course in June after which he was posted to the Survey Reinforcement Unit. In November 1942, he was assigned to Number 5 Topographic Section, a platoon-sized element of the 2nd Field Survey Company. In May 1944, Gabriel was moved to Number 6 Topographic Section and prepared for action on the Continent. After an overnight crossing of the Channel, he arrived in France on 1 August 1944.
Canadian survey units were very often located near the front lines where maps could be quickly distributed to units. Gabriel's unit was close enough in the crowded Normandy Beachhead that on 8 August 1944 during Operation TOTALIZE, nine men were killed and 15 wounded when American bombers dropped their loads short just south of Caen. As the enemy withdrew from Normandy and fled towards Belgium, the demand for maps increased to the point that integral transport from the survey companies was marshalled into a Survey Depot by the end of August. First Canadian Army carried a stock of maps that weighed over 250 tons. Army HQ was the main client of the survey companies and they were usually located nearby, while detachments were often forward with the advancing divisions. A key reason was to keep artillery units ‘on-grid’. Without continued map updates and traverse lines, the accuracy and effectiveness of supporting fire would be lost. After nearly four months of keeping First Canadian Army on track, the 2nd Field Survey Company HQ and the 6th Topographic Section had just moved into new billets in a château at Maria-ter-Heide, just northeast of Antwerp on the morning of 28 October. From there, survey parties would be sent forward.
The area around the château was heavily mined. It is important to remember that all members of survey companies were sappers first. Clearing parties started workingh immediately, finding disarming and fencing off mines and booby traps. Lt Hudson, L/Cpl E. W. Gibbons and Spr G. J. Turcotte, were one such crew. They soon discovered a slit trench filled with explosives and mines about 70 yards to the north of the château with a booby-trap switch and a trip wire attached to the entire lot. After Lt Hudson safely disarmed the trap, the three were asked by a civilian farmer to clear some mines near the gateway leading into the camp. At 1130 hours, one of the mines, likely a booby trapped S-mine, exploded and killed all three as well as a Belgian labourer standing nearby.
That afternoon, Lieutenant Robert Philip Hudson, Lance-Corporal Ernest Wilfred Gibbons and Sapper Gabriel Turcotte were buried in the Pelouse d’Honneur in the parish churchyard of St. Joseph Wuestwezel in the village of Gooreind. While two of his comrades were later moved the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery in Antwerp, Sapper Turcotte’s grave remains in the churchyard. There is one other military grave in this cemetery belonging to Gunner Alan John Taylor of the Royal Artillery who died a few days earlier.
Side Note: the Château at Maria-ter-Heide had been used as a prison by German forces and there were many graves of executed prisoners on the site. The company’s war diary reports that the company was badly shaken by the incident. There area strong feeling the château was haunted and the unit’s Padre, H/Capt Hall was unsuccessful is dispelling the myth. However, they stayed there and continued their survey work for some weeks.
Return to Part 5: Tributes to the Fallen Sappers of the Scheldt
