William Alexander “Bill” Ewener was born in London in 1905, and in 1908 immigrated with his family to Canada, where they settled in Sarnia Ontario.

In an article published on 5 June 2019, the Globe & Mail describes the experiences of Sapper John Schaupmeyer who landed with Sapper Walter Richard Coveyduck in the 5^th Field Company. To add some perspective around Sapper Coveyduck's actions that morning, parts of that article are repeated below.

"Half an hour after they had set foot on French soil on D-Day, Sapper John Schaupmeyer and his fellow combat engineers remained stranded on the beach, pinned down by German machine guns, mortars and artillery.

Sergeant Joseph Bryan was born in Campbellford, Ontario in 1910. He enlisted in 1939 and served in France, Holland and Germany with the Royal Canadian Engineers.  Sergeant Bryan was wounded in action before he was discharged in 1945. He died on 24 November 1974.

In March 1945 the Allies were on the road to victory. Field Marshall Montgomery needed First Canadian Army to open a supply route through Arnhem to feed supplies to Twenty-First Army Group during its northward advance to the Elbe.

Arnold Reginald "Arnie" Belanger was born in Elk Lake, Ontario, the eighth child of J.O. and Rose Ann Dawson Belanger. His father was the Station Agent for the T&NO (Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway) at the time.

By late July 1943, after fighting steadily for the past three weeks, the Allied forces in Sicily were tired and General Montgomery called a halt for all but the 1^st Canadian Division. Their task was to open the way to the strategically located town of Adrano, but before that stood the well-fortified hill town of Agira. With Mount Etna overlooking their advance, they pushed hard and after five days of heavy fighting by the 1^st and 2^nd Infantry Brigades, Agira fell.