LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - On Remembrance Day Stephen Rowan thinks about a second lieutenant from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

The lieutenant was wounded by sniper fire on Dec. 15, 1943 near Ortona, Italy and was brought by stretcher to a farmhouse where a regimental aid post was being set up. Rowan, then 20, was at the post as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service.

Stephen Rowan speaks at the Remembrance Day ceremony in Fort Simpson about his experiences as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service during the Second World War. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Rowan was excited to drive his first patient from the front line and expected it to be the lieutenant. Instead Rowan helped dig a temporary grave for the solider after a doctor determined he had died while on the way to the farmhouse.

"He had a whole life ahead of him and he was deprived," said Rowan.

Rowan, 87, is a longtime resident of Fort Simpson. On Nov. 11 he shared some of his memories from the Second World War at the village's Remembrance Day ceremony.

Rowan was born in the United Kingdom to American parents. The day before his 16th birthday, Sept. 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland, a move that started the war.

"My happy birthday present from Adolph Hitler," Rowan said.

Rowan's parents quickly sent him and his two brothers by ship to the United States. Later in 1942 while he was a college student Rowan was called for the draft. Despite memorizing the eye chart Rowan failed the physical exam because of his eyesight.

Being turned down for service was a disappointment.

"I was so keen to get in the services," he said.

"It was the one thing boys talked about and girls, too."

So Rowan tried a different route, volunteering with the American Field Service where he became an ambulance driver. Rowan set sail on Feb. 22, 1943 from New York City.

What followed was a three month sea voyage that took Rowan through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific Ocean dodging below New Zealand and up to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The British, unsure what to do with the ambulance drivers, sent them on to Bombay and then by troop ship to Egypt where they were passed on to Tripoli in Libya.

Rowan spent four months there learning how to look after the ambulances and to drive with a double clutch.

"It was rather fun," he said.

During that time he was also posted with the British 7th Armoured Division, known as the Desert Rats, driving soldiers to the dentist and doctor. He was also present when British prime minister Winston Churchill visited the troops.

In Sept. 1943 Rowan crossed the Mediterranean and landed in Taranto, Italy.

There was nothing on the beach except sleepy dogs but a liaison officer reminded the men that

Italy was still at war with the allies.

Rowan and his ambulance moved north with a convoy towards the front line. On the third night he could see the fire of heavy artillery in the distance, his first sight of the war.

"It sort of terrified me," said Rowan who asked himself, "am I doing the right thing? Am I crazy to be here?"

In mid-December, following a stay in a hospital with jaundice, Rowan was posted to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

He stayed with them during the Battle of Ortona. Following the battle in Jan. 1944, when the infantry was posted elsewhere, Rowan was re-assigned.

He spent a few months with a British Indian Division at Cassino and then with the 68th Italian Infantry Division. While with the Italians Rowan attended a lunch with the King of Italy, Umberto II. Rowan moved between a number of other regiments until early in 1945 when the Germans were retreating.

"That was the end of the war," he said.

Soon afterwards Rowan's ambulance car company moved from Italy to northern Europe. He ended up in Holland, evacuating patients back to Germany.

With the war over Rowan boarded a Liberty ship in July 1945 and sailed back to the United States. He arrived on Aug. 6, 1945, the day Hiroshima was bombed.

Looking back Rowan said he's glad he volunteered and experienced the war.

"I wanted to do what so many of my friends were doing," he said.

Despite his time in Italy Rowan doesn't consider himself a veteran. He does hope that if he ever returns to Italy he will be able to visit the grave of the Canadian soldier he helped bury.

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