Love in wartime

This photograph prompted memories of love and desperate times for Marjorie Drechsler.

He was missing for months, she was determined to find him

Marjorie Drechsler was shocked to see herself on the cover of the Times last week. She had never seen the photograph before. Yet there she was—her 21-year-old self—marching with determination with fellow members of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps on the front page. The image triggered a flood of memories.

Marjorie joined the Army for love. She had met a dashing young prairie boy at a dance in her hometown of Moncton. Walter had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in Saskatoon when war broke out. Stationed in Moncton awaiting orders Marjorie and Walter met. They danced. They fell in love. They made plans about their life after the war.

But all those plans came crashing down along with Walter’s Wellington aircraft over Belgium on September 17, 1942. His squadron, based out of Yorkshire England, was formed with 30 aircraft. But after 16 trips over Germany, theirs had become the senior crew. Their luck would soon run out.

Marjorie Drechsler with her CWAC photograph at her home in Picton.

Over Saarbrucken in western Germany, Walter’s aircraft had come under heavy fire. Down an engine, the crew quickly calculated their odds of getting back across the Channel. They decided they had to bail. All five slipped into the night sky as they watched their Wellington slowly descend into the horizon. Walter spent the next five and a half months making his way across France toward Spain and eventually Gibraltar, narrowly evading capture, relying on the generosity and compassion of strangers.

Back home, the air force had contacted his parents, now living in Toronto, to advise them their son was missing in action. Marjorie learned the news from his mother. She was strong. She had to be. Falling apart would be of no use to anyone. She resolved to find him.

The 21-year-old Acadian girl didn’t have a plan—just the conviction to find her husband-to-be—no war would keep them apart.

Since the beginning of the war, women were finding a greater role in the military— mostly filling the non-combat roles. With a diminishing supply of labour the Canadian government authorized the formation of the Canadian Women’s Army Corp in 1941. But it would take a couple more years before a CWAC recruiting office was opened in New Brunswick.

When it did, Marjorie was among the first to sign up.

This was her ticket overseas. Walter had been missing for four months by then.

“I don’t know what I was hoping to do when I got there,” said Marjorie from her Picton home. “I figured I would come up with a plan once I got there. I just knew I had to go.”

She was sent to Kitchener for basic training—where Marjorie believes the photograph on the front page of the Times was taken.

While Marjorie was in Kitchener, Walter’s mother received word that her son had been found. He was making his way back to England, and from there, back home. She wasn’t permitted to tell anyone—not even Marjorie.

Walter sailed on the Queen Mary back to Halifax, then jumped on a train to Moncton to surprise his fiancée. But Marjorie wasn’t there, her mother explained. By now the news was out. Marjorie arranged to reunite at his parent’s home in Toronto.

That weekend, they set a wedding date—July 3, 1943. Then they parted again. Marjorie returned to Kitchener. Walter was stationed at the Bombing and Gunnery School at RAF Picton. After basic training, Marjorie was sent back to New Brunswick, training at the Gun Operations Room in Saint John.

In July they were married, but duty thrust them apart again. Walter went back to Picton, Marjorie went back to Saint John—and soon perhaps on a ship to Europe.

Meanwhile, Walter was working on his commander in Picton—using his influence to bring his wife home.

In September, Marjorie was called to the office and offered a discharge. She was on the next train to Ontario.

After the war Marjorie and Walter farmed for a time before he joined the Post Office. Together, they raised four children.

No one would ever doubt the lengths they would go to find each other. They had fallen in love in wartime—the intensity of the moment—but the bond will endure their lifetimes.