WAGER, LLOYD

Lloyd Overton Wager was born January 12, 1920 at Maple Island, the son of Overton Clark and Susan Maude (Peters) Wager.

Lloyd enlisted in April, 1943 and by February, 1944 was posted overseas, arriving in Italy two months later. 

While serving in Italy, Lloyd suffered severe wounds from bomb fragments resulting in  the loss of his right hand, fractures of both legs and injuries to his left forearm.

Unfortunately, the newspaper clippings at left and above do not include the date of Lloyd’s injuries and therefore, it is not possible to identify where, in Italy the injuries may have occurred.

Lloyd Wager

In the newspaper clipping, it is identified that Lloyd was deployed overseas in February 1944, arriving in Italy two months later.

By the early spring of 1944, the Canadian Army in Italy had reached its peak theatre strength of nearly 76,000. Total casualties in the Corps had climbed to 9,934 in all ranks, of which 2,119 had been fatal.

In the spring of 1944, the Germans still held the line of defence north of Ortona, as well as the mighty bastion of Monte Cassino which blocked the Liri corridor to the Italian capital. Determined to maintain their hold on Rome, the Germans constructed two formidable lines of fortifications, the Gustav Line, and 14.5 kilometres behind it, the Adolf Hitler Line.

During April and May of 1944, the Eighth British Army, including the 1st Canadian Corps, was secretly moved across Italy to join the Fifth U.S. Army in the struggle for Rome. Here under the dominating peak of Cassino, the Allied armies hurled themselves against the enemy position. Tanks of the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade (formerly 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade) supported the Allied attack. After four days of hard fighting, the German defences were broken from Cassino to the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Germans moved back their second line of defence. On May 18, Polish troops took the Cassino position and the battered monastery at the summit.

On May 16, the 1st Canadian Corps received orders to advance on the Hitler Line ten kilometres farther up the valley. Early on May 23, the attack on the Hitler Line went in. Under heavy enemy mortar and machine-gun fire, the Canadians breached the defences and the tanks of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division poured through toward the next obstacle, the Melfa River. Desperate fighting took place in the forming of a bridgehead across the Melfa. Once the Canadians were over the river, however, the major fighting for the Liri valley was over.

At some point, in the period of intensive fighting, Lloyd Wager was wounded.