Bill Seifried was born May 3, 1925 in Ariss, Ontario, a rural community.  His early years were spent on a farm with his many siblings, and the family moved to nearby Guelph when Bill was 14.  He and a brother worked at Leland Electric, and when his brother went into the RCAF Bill joined up too, training at Petawawa and going overseas to England in 1944.  In England Bill was assigned to the Regina Rifles, one of the regiments who had taken part in the first wave landings at Juno Beach and which had fought their way through the brutal Battle of Normandy.  Bill was assigned to them as a replacement soldier, and after a brief time in England he crossed the Channel and landed at Calais.  He had been trained as a driver and expected to serve with an artillery unit, but as Canada’s losses were heavy he was now an infantryman.  Later he would be reassigned to a scouting unit, doing reconnaissance on German fortifications.  Bill was at the forefront of the Canadian units involved in the coastal push and liberating the Channel ports; as such he was in the thick of the Battle of the Scheldt and the liberation of the Netherlands.  Along the way Bill got to know Major Orr, who asked Bill to be his batman; when the major volunteered for the fight in the Pacific so did Bill, and because of that the two of them were able to return to Canada in advance of many of the other troops.  During that summer of 1945 Bill learned that the war in the Pacific had come to an end – and so had his service.  He had married his sweetheart on his return to Canada, and the two of them went on to build a life and a family together in Guelph, finding their way in Canada’s postwar rhythms.  Bill Seifried was interviewed by Scott Masters and Zach Dunn at his home in Guelph, Ontario in September 2024.