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Peter Dmytruk

by Denys from Luchynets

Peter Dmytruk (ucc.sk.ca)
Peter Dmytruk (ucc.sk.ca)

Our Motherland has a lot of great people, who became famous by their achievements in sport, science, art, and, of course, by their heroic deeds. About all of them we learn from books, newspapers, TV-programmes. But there are also some heroes who are unknown to us.

A future hero was born in a family of Ukrainian emigrants in Canada. But when World War II broke out, in July 1941, Peter Dmytruk went as a volunteer to the Royal Air Force. In July 1942 Peter Dmytruk was been sent to Great Britain, where he served as a machine gunner on the airplane of type «Lyancaster». During one of the flights «Lyancaster» suddenly ran into a fight with the German pursuit plane of type «Messershmidt - 100», which fired him from 20-millimetric cannon. «Lyancaster» burned. Officer Dmytruk landed by parachute in the distance roughly of 200 km. to the east of Paris, and had been hiding in forests while local inhabitants showed him the participants of the anti-fascist underground, the French Resistance. Soon Dmytruk was told that he could go from occupied France through Pireney to Spain.

But Peter gave up that suggestion, he determined on staying in the French underground to militate for the freedom of Europe. On December, 9th 1943 partisans conducted the successful operation (elimination of railway echelon with German soldiers and live ammunitions) near the French small town Le Mart. Dmytruk was known to the Nazis as the leader of the French Resistance in that area.

When the Germans returned to retaliate, they arrested Peter Dmytruk and executed him immediately. Since they believed that they had killed the leader, they did not kill all the men in the village as they would usually do.

France remembers him as «Pierre le Canadien». In 1946 the inhabitants of Les Martres-de-Veyre built a small monument to Dmytruk at the place of his death. In 1972 the mayor of the small town Le Martr-de-Veyra proposed to the city of Wynyard, Saskatchewan that they become sister cities and that they were building a larger monument for their hero. For inhabitants of Les Martres-de-Veyre, Peter Dmytruk became the example of a hero, who gave his life for the freedom of the other nation. In 1999 P. Dmytruk was presented with a high Canadian «Nation Builders Awards» which the prominent citizens of Canada are awarded.

Monument of Peter Dmytruk (Pierre le Canadien) in France (uregina.ca)
Monument of Peter Dmytruk (Pierre le Canadien) in France (uregina.ca)

To my mind, he was a real hero. He gave his life for the peaceful sky, happy childhood, nice future for many people, and for us, too. I hope that he also will become a Hero for you.

Page created on 5/15/2010 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 5/15/2010 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.

Related Links

Peter Dmytruk - Wikipedia
Peter Dmytruk - The Encyclopdia of Saskatchewan