Leo Major, the Rambo of Quebec
Stubborn,
focused, and an all-around badass, Leo Major is one of very few soldiers to
receive the coveted DCM metal and receive a bar in addition. A native of
Montreal, Canada he earned the nickname "The Rambo of Quebec" for his
wild feats during WWII and the Korean War.
Born to two French-Canadian parents in 1921, Leo started his life, albeit briefly, in New Bedford Massachusetts. His father was working for the American railroad company, but shortly after his birth, they moved back home to Quebec.
At the very young age of 19, Leo enlisted in the Canadian army, and joined the
scouting regimen. It's with this crew that he would spend much of his time with
during WWII. I wouldn't be long before he ended up injured like many other
soldiers on the field. In 1944 during the battle of Normandy, he assisted in
capturing a German Hanomag half-track, and killing its occupants.
A few days later, he would meet with a German SS patrol and end up taking them all out. Unfortunately for him, he suffered a severe injury to his left eye from a phosphorous grenade. He was meant to be sent home and relieved from active duty, but as he put it, "I only need my right eye to sight my gun". So, he stuck around
Episode: File 0154: Anatomical Lightning of Quebec
Release Date: Sept 5 2025
Researched and presented by Nathan
Later that year, Leo would be sent out to find a group of fresh recruits who never made it back to camp as expected. On his way he would capture 93 German soldiers on his own, a feat that would have got him the Distinguished Conduct Medal, but he turned it down as he didn't think he Field Marshall was competent enough to even hand out medals. Shortly after this moment, he would be caught up on the wrong side of a mine, breaking his back and putting him out of duty for a while. Once again, he would refuse to be discharged and sent back home.
In 1945, a close friend of his was sent off to the small Dutch town of Zwolle where a knows SS headquarter building was situated. They intent was for the both of them to scout, gather what information they could on the size of the German garrison and then get that information to Dutch resistance as the Allies has a planned attack the next morning. Unfortunately for the both of them, his friend wouldn't make it through the mission. Corporal Wilfred Arsenault would lose his life getting caught up in machine gun fire outside of the town. Now, we would assume that any regular person would cut and run, but Leo didn't do that. In a fit of rage at losing a close friend, he stormed the town. Picking up all of the guns and ammo carried by Wilfred along with his own, he rolled into town firing his guns and throwing all of the grenades he had on him. With the help of a group of resistance fighters he met along the way, he managed to burn down the SS headquarters, take a sizable number of prisons, and at the end of it all, free the town of Zwolle which had been under Nazi occupation for 5 years. He would finally accept that DCM medal for this one.
Leo would head home and work as a pipe fitter for about 5 years, before enlisting again to help in the Korean war. In 1951 he would be tasked with taking back an area called Hill 355 which had been captured by the chinese army, driving out the Americans. He would roll in with 20 snipers and scouts to hold the area for 3 days calling down artillery fire and mounting their own counter attacks. Supposedly the artillery hits where so close the commanding officers could hear the explosions through the walkie-talkies as he was relaying information. This work got him a bar on his medal, and after that he would make sure to come back to Zwolle to visit and meet with the folks there keeping close ties.
In 2005 Zwolle would make him an honorary citizen. In both Quebec and the Netherlands streets are named after him and in 2020 the local Zwolle soccer club put his name on their jersey's as part of the 75th anniversary of the Netherlands' liberation.