William (Mac) Dixon

My Uncle Mac Dixon (his first name was William but he went by "Mac" for his middle name McKay) served in WWII as did his older brother Walter Dixon who died in a training crash and never returned. Mac signed up with the First Hussars out of London and was the driver of a Duplex Drive Sherman tank, the "Bold", on the June 6, 1944 D-day Canadian landing at Juno Beach in Normandy. 

These tanks were amphibious and were supposed to float. They were brought close to the shore in landing craft and launched at sea. They had a large inflatable canvas screen for floatation and were self propelled with propeller screws to make the landing where the tank treads would take over. Mac's tank sank quickly either because of rough water or having taken a hit. There's a harrowing story in the accompanying video playlist about how he survived and managed to make it to shore that day.

The fishermen at Courseulles sur Mer (the town at Juno Beach) retrieved and restored the tank in 1970 — it had been a fishing hazard for years fouling their nets. On June 6 1971 Uncle Mac, in a troop of 85 First Hassars, attended the dedication of his tank as a Canadian war memorial.

The Juno Beach Centre, a museum and memorial to the Canadians who landed to liberate Europe, proudly displays and maintains Uncle Mac's tank. We made a tearful visit back in 2002 on a trip to Paris for one of Kate's conferences.

One autumn day in 2007 Aunt Shirley (Mac's wife) called — they were showing a video at the Mitchell Legion about Uncle Mac and the First Hussars. I recall it was a project by local high school students to learn about and preserve history told by those who had lived it. If you click on the image above you'll be taken to a YouTube playlist — a copy of that video. Some of it is from very rough super-8 film of their 1971 trip to France for the memorial and dedication, other parts are from CFPL TV specials recorded on VHS. The technical quality is pretty rough but all of the story of our Uncle Mac, D-day on Juno Beach and those dual mode tanks is well worth a listen.

I've posted these notes and the video playlist with the hope that the story survives. Lest we forget.

See also

• War time photos of uncle William (Mac) Dixon.
• My 2021 blog on uncle Sgt. Walter Dixon.
• Canadian Kangaroo Regiment Archive (re: William (Mac) Dixon)