Lest We Forget – The Jeff Nicklin Story
Jeff Nicklin had survived Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, but on the day he took his last breath during World War II, the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber ‘never had a chance’.
Nicklin was born in Fort William, Ontario, raised Winnipeg and cracked the Winnipegs lineup in 1934 and was part of the squad that captured the 1935 Grey Cup – the first team from Western Canada to do so.
He was raw at first, but by 1937 he was a West All-Star as an end – an honour he captured again in 1938 – and then again as a flying wing in 1939. That year the Blue Bombers captured a second Grey Cup with a win over the Ottawa Rough Riders on December 9th.
Nicklin then immediately hung up his cleats, it turns out, for last time as a member of the Blue Bombers. World War II was in its early days late in ‘39 and Nicklin, after working his way up from private, was deployed to Europe in 1942 as part of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
He had taken parachute training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and later he returned to Canada – to Camp Shilo, here in Manitoba – to establish the country’s first parachute unit after being named the Commanding Officer of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.
Nicklin was one of the first Canadians to jump on D-Day in 1944, and he did so with a broken shoulder.
“A week before D-Day, Jeff realized the troops had not been in battle before and they were all uptight and worried about what was going to happen to them next week,” recalled Bill Jenkins, who served under Nicklin from Shilo to Germany, in an interview with Carol Sanders of the Winnipeg Free Press in 2007.
“He called the non-commissioned officers mess and said, ‘How would you NCOs like a game of football this afternoon?’
“In the first play of the game, Jeff took the ball and was making an end run. One of the sergeants, Ernie Appleton, who weighed about 140 pounds, had Jeff – a 220-pounder – coming at him. What was Ernie to do but drop down in front of Jeff? Jeff went flying through the air and landed on his shoulder and broke it.”
That didn’t stop Nicklin from leading his battalion in Normandy five days later as part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade of the British 6th Airborne Division.
His landing was anything but simple, as he dropped down in the midst of a German position at Varaville with his parachute tangled on a rooftop. While receiving fire from enemy soldiers, Nicklin cut himself free and took cover.
“Jeff jumped into France – cast and all – and commanded the battalion throughout the French campaign. That gives you an idea of what kind of guy he was.”
Bill Jenkins
Nicklin’s last game of football came as a member of a Canadian Army team that played the Americans at White City Stadium in London on February 13, 1944 – a contest dubbed the ‘Tea Bowl.’ Nicklin would help the Canadians to a 16-6 victory and scored the game’s final touchdown.
Nicklin would later lead his division in the infamous Battle of the Bulge – the last German offensive of the war – and was one of the first to jump into Germany as part of Operation Varsity, just months before the war ended in March of 1945.
Here’s an excerpt of his last jump, as reported by The Toronto Star’s war correspondent Frederick Griffin:
‘Jeff, in the lead plane of the flotilla carrying the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, was one of the first to jump and one of the first Canadians to die on D-day beyond the Rhine. This was his second operational jump in enemy territory. His first was into Normandy that June night before our invasion landings.
‘When he floated to land this time he caught on a tall tree and the Germans shot him hanging as he tried to get out of his chute.”
“They let him have it,” said Pte. Walton Pickard of London, Ont., “and he did not have a chance.”
Added Jenkins, recalling Nicklin’s death with The Free Press:
“I almost got sick on the spot. It was horrid. Even now, 60 years later, the 24th of March, 1945 sticks out like it was yesterday.
“We were getting ready to cross the Rhine… most of us landed in a field. Jeff’s chute was caught in the wind. It blew him into the trees bordering the dropping zone. I could see some enemy shooting at us and I ran into the woods. Jeff was hanging in a tree riddled with bullets.
“That was the worst day of my military career to see this terrific guy hanging in a tree riddled with bullets.”
Nicklin left behind a widow and 15-month old son. In July of 1945, four months after his death, Nicklin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire ‘in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North-West Europe.’
The recommendation for the honour described how he was able to help the smooth transition of the Canadian battalion into the British bridge and led it to ‘unparalleled success’ and concluded with ‘throughout the present campaign his example of courageous leadership has been an example to all who have come into contact with him.’
As a tribute to the man and their commander, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion donated the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy to the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1946.
It was first awarded annually to the player in the West Division considered most valuable to his team and since 1973, it has been awarded to the Most Outstanding Player in the West Division.
“I remember one time when I first met him,” recalled Jenkins in 2007. “I happened to be an orderly office at Camp Shilo. We could only take 35 recruits at a time. One day, there were 65 recruits wanting to get in. He said, ‘Take them on a run across the Prairies. When 30 drop out, call back and we’ll sent a truck out to get them and we’ll keep the rest.
“You needed to be determined and you needed to be tough. He would not ask anybody to do anything he would not do himself. He always walked the talk.”
Lest we forget: Jevon Albert ‘Jeff’ Nicklin, Dec. 10, 1914-March 24, 1945.
