Volume 6 - Legion BC/Yukon Command Website

British ColumBia / Yukon CommandSanderson, Robert JosephRobert was born on March 15, 1922 in Duncan, BC. He served as a gunnerwith the rank of Lance-Corporal with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment inthe Royal Canadian Infantry Corps. Robert was killed in action on January28, 1945 in Holland, believed to be the victim of enemy sniper fire. He isburied in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery near Nijmegen, Holland.Robert was awarded the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, the DefenceMedal, the 1939-1945 Star, the War Medal 1939-1945, and the France andGermany Star.Saprunoff, SteveSteve was born in North Battleford, SK in 1918 and soon moved to Trail, BC.He joined the Air Force in 1941 and trained in Calgary, Edmonton, and PortageLa Prairie and in November, 1942 took advanced gunnery training at StormyDowns in South Wales. Steve later transferred to 408 Squadron where he was amid-upper gunner on a Halifax bomber. After 12 bombing missions, he injuredhis arm, was grounded, and the crew he was to fly with went missing in action.A new crew was formed, and on his 18 th mission, Steve’s aircraft was shot downover Berlin in January 1944. They survived and were captured by the Germans,and Steve spent the rest of the war at Stalag-Luft 3, the POW Camp where the“Great Escape” took place. Liberated by the 2 nd British Battalion in May, 1945,Steve returned home. His brother, Sammy, was shot down over Nuremberg andis listed on the Trail Roll of Honour. Steve had twenty-eight years of continuousservice with the Trail Legion before he died in 2005.Saunders, GarthGarth was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba in 1938. He joined the RoyalCanadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a Soldier Apprentice andserved in Canada in Peacetime. Garth has been a member of Legion Branch#288 in Westbank for nineteen years.www.legionbcyukon.ca245