Individual Report: H6269 Budvar OLAFSON

Rank:	First Name:	Second Name:
General Information
Private	Budvar	Peter
From:	Enlistment Region:	Date of Birth (y-m-d):
Portage La Praire MB	Manitoba	1918-01-01
Appointment:	Company:	Platoon:
	B

Transportation - Home Base to Hong Kong

Members of 'C' Force from the East travelled across Canada by CNR troop train, picking up reinforcements enroute. Stops included Valcartier, Montreal, Ottawa, Armstrong ON, Capreol ON, Winnipeg, Melville SK, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, and Vancouver, arriving in Vancouver on Oct 27 at 0800 hrs.

The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the local soldiers that were with Brigade Headquarters from Winnipeg to BC travelled on a CPR train to Vancouver.

All members embarked from Vancouver on the ships AWATEA and PRINCE ROBERT. AWATEA was a New Zealand Liner and the PRINCE ROBERT was a converted cruiser. "C" Company of the Rifles was assigned to the PRINCE ROBERT, everyone else boarded the AWATEA. The ships sailed from Vancouver on Oct 27th and arrived in Hong Kong on November 16th, having made brief stops enroute at Honolulu and Manila.

Equipment earmarked for 'C' Force use was loaded on the ship DON JOSE, but would never reach Hong Kong as it was rerouted to Manila when hostilities commenced.

On arrival, all troops were quartered at Nanking Barracks, Sham Shui Po Camp, in Kowloon.

Battle Information

We do not have specific battle information for this soldier in our online database. For a detailed description of the battle from a Canadian perspective, visit Canadian Participation in the Defense of Hong Kong (published by the Historical Section, Canadian Military Headquarters).

Wounded Information

Date Wounded	Wound Description	References
41/12/25	N/A

Hospital Information

Name of hospital	Date of admission	Date of discharge	Comments	Reference
HK-WMH	12/25/1941	N/A	Transferred to BMH
HK-BMH	01/22/1942	01/22/1942		118

POW Camps

Camp ID	Camp Name	Location	Company	Type of Work	Arrival Date	Departure Date
HK-SA-01	Shamshuipo	Kowloon, Hong Kong			Capture	42 Jan 22
HK-NP-02	North Point	North Point, Hong Kong Island			42 Jan 22	42 Sep 26
HK-SA-02	Shamshuipo	Kowloon, Hong Kong			42 Sep 26	43 Aug 15
JP-To-5B	Niigata-Rinko	Niigata-ken, Nakakambara-gun, Ogata-mura, Japan	Marutsu, Rinko Coal, Shintetsu	Stevedore labor at port of Niigata (Marutsu), primarily foodstuffs; mining coal (Rinko Coal ) and labor at a foundry (Shintetsu)	43 Sep 02	44 Jan 01

Transport to Japan

Draft Number	Name of Ship	Departure Date	Arrival Date	Arrival Port	Comments	Reference
XD4B	Manryu Maru	43 Aug 15	43 Sep 01	Osaka, Japan	Brief stopover in Taihoku (Taipei), Formosa (Taiwan); then 2 day stopover at northern point for stool tests	Tony Banham

Commemorative Feature

A map detailing the location of this feature can be found in this soldier's vault. (See Vault explanation below in the Links and Other Resources block) .

Site Description	Location	Province	Map Reference	Lat/Long	Date
Olafson Lake	northeast of North Knife Lake, Manitoba	Manitoba	64 I/09	58 31' 11"; 96 24' 53"	1974

Other Military or Public Service

He served with the 1st Regiment Manitoba Mounted Rifles - NPAM - regimental number 2420, June 17th, 1933 and was discharged from the army in 1938.

Death and Cemetery Information

Date of Death (y-m-d)	Cause of Death	Death Class
1944-01-01	Accidentially killed while prisoner of war; Multiple injuries	Died while POW
Cemetery Location	Cemetery	Grave Number	Gravestone Marker
Jido-Yuenchi-Dori Hodogaya Japan	Yokohama War Cemetery	Cdn. Sec. A.D. 16.	CWGC CWGC- Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Hong Kong & Japan graves) Engraved- the actual headstone has HK or RRC or WG, etc. engraved on the stone Last Post- VAC program Yes- someone has purchased a gs marker for this person UGF- application already submitted or anticipate applying for Unmarked Grave Fund ND- family does not desire Blank- no data

Gravestone Image

Obituary / Life Story

He was born as Bodvar Petur Olafson and was nicknamed Bud. Son of Jon Olafson (a.k.a. John) and Oluf Sigridur Soebeck (a.k.a. Olive Sarah Soback), of Kitchener, Ontario, but originally from Iceland. Brother of Corporal Conrad Olafson of the 2nd Troop A Squadron of the Lord Strathcona Horse's 2nd Armoured Regiment. He fought in Italy and survived the war.
He served with the 1st Regiment Manitoba Mounted Rifles - NPAM - regimental number 2420, June 17th, 1933 and was discharged from the army in 1938. He enlisted on September 12th, 1939 with the 1st Battalion Winnipeg Grenadiers and served in Manitoba, Jamaica with Y Force, Hong Kong with C Force and Japan as a POW. He had 1,562 days of service, including 796 overseas. To commemorate his sacrifice, the Manitoba government named Olafson Lake located northeast of North Knife Lake in his honor in 1974.
Citation(s): 1939-1945 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal 1939-1945, Canadian Volunteer Service Medals and Clasp.
Canadian Virtual War Memorial

136 members of 'C' Force are buried in the Yokohama War Cemetery which was constructed by the Australian War Graves Group after the Second World War. It contains the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who died in Japan as prisoners of war or with the occupying forces after the war. It comprises of four main parts: the United Kingdom section, the Australian section, the Canadian and New Zealand section and the Indian Forces 1939-1945 section. The cemetery contains 1,555 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the Second World War, including 53 unidentified burials and a small number of special memorials to casualties known to be buried in the cemetery, whose graves could not be precisely located.
Ref: Includes excerpts from Veterans Affairs Canada.

General Comments

Picture & the following from Face Book Page - Operation Picture Me - Hong Kong [scanning from Winnipeg Tribune] by David Archer, 2016

Official word that Private Budvar Peter Olafson, 26, a Japanese prisoner-of-war, was killed in a typhoon at Niigata, Japan, has been received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J Olafson, of 150 Royal Road, Portage la Prairie. The brief notification did not say when Private Olafson met death, nor supply details of the circumstances. Enlisting in September, 1939, with the Winnipeg Grenadiers, he served for 15 months with that unit in the West Indies. He was born in Boissevain, Manitoba and attended Victoria school and collegiate at Portage la Prairie. Before enlisting he was in business in that city. Surviving besides his parents are a brother, Corporal Conard, serving with a tank unit in Italy and two sisters, Mrs. T. Homer and Dorothy, Portage la Prairie.

He served with the 1st Regiment Manitoba Mounted Rifles - NPAM - regimental number 2420, June 17th, 1933 and was discharged from the army in 1938. He enlisted on September 12th, 1939 with the 1st Battalion Winnipeg Grenadiers and served in Manitoba, Jamaica with Y Force, Hong Kong with C Force and Japan as a POW. He had 1,562 days of service, including 796 overseas.

To commemorate his sacrifice, the Manitoba government named Olafson Lake located northeast of North Knife Lake in his honor in 1974.

Citation(s): 1939-1945 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal 1939-1945, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp

Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Links and Other Resources

There may be more information on this individual available elsewhere on our web sites - please use the search tool found in the upper right corner of this page to view sources.

Additional Notes

(These will not be visible on the printed copy)

Service numbers for officers ("X") are locally generated for reporting only. During World War II officers were not allocated service numbers until 1945.
'C' Force soldiers who died overseas are memorialized in the Books of Remembrance and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, both sponsored by Veterans Affairs Canada. Please use the search utility at VAC to assist you.
Some birthdates and deathdates display as follows: 1918-00-00. In general, this indicates that we know the year but not the month or day.
Our POW camp links along with our References link (near the bottom of the 'C' Force home page) are designed to give you a starting point for your research. There were many camps with many name changes. The best resource for all POW camps in Japan is the Roger Mansell Center for Research site.
In most cases the rank displayed was the rank held before hostilities. Some veterans were promoted at some point prior to eventual post-war release from the army back in Canada. When notified of these changes we'll update the individual's record.
Images displayed on the web page are small, but in many cases the actual image is larger. Hover over any image and you will see a popup if a larger version is available. You can also right-click on some images and select the option to view the image separately. Not all images have larger versions. Contact us to confirm whether a large copy of an image in which you are interested exists.
The 'From' information box at the top of the report represents the enlistment location unless we have obtained updated information pinpointing where the member lived.
In some cases the References displayed as part of this report generate questions because there is no indication of their meaning. They were inherited with the original database, and currently we do not know what the source is. We hope to solve this problem in future.
We have done our best to avoid errors and omissions, but if you find any issues with this report, either in accuracy, completeness or layout, please contact us using the link at the top of this page.
Photos are welcome! If a photo exists for a 'C' Force member that we have not included, or if you have a higher quality copy, please let us know by using the Contact Us link at the top of this page. We will then reply, providing instructions on submitting it.