Six months before World War II erupted in 1939, young Bruno Friesen was sent to Germany by his father, a German-speaking Mennonite who came to Canada from Ukraine and believed the Third Reich offered a better life than Canada. Friesen was drafted into the Wehrmacht three years later and ended up in the 7th Panzer Division. Serving as a gunner in a Panzer IV tank and then a Jagdpanzer IV tank hunter, Friesen fought the Soviets in Romania in the spring of 1944, Lithuania that summer, and West Prussia in early 1945.