Wing Hay Young

Wing Hay

captured German soldiers singlehandedly

Born in 1906 in Port Alberni, B.C. Wing became a popular Chinese boxer before he joined the Canadian Scottish Vancouver Island Regiment. He was a formidable opponent, outclassing many boxers on Vancouver Island and the mainland. He was as good as a professional boxer without being classed as one.

Before he was shipped overseas in 1941, Wing Hay had won the divisional boxing championship in Nova Scotia. While he was stationed in England, he went on to take the lightweight boxing championship of the Canadian Army.

Wing Hay distinguished himself during the battle for Caen when he single-handedly captured a dozen German soldiers. It happened when his battalion entered a village a mile east of the Caen bastion and Wing came across a hide-out where a dozen German soldiers were apparently trying to catch up on sleep they had lost during the hectic hours of the campaign. He single-handedly routed his German prisoners without a fight.

In 1962, he died from an industrial accident, leaving behind a wife, two sons and a daughter.

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