The True Story Behind the Iconic WWII ‘Wait for Me, Daddy’ Photo

The heartfelt image depicted a young boy running towards his father as he prepared to get deployed overseas. While the story of the photo might seem clear, there’s actually a more complex story behind the scenes. 

However, because the government did not activate his unit when the war began, he decided to drop down in rank, so he could enlist as a private in the British Columbia Regiment, which was also known as the Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles. 

However, the members were eventually ordered to move to a destination overseas, which was kept secret. The idea was that the duties of the regiment would be more active in the ongoing war. 

None of them could have possibly known that they were about to be part of one of the most famous World War II photos captured in Canada. 

While his father was lined up and preparing to leave, Warren broke free from his mother’s arms to try and run after his father, putting out his hand in a ‘wait for me’ fashion. 

He didn’t understand much about what was going on with the war, which made this iconic photo feel even more human. All Warren knew is that his father was leaving, and he did not want him to. 

In 1940, Claude was a photographer for the BC newspaper, The Province. He had been assigned to set up his equipment to capture shots of the troops as they waited for the train to come and take them away.

When Warren reached out for his father, Jack moved his rifle to the left side so he could hold his son’s hand for just one more moment. The photo, which the newspaper titled, Wait for Me, Daddy, captured a raw and heartfelt moment between a father and son. 

She remembers growing up knowing about the iconic photo and praised his skills for capturing moments using good timing, not the technology that is available to us today. Before smartphones and digital cameras, photography required a good level of patience. 

The regiment was ordered to Nanaimo, British Columbia, where they were told to wait and defend against any potential attacks from the Japanese and Germans. They would only be here for two years. 

The Canadian government decided to send the British Columbia regiment overseas during the time, converting it from infantry to armor. This would mark the beginning of the three-year period Jack would be overseas and many miles away from his son and wife. 

However, it wasn’t until they were relocated to the beachhead for D-Day on July 23, 1944, which had already been well established, that they would see any accident. It was the first time in Jack’s four years of deployment that he would get to fight in the war. 

Instead, they would be once again relocated to France, where they would participate in Operation Totalize, a mission that helped destroy the German army that was stationed there at the time. Eventually, they pushed the German army into Holland. 

This battle marked one of the last days of the final phase of the Northwest European campaign in WWII. Here, Canadian servicemen fought alongside Polish Army members, eventually clearing the last members of the German resistance. 

Luckily for Bernard, he was able to come home in October, having survived his time spent overseas. Unfortunately, many British Columbia Regiment servicemen were not as lucky as Bernard. The regiments alone had 213 wounded and 122 dead. 

The photo showed up in just about every school throughout British Columbia and gained so much traction in larger media outlets that it was eventually picked up by major publications like Life. 

The statue was unveiled on October 4, 2014, and still stands today in Hyack Square at the bottom of 8th Street, in the same place where Dettloff took the photo so many decades ago. The monument was beautifully designed with soldiers lined up in a square frame, which looks very similar to a piece of film. 

In both 1943 and 1944, while Warren was on summer break, he traveled around his province with a support group that was trying to get people to buy war bonds to support their soldiers fighting in Europe. Warren would speak at these events, saying “Buy a bond, bring my daddy home.”

The photo could be seen in several major publications and was hung up in just about every school throughout British Columbia until the war ended. 

Warren’s mother, Bernice, was very upset at the fact that her husband was deployed. Apparently, many soldiers were “milling about” and saying goodbye to their families, while Jack was heading straight for the ship without having spent much time saying his goodbyes. Of course, there was more to the story than that. 

Warren said that was the last time his family was ever together as a singular unit. After that moment, it was hard for her to forgive him and hard for him to come back. 

Bernice was very angry that he did not wait until his regiment, the British Columbia Dragoons, were called into the war effort. If he had waited, he would have been listed in the Canadian service as a sergeant, making twice what he made as a private. 

In fact, the two ended up getting a divorce before he returned home. Warren believes that they would have stayed together if things did not happen the way they did. It was an odd time and a very unfortunate set of circumstances. 

He says that they may have even stayed together for that fact alone. Where he grew up, in Vancouver, he was one of the few children with divorced parents. Warren noted that he was a bit of an anomaly in the group of friends that he ran with. 

Warren’s grandfather took him to the train station where the soldiers were being transported back home. He knows that it was likely the happiest day he experienced as a ten-year-old boy. 

It’s still unclear as to what Jack was looking for when he dropped his rank as a sergeant to become a private and enlist in the early stages of the Second World War. And whether his “war” was a literal one or an internal struggle is very much up for debate. 

However, when the war subsided, many forgot about it. Even though it captured a heartfelt moment, people wanted to move on, and the photograph was a reminder of sadder days for Canadians and the rest of the world.

He eventually decided to donate his memorabilia to one of the local museums. Warren believed it was important that the iconic photograph was properly archived in the city in which it was taken. 

The Canada Post debuted a stamp with a depiction of the iconic moment, and The Royal Mint released a unique coin series that featured an adaptation of the photo. 

The relationship between sons and fathers, the separation of family members, and boundless love are things that we all experience, and this photo captures those intangible elements and how they impacted the community and the rest of the world. 

Warren would eventually become the mayor of Tofino, making his father proud.