Description
John Percy McNiven
Mr. McNiven was working as a truck driver in Regina, Saskatchewan, before the Second World War began. As propaganda increasingly encouraged young men to join the service, one weekend evening Mr. McNiven and a friend worked up the courage to join. After basic training as a truck driver and mechanic, Mr. McNiven rejected the opportunity to serve in Canada and instead entered the Signal Corps. in order to make it overseas. After completing signaller training, Mr. McNiven was sent overseas to northern England to reinforce 2nd Division. Eventually the division shipped out, destined for Juno Beach. Since 2nd Division was part of the 3rd wave behind 1st and 3rd Divisions, the fighting at the beach had finished by the time Mr. McNiven reached shore. From there Mr. McNiven served in a special force of signallers, working with three others in the division. As the War progressed the division worked its way across France and Holland, and eventually into Germany where they were when the War ended.
Transcript
Interviewer: Is there one time that you got scared more than another?
Oh, when you heard the... yeah. First, when you heard the bombing and that in England, it wasn't, we weren't that scared. But after, when the shellfire, and 88's off the tanks, off the Tiger tanks and the stationary, and the moaning minnies, when you, they started whistling, yes. You prayed, you incidentally had to change your drawers and that quite often. In other words, you, you, you, you peed your pants more times than enough, and then you had a hard time finding a place to wash them or what to do.
There's many a time I prayed, and cried, hugging a hunk of cement or what you could hug. Yes, yes. You were scared. Real scared. When the, when the moaning minnies come in, boy, when they blew up and the 88's and... Yeah, you were scared.