Description
Mr. Spracklin describes the reasons for which he enlisted and why it made a man of him.
Leslie Milton Spracklin
Leslie Milton Spracklin was born in Charlottetown (Bonavista Bay), Newfoundland on September 4, 1917. Mr. Spracklin was going to join the navy with his friends, however his mother had a heart attack and he stayed with her. When another draft came along he joined the army and ended up in the 166th Light Artillery. He went overseas in September, 1942 and the 166th Artillery Regiment went into Italy in the fall of 1943. They spent the winter fighting on the Sangro River and then went on to attack the Germans at Monte Cassino.
Transcript
Why I Enlisted
I’m not quite sure if I went because of King and Country or because my buddies were going. I’m really not clear on that, but we were a British colony and my, my grandparents thought the Monarchy was just it. They really thought, you know they, certain days of the year was kept for the, like the 24th of May they, they kept that, they kept that alive forever. But in my inner parts I, I’m not quite sure if I went because of that or it’s because my buddies were going, you know. You’ll have to pick in between there.
I think coming from a small community with about fifty families, landing down in a city like London, I think it made a man of me, I really do, sir. I think it made a man of me. I remember the first year, 1942, while in London, there was times you’d feel you, you want to be alone and I was alone in this movie theatre and Bing Crosby singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”, I
could cry now, sir, thinking about that. I was homesick, and I come from the smallest community in Newfoundland, one of the biggest cities in the world, and I was the loneliest boy in the world, so, it doesn’t always work out that way, does it.
Would You Enlist Again?
I don’t know if I can answer that honestly or not, but I, I expect I would have to, I think I would have to if, if the time arose and conditions were the same, I hope it never happens to anybody else again but, I think I would have to go.