Description
Mr. Candow describes how moving at night made each offensive position seem the same, and explains how duties and the main objective always remained the same.
Gordon Henry Candow
Mr Candow was born December 15, 1920, and is the oldest of nine children. Joining in with the lads he was working with when war broke out, he signed into the navy but was quickly transferred to artillery. In May 1940, Mr. Candow sailed overseas as a part of the 57th Heavy Regiment, and was stationed to Norfolk, Great Britain, performing costal defence for a year and a half. After being shipped to Southern England the 57th was soon incorporated into the 166th Newfoundland Field Artillery Regiment. In January 1943, the regiment was shipped to North Africa. They remained in action until the end of the North African campaign, when they were shipped to Italy where the unit saw action in Fogia, Cassino, Ortona, and Boulogne. When the war ended, he returned to Southern England for a short period and then returned home to Newfoundland.
Transcript
Interviewer: Okay so now we're in Italy and tell me about your first, when you first get into combat in Italy, where it was and what the scene was. Paint me a picture of that scene of your first combat in Italy.
Well, strange thing about scenery, panoramas held in the army, was that you move at night. You don't, you don't see, you know, and then take up a position, do your duty, communications, your wires things, make sure your wireless sets are working and find out where the cook house is, place the bed down, back to routine. Now there might be an orchard, you know, there might be a cornfield , very few animals. I don't know why, I guess probably the Germans had taken them or something, you know. And, and we were out in the country, we weren't in towns you know, we were right across the peninsula see. And there was, there was, you know there was a comparison in Italy and Africa but, not that much to give you a lasting impression, you know, I mean you're still doing your duty. You don't think about where you are, you know. What country you're in, I suppose that's the least of your worries, you're just doing what your supposed to be doing and so on. That's the way I found it.
Interviewer: So all those major battles in the Italian campaign; (inaudible)Cassino, Ortona all that, from the artillery perspective they were all the same?
Yeah, that's right. More or less. Different positions, different places, different surroundings but doing the same thing. Supporting infantry; blowing up targets for them. That was our job. Yep.