Description
Mr. Buchanan explains how the weather affected patrolling at night.
Floyd Buchanan
Mr. Buchanan was born September 7, 1921, and grew up in the prairie provinces of Canada. Military history was not a new concept to Mr. Buchanan as a record of military service is prominent on both sides of his family. In 1939, while visiting Vancouver, news that war had broken out swept the city, and Mr. Buchanan who had just turned 18 enlisted right then and there in the city of Vancouver claiming that it seemed a natural thing to do. Mr. Buchanan started his basic training right away in Vancouver, then in Ontario, and finally in Nova Scotia where his adventure began by boarding a ship in Halifax in the fall of 1940 for England. Mr. Buchanan was given more training while in England, gaining experience as an infantryman, tank driver, and a gunner. His first battles took place in France, and his regiment then moved quickly into Holland where they were a vital part of the Liberation of the Netherlands. After the war Mr. Buchanan went home to his family in Saskatchewan and currently resides in Whitehorse.
Transcript
Oh yeah, I liked when we were in Holland a lot, like there was positions we'd have to hold for awhile too, and of course at night we'd send out patrols, like into the German lines you know, to try and either take prisoners or, or something, find out some information. And that was kind of hard on the nerves, like you know, you're going... Like we had to cross a river, the Moss river and we had these damn big wooden boats and they'd make lots of noise cause you'd have to paddle them across there and it would get quite foggy, like it was quite a big river. And then land on the shore and go up into the villages or wherever we could and try and get prisoners or information. So you know, you never knew what you were going to run into. One night they were coming back and the fog came in on the river and it got turned around, the officer that was, he'd going to take, didn't know what shore to take cause there was so much fog to get back to our own side there. But luckily we landed on our own side, that was kind of, yeah.