Description
Mr. Raymond relates how he came to enlist, the propaganda at the time, his training and his ocean crossing in which 6,000 soldiers were crammed into a ship designed for 1,500.
Jacques Raymond
Jacques Raymond was born in Trois-Rivières and lost his father when he was very young. He was placed in an orphanage with one of his brothers, because his mother could not take care of her seven children all by herself. At the age of 17, he returned to Trois-Rivières to work at Wabasso Cotton Mills. When war broke out, he received a letter asking him to undergo some tests in Longueuil. He started his two-month training in Valleyfield. He spent six months in Western Canada, where he learned English and continued his training. He shipped out from Halifax in early 1943 on board the Nieuw Amsterdam for Greenock, Scotland, to continue his training. He took part in the Normandy invasion with the Régiment de la Chaudière. He also participated in the battles of Carpiquet, Falaise, Caen and crossed Belgium and Holland. He even went as far as Germany. He remained in Europe for 11 months.
Transcript
Defending my country as it went to warThe place where we were given the most news that got to us a bit was when we went to the movies. Normally, in those days, when we were young, we always went to the movies once a week. Before the films, they used to show us what were called newsreels. For 10 minutes they would show us the photographs that they had taken in Europe and that they had sent to Canada, to Quebec. They used to show us the Germans who were all over France and who were invading Czechoslovakia, and we would see the bombings. It made quite an impression on us to see that. That left something of a mark on us. But gradually, with those newsreels, with a little propaganda, they asked those of us who could if we wanted to sign up for active service and go to fight overseas. I was one of those who signed up.Interviewer – What other kind of propaganda was there? Well, they used to sell savings bonds, what were known as Victory Bonds, with photographs or sketches of wounded soldiers. They asked us to make contributions for weapons, and to send . . . it was a way of lending some money to the government out of our wages in those days. That was the main method. By radio. We were not forced to do it but, all the same, they were asking those of us who were available and willing . . . they were saying that they needed soldiers in Europe to defend democracy.Did that influence my choice to join the army? Not really at the time. But then I saw that our friends were starting to be called up, and I was young, I was just 18. I had some discipline in me when I was young, and I was struck by that. I said to myself, if we are going to be called up in any case and if we have to stay in Canada forever doing parades . . . in the end, some friends that I knew said at one point, “Well, we’re going to sign up for active service; it can’t be any worse. One place is as good as another, if you’re going to die . . . .” At that time, we didn’t think that it was what we had seen. Anyway, I took a chance because I had some idea of travelling and going overseas; but this did not prepare me for how things were going to turn out. But, all the same, I signed up for active service. Because I had had a bit of training. I found that staying in Canada and doing parades . . . particularly since, the more it went on, the more we heard about it. More of our friends were signing up for active service while others were staying behind. There were those who signed up for active service; as they said in those days, they signed the paper. So I signed up like others did. And I didn’t regret it. Training and the crossing to EuropeI went to Valleyfield for two months. It was what was called training for discipline, weapons handling, dress, learning to say “Yes” and saluting. It was just a matter of discipline, going on marches. It was not bad at all, and there was nothing hard about it. After two months, we changed camps because this discipline process was over, and recruits were always arriving to take our places. I had opted to sign up to go to Western Canada. We had the choice of saying whether we wanted to go out West or stay in Quebec. The fact is that the West appealed to me. I was out in Western Canada for six months. I was in Vernon, Vancouver and Nanaimo. I saw some places. The training was a bit harder . . . that’s just how it was. At one point I signed up and, after a few months in the West . . . even at that point they were talking about invasion and were getting ready for it. There was no specific date, but rumours were spreading. I signed up and, like others, I boarded the boat in Halifax in early 1943 and made the crossing overseas with all the issues involved in going on a cruise ship, the New Amsterdam, that wasn’t on a cruise. Because in wartime, all the democratic countries lent their cruise ships to transport troops overseas. So I was on the New Amsterdam. It was supposed to take 1,500 passengers, but there were 6,500 of us on it. We were like sardines, packed in the ship holds with bunk beds. We were crossing the Atlantic in seven days with all that it involved, because there were sharks, or what we called sharks - German submarines. They were the masters of the seas at that time. We zigzagged and at six o’clock there was a complete blackout. The cruise ships had put up boarding, plywood, and everything was blacked out. At six o’clock there were no more cigarettes and nobody was to throw anything overboard because the Germans had periscopes and the submarines could have seen it with their contraptions. All in all, the atmosphere on board wasn’t much fun. It was no joke any more when we were all packed in like that and we knew that there were submarines and they told us over the radio to be careful. If any alarm sounded at any point, we had to be ready to get into the lifeboats.