Reconnaissance

Heroes Remember

Reconnaissance

Transcript

I was reconnaissance officer for No. 8 Company. I used to have to do a lot of route recces so we got pretty far forward, in fact, a couple, three times I guess I got ahead of them. In war, it gets pretty confusing and sometimes you get ahead of your own troops. And we streamed across Europe. After we broke out, across the Seine we started to really move. You didn’t know where the front line was literally so things like that used to happen. Guys would go too far and sometimes came a cropper but I was lucky. But Provost Corps, we’re not the fighting unit, mostly they shot at us. We were dodging bullets, not shooting them.

Description

Mr. Wilkinson explains his role and responsibilities within the Reconnaissance platoon.

George Wilkinson

Mr. Wilkinson was born in England in 1918. Both his parents were from England. At the age of 16, Mr. Wilkinson was asked to join the infantry and at the age of 17 joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Division B Company. In 1939 he went overseas as a Lance Corporal in Transport Platoon of HQ Company. Having been wounded during training, Mr. Wilkinson found himself in a holding unit and with great anxiety for action, accepted an opportunity to become part of Provost Corps. Mr. Wilkinson joined No 2 Provost Company and served as a lieutenant landing in Normandy with No. 8 Company of Canadian Provost Company of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division. Mr. Wilkinson was repatriated to Canada in May 1945 surrendering his wartime commission and enlisting with the Canadian Army as Regimental Sergeant-Major. After holding subsequent positions in the Army he retired in 1967 as lieutenant-colonel.

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