How could you look at a little kid and say no.

Heroes Remember

How could you look at a little kid and say no.

Transcript

I seen a lot of things, like children, hungry children. Seen a lot of things that happens in war. One thing I can say about a Canadian, they sure looked after the children, regardless who they were. The Canadian soldier, or the Canadian army, when they come across children, the children was first. We fed them. The officers would get mad at us and say, some of them, “Hey, you can’t give away our rations.” We don’t know when the next things coming up. That didn’t mean nothing to us. Hell, we’d take them children and feed them. You had to. How could you look at a little kid and say no? I seen them in France when we first went into France. They were starving, a lot of them kids. When we were eating we would throw stuff in the garbage. They would go pick it up and eat it. How in the hell can you not feed them? How can you not look after them, you know? I think Canadians should be proud of their military people because they looked after the children. They looked after other people that was sick as much as they could, you know.

Description

Mr. Berry describes with great compassion how the Canadian Army did its best to feed starving children.

Irving Malcolm Berry

Irving Berry was born on March 10, 1924 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He attended South End School, but left school early to find work. At the time that war broke out, he was working as a porter for the bus company, earning $3.50 per day. Mr. Berry was aware that the recruiting officer in Halifax was prejudiced against blacks, but managed to successfully enlist. His training took place in Camp Borden, and then he shipped overseas, joining the 86th Bridging Company, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. Mr. Berry’s active service in France began twenty-one days after the D-Day invasion. His company’s responsibility was to deliver bridge building components to the Front, and if needed, assist in the actual construction of new bridges. Three major areas of activity were the Seine, Arnheim, and the Rhine. Mr. Berry left the Armed Forces after the war, but reenlisted in the RCASC in1952. He retired with the rank of Sergeant in 1974.

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