Stores, Tanks and Flags

Heroes Remember

Stores, Tanks and Flags

Transcript

The friend that had just a..., was with me, Bob Yates, he was an older man. He was a cook in Saskatoon in, in the recruiting depot. And he said I should join the ordinance, of course I didn't know anything, nothing much, but by the time I'd been in there a week or so, I knew what ordinance was, and that wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want to work in stores. I wanted to drive a tank because, like I say, we never had nothing except a couple old horses on the farm. I'd never even driven, had a tractor, never mind a ... My goal, (inaudible) I wanted to drive tank, so I'd, I changed over to the tank corps. And the first draft that went out, they sent me to Guelph, Ontario, to take my basic training, and would you believe I was only in Guelph 24 days, and they called four of us out of a group march we were on. All, all our names started with Laird, it was me, it was "L," it was Laird and Larson from, from Saskatoon, I don't know the other two, but they were L's, and we could go home on embarkation leave. And would you believe, I did not understand or realize or know what the hell that was. It was a leave, anyways, I was gonna be able to go home. Went home for them seven days, and when I went back, my ticket took me to, I think, Hamilton. Didn't go back to Guelph, which was strange, then we were in a tent. I was only in there about three days. And Hali, went to Halifax and over to England and I took, finished my basic training in England, and during that time, it was at Troon, or, no, not... in just outside of Aldershot, bad for names. Anyways, took another month of basic training, came out on orders, signalman. What the hell? I was a trooper, I was a bloody, I got my black beret. I was gonna be in a tank as soon as I finished my basic training. I thought, I'm gonna drive a tank..., Signalman. Well, I thought like a lot of the other guys, you know, signalman. Christ, that's some guy waving a flag. That's not what I wanted to do in the army. I wanted to drive a tank, for God's sake. I fought everything. I remember that old Captain , I used to argue with him at signal course. It was an eleven week course. He said, "Soldier, I can't make you learn that stuff, but I can make you put them headphones back on. Get ‘em on." Cause I'd take ‘em off. I disliked them. But, they were sending Morse Code, oh, you know, through the ears. You couldn't, you couldn't help but hear it. And I guess they knew what they were doing. I had no idea about signal, hell, I only had grade, I took grade nine correspondence out there on the farm. But eleven weeks, I could read 28 words a minute, which was faster than I could write. It just come... they, they must have give you some of aptitude thing to find out what ya, what you were gifted for. And I found out that, hey, I wasn't waiving flags.

Description

Mr. Laird describes how he progressed from joining up with ordinance, to becoming a signaller.

Edwin George Laird

Mr. Laird was born in Verwood, Saskatchewan and attended school there until grade 4. In 1934, when Mr. Laird was 11 years old his father passed away. Mr Laird and the rest of the family moved to a homestead in the bush north of Verwood. Not having a radio until 1940, news of war was very limited. As they started to hear radio coverage, Mr. Laird began to think he should get involved. In February 1942, Mr. Laird travelled to Saskatoon to enlist, and after joining the tank corps was sent to Guelph, Ontario, for training. Soon after he was sent to England where after completing his basic training, he was made a signaller. After advance training he was assigned to the 2nd Field Regiment On June 10, 1943, Mr. Laird disembarked from Scotland, destined to invade Sicily a month later. From there Mr. Laird fought across Italy with the Vandoos and Saskatoon Light Infantry. Eventually, Mr. Laird and other Canadians in Europe were sent to join with Canadian Forces in France. From there they moved into Belgium, and Germany, remaining there until the war ended. Mr. Laird returned to Canada in early 1946, and received his discharge soon after.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:55
Person Interviewed:: Edwin George Laird
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Second Field Regiment
Rank:: Private
Occupation:: Signalman

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Stores, Tanks and Flags

Heroes Remember