If You Beat Him, He Will Want You

Heroes Remember

If You Beat Him, He Will Want You

Transcript

But Montgomery did come to see us, because after we finished Sicily, when we were done with Sicily, before we went to Italy, I remember they had us all lined out in a three-sided square, had us sprawled up around this camp table, just an ordinary table. Montgomery stood on there, and he's giving us the works, telling us what a wonderful bunch of guys we were, best soldiers in the world, why we had 1st Division, see, it's only 1st Division went down there. We had five divisions, eh. But it just 1st Division that went down there. And he said, you remember in England, in ‘42, 1942, they had this big scheme in England, and had gone off for bringing it up to Wales. I was on that scheme, too, Tigers scheme was the name of it. And, on this scheme, the 1st Canadian Division beat the British 8th Army, which was Montgomery's outfit, and he said then, he told us about that. I didn't realize anything about the who won the scheme, just an exercise as far as I know, but he said he said then if he ever was recruiting troops, he wanted the 1st Canadian Division. They were the crack troops, they were the buns that beat him in England. That's why he had us down there.

Description

Mr. Laird recalls Gen. Montgomery’s reasoning for wanting the 1st Division of Canadians with him in Italy.

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.

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