VE Day

Heroes Remember

VE Day

Transcript

Interviewer: How did you feel when you heard that war was over? Well I'll tell you we didn't know, we didn't know the war was over in Europe for two days because we, you don't, we hadn't couldn't break silence and we were up the rivers and we were, we didn't hear, we didn't hear until we came into port. Of course by that time all the beer was gone. We couldn't, I mean it was two days later before we knew but we, see we couldn't break silence when we were up there, and then we came in and that was it, so. But that was just the start of the end, see we had still three rough, three rough months after that, you know. We were still moving up the rivers chasing Japanese and doing things like that after the war in Europe was over, so, yeah so.

Description

Mr. Guthrie recalls finding out the war in Europe was over, a few days after the fact.

Peter Guthrie

Mr. Guthrie was born in 1925, in Scotland to a family of eleven children, five of which were in the army, as was his father who served in the First World War. After trying to get into the air force, Mr. Guthrie enlisted in the navy where he was designated a cook, but also took on other jobs, such as steering, manning the guns, and radio. His first ship was a minesweeper, which swept the mines laid in the English Channel and the North Sea by the Germans. The second ship he was on travelled to Burma patrolling the rivers for Japanese. They also picked up and dropped off special service troops in the Burmese jungles. It was a dangerous route, as sometimes the boat would travel within 20 miles behind enemy lines. After the war, Mr. Guthrie worked North of Scotland recovering torpedoes for the air force and looked after air force rescue crafts for four months. Soon after, Mr. Guthrie was married, and he and his wife moved to Canada in 1951 where they settled in Regina, Saskatchewan. Mr. Guthrie has been a vital member of the Royal Canadian Legion for 47 years, serving as chairman of the War Graves Committee, and doing his part to help others in need.

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