Poor Preparation, Poor Procedure

Heroes Remember

Poor Preparation, Poor Procedure

Transcript

Interviewer: With the word that you'd gotten that the war with Japan was imminent, what did you think of your chances there at Hong Kong? I didn't think very highly of them for one thing, previous to the onset of the battle, some of the British officers weren't satisfied with the way the Canadians were, were saluting them on the street or when they were meeting them or anything like this. And so they were a, a lot of the Canadians in Sham Shui Po Camp were put on the parade square and were being taught basically how to salute, how to march, how to dress properly etcetera, when we should have been in the hills learning the terrain that we were possibly going to fight over. And, just poor procedure, poor, poor preparations, I would say.

Description

Mr Peterson recalls how the Canadians were trained following their arrival in Hong Kong.

George N Peterson

Mr. Peterson was born in Winnipeg February 8, 1921. His family moved to Saint Watell, where he now considers home, when he was five years old. His father was a Veteran of the First World War, having served as a sergeant in Artillery. Having participated in Sea Cadets and the Cameron Cadets previously, with written permission from his father, Mr. Peterson joined the Winnipeg Grenadier Militia as a drummer in the bugle band in January 1938, at the age of 16. Mr. Peterson signed on for active service with the Winnipeg Grenadiers on September 6, 1939, - his twin brother also joined the Grenadiers September 7th, and their father joined the Winnipeg Light Infantry September 12th. Soon after signing on, Mr. Peterson was promoted to Lance Corporal and was made a Mark 4 Vickers machine gun instructor. After Basic Training, his unit was shipped to Jamaica as POW camp reinforcements, but returned to Canada soon after On October 27, 1941, his unit boarded the Awatea in Vancouver, bound for Hong Kong. Captured after capitulating to the Japanese, Mr. Peterson was interned in North Point and Shamshuipo POW camps. While at Shamshuipo he was put to work as slave labour at Kai Tac Airport. Eventually he was sent to Japan to work in a coal mine 120 miles north of Tokyo. After three years and eight months of internment, Japan surrendered to the Americans. Mr. Peterson was reunited with his family soon after.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:22
Person Interviewed:: George N Peterson
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Asia
Battle/Campaign:: Hong Kong
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Winnipeg Grenadiers
Rank:: Lance-Corporal

Language selection

Poor Preparation, Poor Procedure

Heroes Remember