A Change of Regiments

Heroes Remember

A Change of Regiments

Transcript

Early in the morning and you had physical training first, and then you had breakfast. And then you went to the classroom. And for about four hours in the classroom. You had lunch or dinner, or whatever they called it. And then you went back and then you went out in field training for surveying. Well, at first I went to a big training camp in England where the rest of the regiment was. We were in "C" Battery. And one night while in a pub having a beer or two, I met a gentlemen from Charlottetown. He asked me, when he found out I was an Islander, he said, "And what, what unit are you with?" And I told him. He said, "Why don't you come with us?" You could because Prince Edward Island, part of the 1st Canadian Medium Regiment, was the 2nd battery, which was from Charlottetown. And I can remember quite well he said, "Well, would you, would you come with us?" And I said, "Well, they wouldn't take me because wasn't quite big enough for medium, for a medium gunner." Because that's why I was sent to, to Winnipeg Battery because they were smaller, a little smaller. There could be lighter guns. And he said, "We'll see about that." So, very shortly, I got transferred to the 1st Canadian Medium Regiment. And it was really, it was really something to be going to be back with the bunch because we were with . . . up until that time, there was a couple of Islanders, but most of them were from Western Canada or Ontario or West because there's a Western unit. At first, we we were train-, we had to be retrained with them. That's when I, I was sent off to be a surveyor, more or less. And then when I come back, I was put into headquarters, which had a survey crew of ten people. We had to make sure that the artillery, the guns were put in their proper place, and which way they were going to be shooting and putting it that way. And, and the different,how far the targets would be from what they had to be shooting at. We went, I went back to the unit with, in this crew of ten. And that's what we followed through from the rest . . .from that day on, 'til the war was declared over.

Description

Mr. Carr describes basic training and switching regiments.

Robert Carr

Mr. Carr was born October 17, 1918, in Oyster Bed Bridge, Prince Edward Island, and grew up on his family's farm. He was the oldest of six children, and one of two brothers old enough to serve in the Second World War. Mr. Carr enlisted in the army as a member of the 1st C Battery, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, a Manitoba regiment. Once reaching England, he joined the 1st Canadian Medium Regiment as a surveyor. Mr. Carr took part in the Italian campaign and later joined the Allied Forces in Northern Europe for the liberation effort in Holland. After returning to Canada, Mr. Carr surveyed, farmed and finally served many years with the Canadian Postal service. He and his wife, Mildred, currently reside in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

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