In the Shadows of the Great War
Heroes Remember
In the Shadows of the Great War
I grew up in the shadow of the Great War.
There were many what they called “returned men”
around and looking at those fellows,
and what the war had done to them
it took away all desire for
any form of military service.
I certainly never did intend to join the army.
In June 1940, we said, “Look, if we are going to
win this war, everyone will have to pitch in!”
So that’s when I joined the army.
It was the 20th of June, 1940 I joined the
3rd Canadian Infantry Division.
When I joined the 3rd Div Signals,
we were immediately sent to Kingston, Ontario
which was the largest at Barriefield, Ontario,
opposite Kingston, was the largest signals
training establishment in the British empire and
that’s where we got our signals training.
The rest of our training was ordinary
infantry fighting training because signals
go everywhere. We were up, artillery regiments and
signals up with the infantry to find out
where the gunfire is needed and to
radio it back and that’s the sort of work we did.
The division engaged, different units of the
division collectively engaged in
seventy six battles and
absorbed thirteen thousand casualties.
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