Joining the Army

When I joined up I was still eighteen, August I joined up and it wasn’t until October to turn nineteen but I was only young but as I said I was as green as grass, I didn’t know anything. In those days it wasn’t a thing of patriotism, nothing like that at all just wanted adventure that’s all it was. I went as a gunner with 16th Light Battery, 3rd Regiment, it’s Bofors, an anti-aircraft gun that’s what it was. In Vancouver, they didn’t have any equipment at all. And how we trained, we used broom handle, okay this is your gun here, and you stand on this side. Like when your gun is hooked on to the tractor, the rear of the gun, you’re facing the barrel because it’s pointing that way but once it’s unhooked the rear part of the gun is behind the breach. In other words, you’re facing the back of the gun and the front of the gun is where the barrel is pointing. The routine we had, you know, take route marches, take lectures from the military law, first aid, we had to learn all that stuff. And then, of course, air craft identification that was a must because we don’t want to shoot down our own plane.

Mr. Chow speaks about his decision to join the army and how the sense of adventure intrigued him.

George Chow

Mr. George Chow was born in Victoria, British Columbia November 5, 1921. Mr. Chow attended school in Victoria and during that time had the desire to join the service. He went to Vancouver for basic training and became part of the 16th Light Battery, 3rd Regiment as an anti-aircraft gunner. Mr. Chow travelled overseas and landed in England and at the end of war he participated in the liberation of Holland. Mr. Chow met his wife overseas and when the war was over they came back to Victoria. Mr. Chow holds great pride for his service and returned to Holland to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands.