Training at Isle of Wight

Heroes Remember

Training at Isle of Wight

Transcript

When we arrived in England nobody knew why we came. So at that time the commanding officer of the Canadian troops said well you guys will be my personal signallers. And eleven of us were there. We had a sergeant in charge and I was second in command as a lance corporal and he provided us with five motorcycles and we were able to provide communications for the Canadian troops that were there then. First Div had already been over and my brother Paul who had been in France and come out at the time of Dunkirk, we went to visit him on one of these motorcycles but when my brother Eddie and I were both on the advance party and we went pretty well together until the army decided that they couldn’t keep us promoted together so they promoted me to a sergeant and I went down to 4 Brigade headquarters and they promoted him to a sergeant and he went to Corps Signals to help organize the signal corps there. At 4 Brigade Signals I was in charge as a sergeant and suddenly we were told we were going to go into training. We weren’t told why, we were sent to the Isle of Wight in 1942 and we arrived there early April or late April and we had commando training and really tough training and so on. And we ended up, we were trained on assault landing craft. An assault landing craft holds about thirty five people and that’s enough for a platoon if you’re in the infantry. When you are in signals we were allowed to have our radio set and our operators and the headquarters staff that I was with. I was with the brigade major and we did our training that way towing a nineteen set which was brand new put in a box that we constructed and put on a baby dolly. A baby dolly was what you used to lay lines with but we built a box to put the radio set on top and it lifted up and underneath. You could have a thousand rounds of ammunition plus the batteries so that we could run the radio set.

Description

Mr. Hart talks about the type of equipment and tactics used in signals communication.

David Hart

Mr. Hart was born in Montreal, Quebec on July 8, 1917. One of seven boys, Mr. Hart joined the army reserves and high school cadets later graduating from college as an accountant. Joining with the Fourth Divisional Signals in 1937, he then joined active service August 1939. Mr. Hart continued on with his service as a signalman with the Royal Canadian Corps Second Divisional Signals taking part in The Dieppe Raid as a sergeant. For his part in this historical event, Mr. Hart received the Military Medal for bravery, awarded to him by His Majesty King George VI at Buckingham Palace. Upon returning to Canada, Mr. Hart continued on with his accounting career. Having great pride for his service, Mr. Hart has returned to Dieppe six times and with this being the 75th Anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, along with his wife and son, he will be joining the Canadian delegation in recognition of this commemorative event. At 100 years of age, Mr. Hart continues to enjoy life with his wife of 99 years of age, still residing in their own home. Mr. Hart continues to promote the importance of the Dieppe Raid so that Canadians will truly understand the sacrifice that was given during this battle. He and his wife now reside in Montreal, Quebec.

Meta Data