Heading Overseas

Heroes Remember

Heading Overseas

Transcript

Interviewer: So after you enlist and you have your training and you have your uniform, how do you get, how do you get going? Are you on a ship, a train? Can you tell me a bit about that. We, they gave us embarkation leave and I went back to Winnipeg. Spent one night there, but they gave us new equipment as far as, our belts and that sort of thing, pouches for our grenades, gas masks. And I got in kind of late, the crowd was leaving, they were leaving, going to the train. And all that stuff was there and I didn't know how to use it, never seen a gas mask before. But finally got it on somehow and got out of the train. Interviewer: So you go by train... Yeah, by train to Vancouver. In Vancouver we rushed onto a boat immediately, that would be about, between 5 or 6 o'clock and they were told that we would be leaving at 6 o'clock, and we're still there at 9. Well then the boat started moving and we were leaving, well we weren't leaving because we were going out of the ocean or we were leaving because too many of the boys were jumping the ship. Interviewer: Really? They chose not to go. Of course, so they, when they got us out in the middle of the harbour in Vancouver, they, that stopped them. Interviewer: So they enlisted, but they never went. That's right. Interviewer: But you carried on. It was a long haul going overseas, 22 days on a luxury liner, but it was anything but luxury with a lot of troops, there was 2,000 troops on it... very, very crowded. Interviewer: Did you have any friends with you at that time? Just the 13 that, and I didn't know all them well. It was a long trip, a little, a little too long and the food was, well it was a mutton stew for dinner, supper and tripe for breakfast, and that was terrible. Interviewer: So what was it like on the ship travelling, like what were your quarters like? Well our quarters, we didn't have any such thing as quarters. It was a, we were in the hole in the bottom of the ship and we had bathrooms, tables, long tables for eating on and our bunks were in, or simply hammocks hanging over the ceiling of the... We were eating down here and sleeping up here. So we stayed up on top as much as we could, but every fifteen minutes you were running into a squall in the Pacific Ocean and everybody heading for cover and back up again. Interviewer: So what was your responsibility when... this would happen? Well, get myself out of the way, but I had a platoon. They were responsible for themselves, get them out of the way, but we did small arms training and the course that I had been doing here and one thing that was good about that, my officer was, didn't have the experience in the arms that I had. So he asked me to wright up his syllabus for him and I did, and he would get me a couple chunks of baloney once in awhile from the, from the, and that kept me alive.

Description

Mr. McGee explains the ship ride overseas and how people were jumping overboard.

John McGee

Mr. John McGee was born in Saskatchewan, on May 3, 1923, and comes from a family of two brothers and three sisters. He now resides in Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife and family. Mr. McGee joined the army and left for wartime service with a group of thirteen men. Although very excited to be going overseas, he recalls the sight of seeing young men jumping overboard when the ship began to sail; the fear of the unknown was causing many to turn back and stay at home! Mr. McGee was determined to go and serve his country. Mr. McGee shares with us his personal experience of being captured as a Hong Kong prisoner of war (POW) and hardships he endured at the camp. He considers himself very fortunate to be alive today, as many of his friends were left behind. After six years of serving in the army, Mr. McGee returned home to be what he terms an "Entrepreneur" buying a few hotels and later on getting into the sales business. Civilian life was a very positive outcome for a soldier who had endured such hard times and poor health during his time in the prisoner of war camps.

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