Trained to Kill

Heroes Remember

Trained to Kill

Transcript

I'm gonna see if it never happens again. It's awful. That never did nothing, it never did no good. It never taught us anything. Taught us how to kill people, but, isn't that something. I was in a, an awful thing. It was, like I say, I been pretty enthusiastic about military training at that age and from there. That physi- PT and stuff, that was fun. And another thing, I remember the guy, when I run into him afterwards, saying about the things we'd learned... At that time, we had, oh, Ross rifles. Big, long rifle when you stood to attention, just caught underneath the arm, and a big, long blade, knife, bayonet on it. Well, we finally got some of the Enfield rifles, that of the Enfield, and then it wasn't very long, they come out with this new bayonet. There was like about a six-inch spike, wasn't a big, long blade. ‘Course, like I say, I was still in basic training. I remember that goddarn old British, English sergeant-major explaining why we were getting a new bayonet. It was so much better than that old knife bayonet ‘cause that ba-, other one was so hard to pull out of a guy once you stuck it to ‘em and just try to pull this thing out and that, this other one's quick, you could jab ‘em... Good Christ, I said, what have I gotten into here? I was talking about, you know, pulling a bayonet out of a guy, so it's easier than... Make you realize what the hell they been teaching you, what are you doing? That wasn't, I never thought about having to do that. That's the kind of stuff... crazy.

Description

Mr. Laird recalls when the magnitude of what he was embarking on dawned on him.

Edwin George Laird

Mr. Laird was born in Verwood, Saskatchewan and attended school there until grade 4. In 1934, when Mr. Laird was 11 years old his father passed away. Mr Laird and the rest of the family moved to a homestead in the bush north of Verwood. Not having a radio until 1940, news of war was very limited. As they started to hear radio coverage, Mr. Laird began to think he should get involved. In February 1942, Mr. Laird travelled to Saskatoon to enlist, and after joining the tank corps was sent to Guelph, Ontario, for training. Soon after he was sent to England where after completing his basic training, he was made a signaller. After advance training he was assigned to the 2nd Field Regiment On June 10, 1943, Mr. Laird disembarked from Scotland, destined to invade Sicily a month later. From there Mr. Laird fought across Italy with the Vandoos and Saskatoon Light Infantry. Eventually, Mr. Laird and other Canadians in Europe were sent to join with Canadian Forces in France. From there they moved into Belgium, and Germany, remaining there until the war ended. Mr. Laird returned to Canada in early 1946, and received his discharge soon after.

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