He'd just dodge and duck

Heroes Remember

He'd just dodge and duck

Transcript

We had a bit of basic training in, in Rosetown, just how to march. We were there a month or two and then they sent us to Petawawa, Ontario, and we did a little more basic training and no weapons of course. End up with two or three old Ross rifles from the Boer War and we were there a couple of months and then November the 13th, they loaded us up and went to Halifax and shipped us overseas with no weapons of any kind, I don't think. And we got over to England and we ended up getting the Enfield rifle, which was quite a big step up, like you know. Then of course we got the Bofors gun, we were in Colchester, England. They're a 40mm gun and, and we'd follow the head gun drill, hours and hours on end. Like you know, and to make up a crew there was fourteen or fifteen men and they all had to work together and the skeleton crew was five men and you could put it into action, without the predictor, with five men. And the boys got pretty good, the young fellas like you know? And being young and, and catched on quick and that's when they first made me an NCO and I got along good with the guys, sometimes the officers. And then the spring of 1942, they loaded us up and sent us to Ireland for a firing range and we were there six weeks firing at, they called them drogues or sleeve pulled behind an aircraft. And it, it was a slower aircraft, I don't know whether it was an Avro Anson or some aircraft. And they had a cable, would be possibly 100 yards or 75 yards long. And they had a sleeve that would open at the front and kind of closed at the back and he was, as he flew across his sleeve was pulled behind him, about 75 yards and our job was to take aim on that sleeve and fire at that sleeve. And once or twice, the guys in training, every aircraft went over, we would say "Plane right on, on" and once or twice, I think over in Ireland, they, they pulled on the plane instead of the sleeve would just, yeah... "See that pile," I said, "I just dodged and not going to do it." But that only happened once I think or twice that I seen, but no. But it was just a way of learning how to follow the aircraft a certain speed. And you took bearings on it and everything was by the clock. A plane left at 9 o'clock, or a plane at 12 o'clock or a plane right at 3 o'clock and then you, you took it on the plane and then you increased the bearing by you know, you tried to shoot in front of whatever you were shooting, the aircraft. And so the pilot had to fly through it and, and so it was all training, like you know. And being a young outfit like we were, most of the younger ones put guns, learned pretty quick and they were a pretty good outfit, for some of the ones with older... Like the young people pick it up so much better. And then they sent us back to Colchester, then from there to gun sites all over the south of England. We used to, eight hours a day of training, you know and for three years, so we were probably some of the best trained troops in, in, in the army. And we trained in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. We had commando courses. We spent six weeks in Wales under English instructors and they were, had to, they dropped us off 20 miles out or 25 kilometres from then, we had to march back and somebody else was trying to you know, stop us from coming back. And then they had these obstacle courses and they had wires that we had to crawl under and they had English shooting live bullets over us, so we didn't get up... yes, that's a fact! And so that we didn't, you know, some of the guys didn't get down slow enough, well they'd hear whistle of a bullet, well they got down a little more. But that was part of the training. And then they had bayonet training and old English instructors. But they, they were taught to be tough and you know, they'd, they'd have a sack hanging there and they'd, they'd, you're supposed to run a distance. The old sergeant, blood and guts and you know, you know he'd tell you how to do it. Well we never, we never needed that or anything like that, but that's, that's part of the training. No, they, we had all extensive training.

Description

Mr. MacDonald describes the broad spectrum of his basic training and in particular the Bofors anti-aircraft gun.

Clifford MacDonald

Mr. MacDonald was born near Hughton, Saskatchewan, on March 28, 1923. He left home at the age of 15, and worked at odd jobs until becoming an underage recruit in the army, 67th Battery at Rosetown, Saskatchewan. After completing gunnery training in England and Ireland, Mr. MacDonald spent some time on a Bofors gunnery crew in England's coastal defence system. He then became a gunner with the 5th Anti-tank Regiment, and was involved in forcing the German retreat from France, Belgium and Holland. After the war, Mr. MacDonald returned to Saskatchewan and purchased a farm under the Veterans Land Act. He has been a Legion member for more than 60 years.

Meta Data