They went about their daily work

Heroes Remember

They went about their daily work

Transcript

We deboarded and we got on a train and that, that was quite an experience, getting on the trains over there, because they're very small, they're very short cars. And they loaded us on and we'd go, and we'd stop, and we'd go some more because of German bombers or fighters were upstairs, and we had to be careful. And from then on we were dodging, dodging bombs and things, I suppose, most of the rest of the war from there, because I was in the Battle of Britain, when Britain was so badly bombed by the Germans, and watched the Spitfires and Luftwaffe and whatnot do their thing, and got caught a few times in bombing raids. That's when you know there is a war, yeah. Continued bombing by the Germans and continuous fighting by the British with their Spitfires, and I've watched lots of dogfights up there and heard lots of bombs come down and ducked a lot of them. Hid somewhere. I'd go to see a lady friend and we always, her and her mom and dad and her sister and I we'd hear the sirens going, and we'd crawl under the stairwell. That seemed to be in the house about the best place to, to hide. Sometimes they, they were pretty close. They were very strong, very strong character people, and they certainly weathered that more than in a greater sense than any of us could, could imagine. They just went about their daily work. Bombs would come, and they'd run for shelter, and there were shelters all over. The underground was a great sheltered place to be. We didn't know if they're coming unless the sirens rang. And they had observation posts out with people and the sirens and air-, and anti-aircraft guns, and ever since, there was a track of planes coming over, then the sirens went, and you headed for shelter.

Description

Mr. Hall describes his arrival in England and the immediate impact of the Battle of Britain.

John Hall

Mr. Hall was born in Whitewood, Saskatchewan, in 1921. He worked on the family's farm until he enlisted in the Royal Regina Rifles. He was shipped overseas on a converted sugar freighter. Once in England, Mr. Hall experienced the Battle of Britain from the perspective of the local citizenry. He spent more land duty in a mail sorting depot until his Regiment joined the D-Day invasion at Juno Beach. He was a radio operator. Mr. Hall took part in numerous actions, most notably Caen, Calais and the Leopold Canal and the Liberation of Holland. After leaving the Army, Mr. Hall worked in the Canadian North with the Department of Natural Resources.

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