Traffic Control

Interviewer: Mr. McCrindle, you were telling me about the 35th Traffic Control Company, and the duty that it discharged in Italy following the fall of Rome. Can you describe a little bit for me the activities? Well we were really inexperienced, and having been artillery gunners and then being converted to controlling traffic. Not quite like a traffic cop in Montreal, this was controlling traffic of big movements of tanks and guns and infantry, the whole shooting match, throughout Italy on the very narrow roads. And windy roads, the whole thing, mountainous roads, and it was quite a job. No one really realizes it. Actually I wasn't overly proud of my, I was still a gunner working for the traffic control, but eventually I became used to it. I said "What the hell, I'm still doing a job." And actually, sometimes we were closer to action and getting shelled, and at one point, machine gun fire, than we were in the artillery. Interviewer: Your wireless training came into play as well? Oh yes. We got the information of troop movements on the wireless set, and we'd either send DRs out, that's dispatch riders, send them out or use the telephone. Same as in the artillery, we use the telephone for the different, I forget what they call them, posts or something like that. I've forgotten the terminology.

Mr McCrindle describes the 35th Traffic Control Company and their duties following the fall of Rome.

David McCrindle

Mr. McCrindle's father immigrated to Canada in 1911 and served during the First World War with the Black Watch of Montreal. He stayed in Scotland after the war and returned to Canada when David was two. Mr. David McCrindle quit school during the Depression as he couldn't afford the tuition. He worked for a Jeweller for $6.50 weekly and in June 1940 joined the Non Permanent Active Militia (NPAM) on nights and weekends. On January 9, 1941, his 19th birthday, he joined the "Woodstock Detail" and trained in Woodstock, Ontario. Mr. McCrindle went to Britain and trained as a signaller. He participated in the Italian Campaign and returned to Canada after the war.