Recovering

Heroes Remember

Recovering

Transcript

They took me to, from, to the airport from the hospital. When I got to the airport there was a plane there that took stretchers. And, that’s when I found out that I, they’re going to fly me back to England. And they put me on a British DC-3. That’s the cargo plane that was used all through the war. It was a very good airplane. And they had room for twelve stretchers in there, just the stretcher people. And then they took off and ended up in England off at the airport, and then from there, I went to the hospital there. And they examined me and all this, then they put me into a ward in bed and until I was better. My problem was, they were afraid that the crack that I had in the skull there might be a medical problem. And that’s why I forgot, I didn’t know why they wanted, they didn’t want to ship me home right away. But anyway, I was in that recovery place for a couple of weeks. And then, eventually I ended up with number one platoon, the recovery platoons. They had about five of them. For one, you did one week in one platoon, you got physiotherapy, that was for the real hurt people. Then the next, after the next week you go to number two, then the next week three, four to five. By the time you reached five, you may not have been wounded enough to reach five. Then they’d put you on a, send you to the machine gun holding unit and send you back over to the front. But I stayed, they kept me in that for all that time. So I said, “Well look,” I said, “what am I...if they don’t want to fly me home or take me home whatever,” I said, “what am I going to do here?” Well, they said, “It’s a machine gun holding unit and we need somebody with the, with the, the know how, and,” he said, “we’d like you to work with us in the orderly room handling some of those drafts that coming in from Canada.” I was put on a draft eventually, on a boat and sent home.

Description

Mr. Champoux describes where they sent him after he became wounded, why they did not send him home immediately and how he recovered.

Robert Arthur Champoux

Mr. Champoux was born in Hull, Québec on March 21st, 1921. He lived there until the age of 8 when his father, a First World War Veteran, moved the family to Ottawa. Mr. Champoux had three brothers and four sisters; he was the third oldest child. When the war broke out he was attending Ottawa Technical High School. He left school, after his first year, to join the Army after failing to join the Navy and the Air Force (who were not yet recruiting). He left for Europe July 17th, 1940 and ended up stopping in Iceland where he remained for the next 10 months. Mr. Champoux’s wartime service saw him fighting on D-Day and in the Falaise Gap. He also fought in Calais and later on in Holland where he was wounded. Mr. Champoux got a job with the Mint upon returning to Canada. He joined the army again in 1948 retiring in 1965.

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