The War Ends

Heroes Remember

The War Ends

Transcript

We moved up outside of Orick about the 4th of, the 3rd of May and we were supposed to, things were getting calmer then and we were supposed to go into attack on Orick and it was kind of quiet. We heard rumours that things were getting near the end. So what was it? We were supposed to go up and my carrier was all fuelled up and everything, and food on it, the whole thing ready to go, the three of us ready to take off, and the major. And our guns were there firing a few shots, not many; there wasn’t much coming the other way, our way. We were living in a gun position. The command post was in a farm house and the three of us were sleeping there. Two blankets, a bed roll in the kitchen and we knew that it was getting near the end of the war because we could tell what was going on with the rumours around. Eight o’clock in the morning, we heard the tannoys, which of course were the guns getting instructions, we heard the order of the tan and the order we heard on the guns, we’d never heard since D-Day. “Cease fire, empty guns.” The war was over. Interviewer: It meant a lot to you then and it still means something to you now. Yep, we sat there and layed there in bed. We didn’t get up. Nobody said nothing, just layed there. (Inaudible) got up and had breakfast and walked around talked to him. So we took off up to the Regina Rifles, the Winnipegs and then we had a few words with them up there. There was no loud cheering. Interviewer: But it was over, you survived. I survived and, thank God, but then you sit back and remember, alot of guys that didn’t.

Description

It’s early May, 1945 and Mr. Rogers recalls the day the war in Europe ended.

Frederick Rogers

Mr. Rogers was an infant when his father died as a result of gas poisoning during his service in the First World War. His mother brought him and his only sister to Canada when he was about two years old. Mr. Rogers joined the Essex Regiment Tank (militia) in Windsor, Ontario when he was 14 or 15 years old. He went on to complete Grade 10 and at the age of 16 went to work on a farm to support himself. He enlisted in the Canadian Army on February 18, 1941. Basic training was provided in Kitchener, Ontario and he was then sent to Camp Petawawa and, finally, to Sussex, New Brunswick to join the 12th Field regiment as a replacement. The regiment arrived in Liverpool, England on July 31, 1941 and were immediately taken by train to Bramshot, England.

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