The War Was Coming
Heroes Remember
The War Was Coming
Well, we all knew the war was coming, you know, it was exciting
to a, to a certain extent, it was frightening but it was
exciting. A kid doesn't know what's frightening, anyway, and
the Toronto Star, for example, used to run every Saturday.
There was a war section in it, and, and in that section, I don't
know what they titled it, but it was page after page of First
World War pictures, you know. And there was a lot of discussion
about what would it be like to be bombed in a major city by
modern aircraft, and they had drawings of, of buildings blowing
up and air planes dropping bombs and everything. You go back to
the library I'm sure you can find and look at all of that stuff
cause I've looked at it, I used to do a lot of research there.
But it's there, and, and it's pretty amazing, and so you were
interested in that. I used to lay on the floor and watch those
as much as comics. The first thing was comics, the next thing
was war pictures, you know. So, and then in 1936, as much as
I'm saying my dad's a pacifist, to get ready, cause he thought
he might be called, he and my uncle, another friend of the
family, actually, who was a, who was a Canadian guy born. My
uncle Harry was in the British army in the Liverpool Scottish
and he was there four years. He was a sniper. So, he was the
one I'm talking about. He, he was not a pacifist. He'd say,
"Dick," and that's my father's name too. He said ,"Dick," he
said, "Don't be a fool," he said. "A leopard doesn't change its
spots. We're gonna have to fight this war." And this would be
about 1937, ‘36, somewhere in there. But that was his, his view
and, and I think everybody knew it, you know.
Well, I'm, you could see it was coming.
Related Videos
Awaiting the War
Mr. Field talks about people in high school enlisting, and describes he and his father enlisting in 1943.
Small Port of Dieppe
Mr. Field goes over to the continent after the summer of 1944, and lands at Dieppe.
First Shell Fire (Part 1 of 2)
Mr. Field describes the slow fighting in Beveland and the first time he came under fire.
- Date modified: