Training in England

Heroes Remember

Training in England

Transcript

When they gave us our IQ, I suppose I scored certain points for certain things and I qualified to be a driver mechanic. They took us to, started out in book learning I suppose you’d call it, mechanic studying. And then they took us out after we got through the course and start to teach us how to drive. Now we were driving on the right hand side then, not the left hand side. That was quite, of course it didn’t bother me because I couldn’t drive anyway at that time. Well, that’s where, that’s where I learned how to drive in England. All I knew, I was in the Army, I was getting ready for the 166 or the 59th , whatever they were going to.... By the way, some of the boys did go to the other regiment the 59th. The heavy regiment we called it. But there was about 25 or 30 of us, I’d say half, I’d say half the draft that went over together went to one regiment and the other half went to the other regiment. See we had two regiments over there. Newfoundland did.

Description

Mr. Dingwell describes training as a truck driver with the 166th Battalion after his arrival in England.

George Dingwell

George Dingwell was born on February 21, 1925 in Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland. His family later moved to Corner Brook, where his father and brother were employed by the railroad. After a short time working for the railroad himself, Mr. Dingwell decided to enlist in April of 1942. In England, he trained as a truck driver and was assigned to the 166th Battalion, which was then deployed to Italy. Mr. Dingwell’s draft remained in a holding unit through the winter of ‘44-‘45. The day he joined his Battalion in Northern Italy, it was coming out of battle and was soon disbanded. Mr. Dingwell then volunteered for the Japanese theatre, but that theatre ended before he saw action.

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