Shipments From Home

Heroes Remember

Shipments From Home

Transcript

There’s a certain amount of holdings that everybody has and it’s the same. It’s three pairs of socks, two pairs of boots, your complete holdings. You carry it in a kitbag. So what they do is just spread it out there, you’ve got your shaver, you’ve got your socks, you’ve got your underwear. It’s all there and you roll it up and you put it away, and that’s what you get. And see the problem is an infantier, you don’t have time nor the capability of being able to keep a diary because everything, if you take something you got to carry it, you know what I mean. You don’t have a truck to throw it in or somewhere. Like some of these people were very fortunate, they had access to transportation or they were in a truck or a tank or something of that nature. As long as they weren’t blown up, they could keep their notes and put it aside. Consequently an infantier is so busy and if he picks something up he’s gotta carry it and it’s pretty, and he has to carry some entrenching tools that he can dig a slit trench. We'd get parcels from home well they’d share them, you know. You couldn’t carry it, you had to do something with it. It was always nice and how some people would figure out, we used to get little mickies of rye and you know that was, and it would take probably a month to get there, but the home front figured out how to do it. A loaf of bread, pull out a loaf of bread, put the mickey in there, let the bread harden. It never broke. But that was back home, how are we gonna get that over to him. And we use to, you’d see the guys coming out of the post office with a parcel shaking it to see. But that’s, and they never broke. So you bought a loaf of bread, hollowed it out, put it in, and let it harden and put it in the box. That was packaging.

Description

Mr. Lockyer explains that infantry normally carry everything they own with them, but explains that many of the men shared many things as well as creatively packaged gifts from home.

Owen William Lockyer

Owen Lockyer was born in Herring Neck, Newfoundland on March 19, 1923. He was the youngest of five siblings and son of a grocer. After enlisting, Mr. Lockyer was sent to Normandy as part of the Algonquin Regiment. He served in the infantry as a platoon runner. He was awarded the Order of Military Merit, Order of St. John 1935-1943, France and Germany star, Defence of Britain. Mr Lockyer stayed with the army Militia where he became Brigadier General of all the militia army forces in Atlantic Canada

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:43
Person Interviewed:: Owen William Lockyer
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Algonquin Regiment
Rank:: Private

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Shipments From Home

Heroes Remember