Living Like Kings

Heroes Remember

Living Like Kings

Transcript

Took us up to this big German army base and we were up there as Transport and at that time I was driving an English - when I got there, I was a Corporal then and I was in charge of them and they gave me this, they called it a Bedford, troop carrying vehicle. And we were living like kings, we had all the Germans, like, was weeded out and worked in the mess halls and we had them working in the garages as mechanics like that so we were like the officers, we just walk in the mess and just sat down and they come, waited on us and all this stuff. So anyhow, so my job was to going to this airport about, I think it was about 50 kilometres or so away and picking up, there was a lot of officers and nurses and stuff coming in from all the different areas to this airport and bring them on the base, then they get all the papers and they get transferred around and everything to go to England, back over to England. We did that, we did that for, let's see, we did that for about about 9 months.

Description

Situated at a Germany Army base, Mr. Cromwell talks about the wonderful experience of being treated like Kings.

Everett Sylvester Cromwell

Everett Cromwell was born on December 12, 1921 in Weymouth Falls, Digby Co., Nova Scotia. He was the fifth of ten children. At age twelve, he left school to work in the woods because his father, also a forestry worker, had fallen ill. Both of his parents were soon deceased, and the ten children stayed in the family home supporting one another. Mr.Cromwell supported the family by working for a local farmer and then in the local lumberyard. He enlisted in June, 1941 in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. After basic training in Halifax, Sherbrooke, and Camp Borden, he sailed aboard the Louis Pasteur to England, arriving on December 23, 1941. Two weeks after the D-day raid, Mr. Cromwell arrived in France with the 2nd Division, Motor Transport. For the duration of the war, his unit was responsible for transporting fuel, food and ammunition to the Front in support of the Allied advance on Germany. After being discharged from the army and returning home, Mr. Cromwell, recently married, reenlisted because it was ‘steady work’. He and his family were to experience institutionalized racism in Halifax, being denied accommodations because of their black heritage. This in contrast to the fact that he felt equal in all respects as a member of the Army. Mr. Cromwell and his wife, Elizabeth, currently reside in Shelburne, Nova Scotia.

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