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Description
Mr. Mason expresses his strong feelings on the Canadian contribution to winning the First World War.
Alfred Mason
Alfred Mason est né à Tangier (Nouvelle-Écosse), le 4 janvier 1895. Une fois ses études terminées, il a travaillé dans les mines d'or de Tangier avant d'accepter un emploi dans la construction de wagons à Trenton (Nouvelle-Écosse), alors qu'il avait 17 ans. Il a aussi travaillé quelque temps à l'aciérie, puis dans les mines de charbon du nord de la Nouvelle-Écosse avant de se rendre à Halifax en 1915 pour s'enrôler. Il s'est joint au 66<sup>e</sup> bataillon, puis a été transféré au 40<sup>e</sup>. Il a reçu un entraînement de base au Québec, puis a été envoyé en Angleterre et, presque immédiatement en France, où il est arrivé au printemps de 1916 en renfort de la 3<sup>e</sup> Division de la 8<sup>e</sup> Brigade du 5<sup>e</sup> Bataillon canadien de fusiliers à cheval.
Transcription
Interviewer: How would you describe what Canada did in World War One? Oh well Canada, Canada done a lot. If it wasn't for Canada they'd, they'd it just been nip and tuck with them I'm telling ya right now, cause we were into everything. There was nothing that we, we, we were into the worst places and everything. You just take, you just take a Vimy Ridge for instance. The French, French couldn't take it. The British couldn't take it. So what the hell they couldn't take it, well we went and took it and we wasn't as strong as, as they were.Interviewer: Why do you think then that Canadian divisions could take it? Well I don't know I think, I think they, they thought more about it and, and figured it out. Lots of ways that, that we could take it. So we moved in the artillery they coulda, they shoulda moved in more than what they did, that's all. They moved in the artillery and got them. German's new we were going to war. They new but they didn't expect us over that day, because it, it was snowing and raining that morning, ya see, but we fooled them. We didn't stop for anything. We tell, we tell, I told, I told one fella one time I saw him, this German ya know, one time, I said the Canadians don't stop for anything. And one time we took, we took on the way we made I was telling you about we took a German, I didn't, but somebody got him, a German that'd been all over Canada, he knew more of Canada than we did ourselves. Yeah, yeah.