They Didn’t Realize the Dangers.

We thought the war wouldn’t last very long, you know, that we wouldn’t get over there in time to enjoy a trip, or enjoy a holiday. But the young people those days didn’t realize the ... until we saw these pictures. But still, we didn’t think that we’d … it would be over before we got engaged in it. There was a lot of casualties coming back, and naturally they could see the horrors of war, and one thing and another. And naturally, they didn’t … they weren’t very happy for the young fellows to join, I’m sure of that. Especially mother’s sons and that, you know. I know I was the only son in the family and they felt quite bad about it. But I’d made up my mind to go and I ... They weren’t very happy about me joining, naturally, but they took it in good spirit. But I could see that they didn’t like to see me go. The 103rd was recruited here in Victoria, at the same time the 102nd was over there. They were down to about four battalions, and there were a lot of young, especially in our battalion, a lot of young men in there that, as I say, they didn’t realize the danger over there, what they were in to. So we all joined, pretty well, all joined up together.