Attention!
Cette vidéo est disponible en anglais seulement.
Description
Mr. Godden describes his reason for enlisting and what he was fighting for.
Tom Godden
M. Godden est né à Lynn, au Massachusetts, en mars 1921. Très jeune, il est déménagé à Terre-Neuve. Au moment où la guerre a éclaté, M. Godden travaillait pour le service des postes. Son employeur ayant refusé de le libérer pour qu'il puisse s'enrôler, il a remis sa démission. Il s'est enrôlé à St. John's en 1941 et est devenu membre du 166e Régiment d'artillerie de campagne (Terre-Neuve), un régiment d'artillerie légère. Il a servi comme estafette durant la majeure partie de la guerre, servant en Afrique et en Europe. M. Godden a été témoin du fameux bombardement allié sur Monte Cassino. Après la guerre, M. Godden est revenu à Terre-Neuve et a connu une carrière florissante à la Pan-American World Airways.
Transcription
We didn't know much about it at the time. I didn't know anything about Hitler when I joined up. The only thing I knew, that we were told, was that this person has tried to take over the world and do certain things, a lot of it was propaganda maybe at the time. Britain...we were all staunch British here in Newfoundland, always, always were. Our ancestors were all descendants of people in the UK and Ireland. And knowing that our forefathers, in the First World War, what they had done when they were asked, we had no hesitation at all in saying we've got to do this. We want to do it. And I would say that if the same thing happened again, if you want to retain your way of life that we have. A lot of people are saying to us now, and it's only this past ten years, I've had people call me, relatives of mine from British Columbia (inaudible). On November the 11th, call me and say "Uncle Tom, I just wanted to call and say thank you for what you did in the Second World War to save us from having to do something today. Now we appreciate it." And I thought that was really something, after all these years, you know, now people are starting to say that to us. But then no one said it before for a while. But we didn't do it for that reason, we did it, as far as I'm concerned, we did it to retain our way of life ourselves. We weren't, as far as I know, and I can't recall feeling that way, that I'm going to do this for my grandchildren. But, we wanted to retain the way of life we had. You know, we didn't want to be dominated by a dictator, sort of thing. And I would say that if the same thing occurs today, if you want to retain what you now have, and it was hard fought for, do it. Serve your country. I think it should be done.