From Hockey back to War

Archie Wilder, and he was, he was a pro hockey player from Saskatoon and he said to me one day, he said, “You play hockey, don’t you? ” as if I should, you see. I said, “Oh, yeah.” He says, “Come on down and practise with us.” So I was a little bit in shape then, you see. So I went down to practice with them. They played in what they called a “Corral” and they were the Stampeders. It’s the same name, the Calgary Stampeders. And we had lots of fun. There was a big fellow on defence called Slobosian (sp), a huge man. And I was small, see. So he said, “Don’t you worry about it, Eddie. They won’t hurt you. I’ll kill them.” And he did! So, I had some fun there until they caught up with us again and got posted back to Winnipeg. Because then I’m flying on this twin engines and it didn’t mean anything. But Northcott had a call from, got a signal from overseas, from the commander there asking, telling him to come back to be a wing commander. They needed some senior Canadians on the wings that we had. They were tour expired and getting killed, shot down, the flak and stuff. And I’ll never forget Northcott he’d run around that he’s a squadron leader. He’s running around this command and goes into the Guthrie who is AOC and gives him the fingers and say “There you are, sir. I’m going back overseas.” and all this. And the AOC, instead of court-marshalling him, he smiles and said, “Jeff, the best of luck to you. See that you come back.” he says. You know! Real good. And he’s saying, “I’ll get Edwards back in two weeks!” and away he goes. And I’m left with this. Two weeks time, in comes a message: Report back to 127 Wing as wing leader. And Northcott’s gone to 126, see. So back we go. And we get over there, and they’re flying Spitfires. They’re flying out of Holland, the Holland area. And I stayed with them until they end of the war.