The War Ends

We moved up outside of Orick about the 4th of, the 3rd of May and we were supposed to, things were getting calmer then and we were supposed to go into attack on Orick and it was kind of quiet. We heard rumours that things were getting near the end. So what was it? We were supposed to go up and my carrier was all fuelled up and everything, and food on it, the whole thing ready to go, the three of us ready to take off, and the major. And our guns were there firing a few shots, not many; there wasn’t much coming the other way, our way. We were living in a gun position. The command post was in a farm house and the three of us were sleeping there. Two blankets, a bed roll in the kitchen and we knew that it was getting near the end of the war because we could tell what was going on with the rumours around. Eight o’clock in the morning, we heard the tannoys, which of course were the guns getting instructions, we heard the order of the tan and the order we heard on the guns, we’d never heard since D-Day. “Cease fire, empty guns.” The war was over.

Interviewer: It meant a lot to you then and it still means something to you now.

Yep, we sat there and layed there in bed. We didn’t get up. Nobody said nothing, just layed there. (Inaudible) got up and had breakfast and walked around talked to him. So we took off up to the Regina Rifles, the Winnipegs and then we had a few words with them up there. There was no loud cheering.

Interviewer: But it was over, you survived.

I survived and, thank God, but then you sit back and remember, a lot of guys that didn’t.