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Description
Mr. Knockwood recalls one particular battle he was involved in on Hill 355 in October 1951.
Noel Knockwood
Le 17 juillet 1932, M. Knockwood voit le jour dans la Première nation Indian Brook à Shubenacadie, en Nouvelle-Écosse. Il fait ses études primaires à la Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. En 1951, il s'enrôle dans l'Armée canadienne et, à la suggestion de son frère aîné, ancien combattant de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il décide de s'engager dans l'artillerie. Il compte six années de service au Canada, aux États-Unis, au Japon et en Corée. Il reçoit son entraînement de base à Shilo, au Manitoba. Au cours de son entraînement, il suit des cours de guerre atomique, biologique et chimique. Il n'a que 18 ans lorsqu'il part à l'étranger pour combattre en Corée pendant 413 jours. À son retour, M. Knockwood donne des cours sur l'artillerie légère et devient sergent instructeur. Au terme de son service militaire, M. Knockwood poursuit ses études et fait une majeure en sociologie à la Saint Mary's University. Il enseigne ensuite à la Dalhousie University ainsi qu'à la Saint Mary's University, en plus d'être le conférencier invité dans plusieurs autres universités des Maritimes. En 2002, il est récipiendaire du Prix national d'excellence décerné aux Autochtones dans la catégorie patrimoine et spiritualité. Au moment de la présente entrevue, M. Knockwood agissait à titre de sergent d'Armes pour la Nouvelle-Écosse.
Transcription
Interviewer: You mentioned before, the children in the different villages and what were your memories. But what are also your memories of the various battles, do you have other memories that maybe some of them might not be as good of memories?
Yeah, I think it was October 1951 when Canada, Canadian Army was bombarded by the opposition and the military bombarded the Canadian troops to a degree where we had to retaliate and I remember being called to the back to my gun which we had at that time were 105 howitzers. And we began to fire, counterfire onto the enemy, and the situation was on what they called Hill 355. And over there, because the Koreans had Korean names for the hills and when the Americans came they used numbers for the hills and the number came from the elevation of the height of that hill. So 355 was a hill that was 355 metres high and that was the location where the Canadian troops were and had to hold that position when the north Koreans began to bombard that. They really shelled it for a long, long time and we sent the troops in the next morning and we counter attacked at that time. And we held that position. So, what happened after that was when, when we used to meet up with the infantry boys and go back on leave or something like that, you know, they would really, really accept us as real brothers because you know they often told us that ‘If it weren’t for the artillery, we wouldn’t be here today. Thank you!’. And they would give that kind of messages to us that made us feel very proud.