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Description
Mr.Ethell talks about the reaction of the German nationals with whom he had contact while serving with NATO in Germany between 1962 and 1963.
Donald Stewart Ethell
Donald Stewart Ethell est né en juillet 1937 et a grandi à Victoria (Colombie-Britannique). Son père était un ancien combattant de la Première Guerre mondiale et de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Sa mère était infirmière. Sa soeur et lui ont étudié dans un pensionnat en raison des emplois qu’occupaient ses parents et ils retournaient à la maison seulement à Noël et pendant les vacances d’été. La mère de M. Ethell est décédée lorsque ce dernier n’avait que 10 ans. <br><br> Lorsqu’il s’est enrôlé, M. Ethell a joint les Queen's Own Rifles à Calgary. Après plusieurs années de service comme soldat d’infanterie, on l’a recommandé pour qu’il reçoive la formation d’officier. M. Ethell réussit le programme et s’éleva au rand de colonel. Plus tard, il a commandé des troupes canadiennes et des troupes des Nations Unies au cours de divers missions partout dans le monde. Au milieu des années 1990, Col. Ethell a pris sa retraite après plus de trente-cinq ans de services distingués.
Transcription
Interviewer: What was the reaction of the German nationals that would come into contact with the Canadians?
Well remember this wasn't that, that long after the war, I, we lived in the place it told you about, for about 6 months and then moved to a new apartment, in a little village called Langscheid, overlooking the Sorpesee. Fascinating place, because this was one of the alternates bombing spots of the dam busters, they blew the (inaudible) dam, to flood the Mohne Valley and in this case they tried to do the same thing, but it was an earthen dam, therefore the earthquake effect wouldn't work. The year after we left they in fact drained the Sorpe to pull the remains of a Lancaster out of there. All that to say that our landlord, Spica was 13 years old, when these events were happening and would talk about it in his broken English, his wife spoke better English. We were accepted as were many other Canadians in the villages, because they had to live somewhere and we were a source of income. You know, we didn't think it was that much money, I shouldn't say that really, because we didn't get, much more, much, a large allowance, but we did get enough to live on and the rent we were paying, the Germans thought it was great. I also joined the local chess club to talk to, to try and talk to a few people. Two things came out of that, it only lasted 3 months, one, I only won, one game and I think the school teacher was being nice to me and secondly I never met any of the German males there, and some of them had, obviously had suffered injuries in the war, that fought on the western front, they wouldn't admit it.