One morning in Sussex after we had been
there for four or five months, it was in May
we were given two weeks leave, everybody.
Half of the battalion went at one time and half later.
Twelve days leave and we came back and
they told us we were going overseas.
We didn’t know where overseas was.
So one morning we were ordered to get ready.
The troop trains had arrived in Sussex and
we boarded the troop trains.
They said we were going to Halifax,
we landed in Halifax.
I had never been to Halifax before.
We pulled into the docks at Halifax.
I looked out over the Bedford Basin.
I never saw so many ships in my life.
I was used to seeing ships along the Bay Chaleur,
all those ships going up but
I never saw so many ships.
They said you could walk across from one
ship to another across the Bedford Basin.
So we boarded the ships.
There was five troop ships there.
I have a picture of the one I went across on,
the Duchess of York and
there was three thousand of us on that ship.
And there was four others and
they were men from all across Canada,
regiments from all across Canada boarded those
other four ships and we were on the Duchess of York.
And that was about five o’clock and
the colonel and the captain of the ship said we
would be sailing in the morning.
He didn’t say where.
We’d be sailing in the morning.
So about an hour after we had supper the captain
came aboard and said, “It’s too dangerous to stay here,
we’re moving outside the harbor.”
So they moved out, all the ships started moving out.
There was a hundred ships in the convoy.
They said it was the largest convoy that
ever crossed the Atlantic.
There was five troop ships and destroyers,
cruisers, battleships and the five troop ships
were in the center and the battleships
were all around for protection.
And then about, when we got outside
the harbor the captain decided during
the night they were going to sail
so we started for, then we were told
we were going to England.