About six weeks it took us, well myself to get back
to a human being again, cleaned up and strong.
I was young and recovered pretty quick, maybe
a little too much drinking and went AWOL at the
end, Aldershot, you ever hear of the Aldershot riots?
Interviewer: Tell us about that. Well, it was on
the second night of that red caps came in.
I said well here’s my pass. I’m AWOL.
“Never mind Canadian, get on the ship. You’re
going back.” And the Isle de France is the same
ship I came over to England I went back home on,
all lighted up - nice and beautiful ship.
Interviewer: So that was your return home?
Yeah, I was late getting back.They took all the boys
that were regular soldiers, they were getting them
ready to go over and fight the Japanese at the time
but they weren’t needed. I had just about given up
hope and you know the Germans I must say this, they
were very good to me. They killed lots of us as we
went along in that route march because every time
they’d have these piles of food like say corn or next
one would be turnips covered up in the
field that they couldn’t put into the regular place
there was not enough room. They’d pile straw
and mud on top of that and when we went by
there there’d be nothing left in that field. A lot of the
boys got shot and killed and clubbed. I never did, they
got swung at. Some guards were meaner than others.
Interviewer: And what do you think contributed to you
surviving all of that? I’d been a country boy and
living on the farm, I was in great shape and
I could do lots of things. That’s one thing in the
army there used to be a lot of unarmed combat.
I worked one time with a blacksmith shop and there
was this guy,a great big grown man and I was about
eighteen or seventeen and I could pick him up and
throw him around. Nowadays I couldn’t do nothing.