Description
Object description
Canadian gunner served with 2nd Field Regt, Royal Canadian Artillery, 1st Canadian Infantry Div in GB, Sicily, Italy and Netherlands, 12/1942-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Pipestone, Canada, 1925-1941: family; education; question of Irish family connections; early interests; story of running away from home; volunteering underage for military service. Recollections of period of training as gunner with Royal Canadian Artillery in Canada, 1941-1942: basic training near Quebec City; aspects of bi-lingual nature of camp; induction into artillery; signals training; question of usefulness of training; story of later artillery parade in Italy; story of hospitalisation in Italy for malaria and jaundice; opinion of Red Cross and Salvation Army. Recollections of period as gunner with 2nd Field Regt, Royal Canadian Artillery, 1st Canadian Infantry Div in GB, 12/1942-6/1943: voyage from Canada to GB, 12/1942 including conditions on board troopship and presence of American ceremonial crew; arrival in GB; joining 2nd Field Regt, Royal Canadian Artillery at Eastbourne; reassignment to Kilmarnock; training; story of selling fake parrot to civilian in a public house.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations as gunner with 2nd Field Regt, Royal Canadian Artillery, 1st Canadian Infantry Div in Italy, 7/1943-1/1945: landings on Sicily, 7/1943 including weather, loss of ship carrying regiments guns, landing craft hitting a sandbar, casualties and prisoners of war; question of personal moral during German Air Force raid on landing beaches; time of landing; role of moving ammunition; opinion of Ordnance QF 25 Pounder Field Guns received from Eighth Army; move through Sicily; terrain and condition of roads; climate; opinion of local population; initial contact with German forces; incident of ammunition dump exploding; evening ambush by German forces; contrast of personal moral in and out of action; opinion of being bombed by both Axis and Allied aircraft; story of United States Army Air Force aircraft crashing into Canadian command post; opinion of dead losing their boots after burial; reorganisation after Sicilian Campaign; landings at Reggio di Calabria on Italian mainland, 9/1943; story of liberating a Fiat car; comparison of British and German petrol containers; move up east coast; terrain; river crossings; action at Monte Cassino, 1944 including moving into position, sight of Monte Cassino Monastery and opinion of firing onto target; action at Ortona, 12/1943 including condition of town, smell of battlefield, attack of newly arrived Canadian 5th Armoured Div, opinion of attack and troops' readiness.
REEL 3 Continues: sight of Allied air attack on Monte Cassino Monastery; breaking through German Adolf Hitler and Gothic defensive lines; reaction to casualties; story of dead German Army officer in Italy; story of later German casualties in Netherlands; setting up guns in Florence; move through Italy; story of Italian troops in farmhouse; opinion of Italians; German attack on 1st Bn Loyal Edmonton Regiment's positions. Recollections of operations as gunner with 2nd Field Regt, 1st Canadian Infantry Div in Netherlands, 1/1945-5/1945: comparison of houses in Italy and North West Europe; journey to Netherlands via France, 1/1945; action at Otterloo, Netherlands, 16/4/1944-17/4/1944 including direct attack on regiment's guns by German Army infantry, reaction to hand-to-hand combat, arrival of British tanks and reaction to casualties; opinion of nature of war and war stories; opinion of Dutch and Belgian civilians, reaction to handing over guns and ships to Royal Netherlands Army for use in Indonesia. Aspects of return to civilian life and employment, 1946: demobilisation, 1/1946; attending educational course in Paris, France, 1945; black market in Paris; reaction of Canadian civilians to returning veterans; demobilisation system; housing shortage.
REEL 4 Continues: background to choosing law as a career; treatment of ex-servicemen; psychological reaction to war; story of friend recovering memory long after war.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of Commonwealth and GB.