HK Training in Canada

Training in Canada

We next were sent to Brampton for two months of basic training. I found this very enjoyable. It was a well run camp. We drilled, went on marches, learned map reading and first aid. It was fun and I made some good friends.

Next we went to Camp Borden for advanced training.The army always started on the parade square and so the first thing was GMT (General Military Training). This was the same material we had had in Brampton only more intense. It was OK. Every evening, we went to the movies and followed up with an ice cream cone. The show was 10 cents and the ice cream was 5 cents. Our pay was $1.50 per day. The GMT was followed by a two month wireless course (radio operator). At the completion you got tradesman's pay, which increased the daily rate to $1.75/day. We learned to drive trucks, Bren Gun carriers and tanks. After driving school, we took gunnery for a couple of months. This course concluded with a week at the tank firing range at Meaford. When this was done, we were considered trained and we were given a short leave to say goodbye to our families before starting our trip overseas on December 24, 1943.

We were all ready to go overseas, had our final shots and medicals, issued a totally new kit and were waiting. We hoped that we would be allowed to go home for Christmas. As Christmas grew nearer, it became apparent that this was not the army way. On the 23rd of December, my friend Jack Shaughnessy went “over the hill” and got to Toronto and worked up his and my Christmas presents from our families. He arrived back at camp around 2 a.m. and the two of us by the light of our cigarette lighters opened our presents.

About 5 a.m., the bugle sounded, we had breakfast and final inspections and were loaded onto trains carrying us to Halifax. The train went slowly through Toronto and by Christmas day our train was in the state of Maine. On Boxing day, we loaded onto the ship Louis Pasteur and began our trip to Liverpool, England.

The sea voyage was quite unpleasant. The ship was filthy. We slept in hammocks and most people were seasick. Because of German submarines, the ship zigzagged across the Atlantic. We arrived in England in early January. New Year’s day was not marked in any way. We arrived in Liverpool and first saw a bomb-damaged city. We were put on trains with “black outs” and after traveling all night we disentrained at Woking in Surrey. From there we went to Inkerman Barracks #1 CACRU.