Winter training at Aldershot

Heroes Remember

Winter training at Aldershot

Transcript

Then we went to Aldershot, Colonel Jeffery’s place. Was very strict, was tough, it was in the winter months, and cold because we used to do what was called camp patrol and instead of two hours on and four hours off or whatever, we’d do four hours so we wouldn’t have to go out again. You could skate on us when we come in, you know, the frost, yeah. And then drills, you know, in the wee hours of the night all of a sudden they’d have a fire drill or something out on the square. They’d make us shovel the square off and do a drill. You know, with the steels on your boots, sometimes a fellow would fall and you’d hit the fellow behind you with the rifle. And, bayonet training and whatever, you know, everything on the double. I was in good shape, I was young. I tried everything to get into something else, but they’re pushing. See, it’s hard to get people to join the infantry, I guess. They’re pushing everything you know, lots of advancement. “No wonder,” I says, “you’re in there all alone when you’re at the front.” You know, casualties and whatever. Lots of casualties.

Description

Mr. MacDonald describes how cold it was at Camp Aldershot and how the cold affected their training.

Allan MacDonald

In a family of twelve children, Allan MacDonald was born on April 2, 1922, in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. His father was a miner, and following the death of his mother in childbirth, Mr. MacDonald joined his father in the mines. After joining the Air Force and not being called up, he joined the Army. Mr. MacDonald landed at Normandy and was later wounded in action, leaving him to survive with several pieces of shrapnel in his skull.

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