Description
After disobeying orders, Mr. Cole tells of his experiences of shooting rabbits as a means of discipline.
Elmer Cole
Mr. Elmer Cole was born in Roche Percee, Saskatchewan on December 22, 1919. At age 15 he started working and left school with a grade eight education. In 1940 he joined with the South Saskatchewan Regiment taking basic training in Winnipeg and in Feb. 41 he came back to Brandon, Manitoba for mechanical training, switching over to The Calgary Tanks as a trooper on the Churchill tanks. Mr. Cole travelled overseas to England where he was given more training until the summer of ’42 when the Dieppe Raid occurred. Mr. Cole fought through the battle only to surrender with other Canadian soldiers where he became a POW until ’45 when they were set free. After returning to Canada, Mr. Cole worked with the Department of National Defence, then carried on as a mechanic but with the strong desire to always be a wheat farmer, he and his wife bought a farm in Oak bank, Manitoba until he retired at the young age of 54. Mr. Cole and wife Isabel adopted two boys. Now widowed, Mr. Cole spends much of his time playing cards and socializing with residents of his retirement home as well as spending time with his grandchildren. In 2005 Mr. Cole was presented with an Honorary Life Member certificate of the Kiwanis Club in his local community. Presently, at age 97, Mr. Coles continues to enjoy a relaxed and healthy lifestyle.
Transcript
I left Winnipeg, it was February, March and April in Brandon here. In May we went back to Winnipeg and they give us another test in there, you know, that kind of thing and whatnot. So it was sometime in May, latter part of May I would say, because we had given… that they sent us to Hamilton. And as I say I don’t know if I was there for two or three weeks or whatever, The Calgary Tank Regiment come up and the first of July, 1941 we ended up in England. So it was a quick deal. To tell you the truth when we landed in England, the Naafi, they supplied the food and they didn’t know we were coming. We had no rations. And the Ontario Tank Regiment, they were there before us so we got bread from them and we got a big liver, it was green. I think it was from an elephant or something but anyhow, we knew better but we decided we wasn’t gonna go out in parade. You know, you don’t go on strike in the army. We knew that too but anyhow it was lucky that B squadron, everybody knew everybody. So they called out riots and told us all, they took our ammunition and that away and told us we were bad boys and shouldn’t do that, I guess. They said you can go out, we were on Salisbury Plains, you can go out and hunt rabbits. So that’s what we did and (sounds of gun firing). Most of them were burrow rabbits, we dug them out. And the cook made rabbit stew and dumplings. I didn’t care much for the rabbit but the dumplings were good. And then after we got rations so that was a little, we knew better, we could have been shot, you know, mutiny, but anyhow it turned out good.