Out In The Desert

Heroes Remember

Out In The Desert

Transcript

When we got to where we were going, we thought we had got from one bad place to another. We were out in the desert. That was in Algiers, between Phillipville and Bone. Bone is spelled B-O-N-E. They called it Bone, a French name. Oh, we had no idea what was happening, 8th Army camp. We had no training, anything that. Well, it was so hot in the daytime, us guys couldn’t stand it. Most you know... they tried training us in the afternoons, and so many guys passed out and got sunburned and all that, so they give us night training, climbing cliffs and looking for escaped German people or soldiers. That was another thing that the Arabs had a real deal going. They’d keep these German people or soldiers until they run out of money, and then turn them over to the 8th Army for a reward. Well, the Germans would pay them all the money they had, and then the British Army paid them so much for turning in soldiers, German soldiers.

Description

Mr. Kocher speaks about his first impressions when landing in Algiers, the unbearable heat and the lack of training.

Lyle Kocher

Mr. Kocher was born in Clive, Alberta on June 2, 1918. He was the youngest in his family with three brothers and two sisters. After six years of school he decided to quit and help his father with farming. As a young boy, Mr. Kocher joined the Royal Fusiliers of Edmonton Reserves. He enlisted in Edmonton and then went to Calgary for basic training. Mr. Kocher spent much of his army life in Italy and Africa. After returning home he wrote a book about being a Canadian soldier during the Second World War. In it, he shares his story of lost innocence and self- discovery.

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