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Battle Ready Canadians

Heroes Remember

Battle Ready Canadians

Transcript
We were ready from the day we got to England. We were anxious to get into the war. Not that we weren't in it, but we wanted to go into battle. But this, the hierarchy at that time said that they're not ready to put us in. Or we weren't ready to go. General McNaughton was it, or Crerar, I can't remember off hand. He had a meeting, this was after Dieppe, Dunkirk. This was getting close to the time in 1942, I think this was when we had Dieppe, turned around and told the generals of the British Army, because we were under British control. I mean we had our own command, but we took orders from the British. And he threatened to take the Canadian Army out of England back to Canada, he said "You don't put us in action," he said, "I'm going to pull the troops out. We're not going to sit here. I mean we were on the plains there for almost two years." He said, "Sitting on our, on our backside." I gotta watch my language. And that's what happened, but then later on after that we had the Dieppe come in. It was funny you know, people don't think of the Canadian soldier. Some of us may be stupid, not clever, but we were told to do something we did it. Never mind the consequences. This is our, that was our attitude there.
Description

Mr. Horowitz talks about the Canadians' eagerness to go to war while "idle" in Salisbury training camp.

Robert Horowitz

Mr. Horowitz was born in Cornwall, Ontario, on August 30, 1919, of Jewish parents who immigrated to Canada from Russia. He grew up in Montreal where he studied at Lord Arthur School and then moved on to Montreal High. He enlisted with the Régiment de Trois-Rivières in the latter part of 1939 when he was 20 years old and still in high school. Mr. Horowitz attended Camp Borden during the winter of 1939-40 for approximately 1.75 years. He first set foot on European soil in Scotland and trained in Salisbury. He saw action for the first time in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula before being wounded in Tremali. Following the war, he spent some time with Veterans Affairs assisting Canadian Veterans in England and later retired in Canada.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
02:01
Person Interviewed:
Robert Horowitz
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Scotland
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Three Rivers
Occupation:
Gunner

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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