Passages: "Lifelong Memories"

"The War Produced Lifelong Memories"

Men and women, whatever their role during WW2, looked back - in their later years - on that time in the 1940s as a fundamental 'game changer'. Events occurred they would never forget. They made friends and connections that they would never forget. They were forever changed and some wore scars - physical, social, mental, emotional - few others knew about.

Much can be learned by visiting The Memory Project online and reading any of the 1000s of stories provided in audio files and transcripts. In this post I provide links to four memorable stories from WW2. Though the stories to not relate specifically to Canadian members of Combined Operations, some readers, I am certain, will argue that they still do in some ways.

Arthur H. Hoole, Army, at age 25 in uniform

Photo credit - The Memory Project

"We saw this in my father's tears"

          (My father) married my mother

          four weeks before going to war.

Her picture was carried with him at all times.

She was, and continued to be, his lifeline. My dad

returned five years later. My mother did not recognize him.

War stole much of their youth together, and it is

another side effect of what happened in those times.

          My dad always felt

          very sad about the war.

He said that movies and films cannot adequately depict the war.

People cannot hear the horrors of young boys dying and

screaming for their mothers, and the way that made you feel. 

They cannot depict the smell and the horrible odour that so

much death can produce. Friends were tortured

and friends were killed, and civilians got hurt.

War is terrible in all of its aspects.

          As a child of a war veteran,

          I learned that war is powerful,

and its consequences for those who fight

are both costly physically and emotionally.

We saw this in my father's tears,

which came freely as he aged

whenever he spoke of his life then.

It affected him profoundly. 

By a family member, in memory of Captain Arthur H. Hoole, C.D.

Please link to Capt. Hoole's audio file and full transcript at The Memory Project, WW2

*   *   *   *   *   *

"Explosives in a pack on your back"

     Dieppe was very poorly planned.

I was with a special unit at Dieppe.

There was seven of us. Our job was

to take five underground people to a destination

in Dieppe and carry some high explosives for them.

Each person had 70 pounds of explosives in a pack on your back.

And add to that a Tommy gun and ten magazines,

that runs up to quite a few pounds. Of course,

we had special training for that.

     Now, when they briefed us, what we were supposed to do,

there was supposed to be battleships bombarding, aircraft,

500 aircraft, to bomb the night before.

We were on the ship and everything.

We were just waiting for the word to go

and they had to cancel it, and they cancelled

the bombardment and the aircraft.

     The person in charge of the navy, he says

that he wasn’t putting his battleships in danger.

And the Englishman who was in charge of

the Royal Air Force didn’t want to put his aircraft in danger,

so they just cancelled them.

     And we accepted that.

So it was very poorly planned, period.

By Arthur "Vernon" Drake, Army, Windsor, Ontario, 1940.

Please link to Vernon's audio file and full transcript at The Memory Project, WW2

*   *   *   *   *   *

"I got through that OK"

          I was young.

I never volunteered for anything,

but we were training for this big invasion

of France for months and months before it happened.

          So when D-Day came,

I was on the beach. I had a big radio

on my back, and I'm not very tall

– I'm only 5'6". I dang near drowned!

When the door opened in that little boat,

I jumped in the water, and the water

was right up around my shoulders.

It ruined the radio.

          You know, I still remember that day.

Bodies were floating in the water. We were

all so young. I was twenty-one years old, and

I was pushing these dead bodies out of the way,

and I knew they were all young like me.

You could see 'Canada' on their shoulders,

and there they were, head down in the water.

I got through that OK, and I was running up the beach,

and all of a sudden, an airplane came down.

I didn't know what kind it was, but I

noticed sparks coming out of the wings.

Then it dawned on me – that airplane was

shooting at us.

          Then all of a sudden, the beach

almost jumped up with all these bullets hitting it.

I jumped in a hole, and landed right on a dead Canadian.

Then I thought… the light snapped on

and I thought, "Boy, this is war!" 

By Vern Westhaver, Army

Please link to Vern's audio file and full transcript at The Memory Project 

*   *   *   *   *   *

Ruth Werbin's Medals for Service as a WREN in the Navy

(L - R) Defence Medal, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, War Medal

Photo credit - The Memory Project

Another one of our ships had gone down

     I still remember it so vivid

     when my name come over the

intercom to report back to the office.

And I reported back there and, of course,

"on the double" meant on the double.

     Went back to the office and

     there was a line-up of sailors,

probably only maybe twenty or so 

and it was another one of our ships

had gone down and I was behind

the counter checking the names off on

that ship's crew, one young fellow there,

he wasn't any older than I was, and he was

so uptight and he said that he'd lost his parents

and he had just lost his only brother who was left.

     He'd just lost him at sea.

     And I just... you know,

there was a counter between us and I just

felt like he needed a shoulder to cry on

and I couldn't do anything about it except

reach over and... and take his hand.

     And this is something,

     it's just a small incident

but, you know, I've never forgotten that.

And it just made us... it made me, anyway,

just more aware of where I was and who I was

and what I was doing there.

     I realized that I was

     part of the war effort.

I was doing something towards the war...

war effort and I felt that I was proud to...

I was just more aware of the pride that I felt

in being a WREN and... and also being able

to serve my country.

     And I think that's when

     I started to feel that I was Canadian.

Ruth Werbin, WREN in the Navy

Please link to Ruth's audio file and full transcript at The Memory Project

Please link to Passages: "Eye Witnesses with Backs Bent"