105 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca Conrad was twenty years old when he was called in for a check-up with a doctor for the purpose of joining the Army in the summer of 1942. He was seventeen years old when the war started in 1939. He and his brother, Prosper, would always go to the bush in the winter to cut logs or pulpwood, to earn extra money for the family, but not in the October 1942, because Conrad had joined the Army in Winnipeg. When he was interviewed and questioned, Conrad had stated that he passed Grade 9, thinking he would have a better position, but the truth was that he hadn’t even finished Grade 7. When asked whether he wanted to join the Reserve Army or the Active Army, he asked, "What’s the difference?" He was told that if he joined the Active Army he would be treated better and have a good chance for a better position, but did not mention anything about going overseas, so he signed up for Active. He was overseas in England by March 1943. While in Winnipeg, he spent two weeks in Fort Osborne Barracks, then had 2 months basic training in Fort Garry. Then, he was in Red Deer, Alberta, for two months for advance training and did some driving of army service trucks. Then, he had a fourteen-day furlough and went to Fisher Branch to see his parents, brothers, and sisters. He went back to Red Deer by passenger train, with all soldiers aboard, straight to Halifax. They then took the "Queen Elizabeth" ship across the ocean to England. A train took them to Aldershot where they did two months training. Another three months, training was given in the field where there were tractors or big tank transports with big semi-trailers hooked behind, used for hauling heavy tanks. From here he went training with the airborne supplies to drop supplies from the planes by parachutes. There were two coloured lights in the planes - yellow lights to get ready, and green lights when all the supplies had to be out in a few seconds. The parachutes had to be folded and attached to the containers. The parachute line was hooked to a line in the planes so that the line would stretch and open the parachute as it went down, so the supplies would not be damaged. Then they went with general transport hauling a distance of 150 miles one-way a day, from St. Albans to Yarmouth, where supplies were loaded onto boats in preparation for the invasion in France. The supplies were hauled by 60 CWT and 3-ton trucks. The officer in charge of the convoy had a jeep. This officer had taken Conrad as his batman, so he had to drive and service the jeep for him. That lasted about three months, then he had to get ready for the trip to France where "The Invasion" started. They left Yarmouth, England, with ninety-nine boats packed with soldiers, trucks, and other supplies. The boats were well armed with Ack-Ack guns, also submarines to prevent the enemy from destroying the goods. Besides them were the Red Cross boats all prepared to save lives of men from the other boats if they were attacked by the enemy. They arrived in France near Caen and Bayeux with sixtysix boats; thirty-three had perished or gone missing. Whereas a crossing usually took two to three hours, it took their convoy two weeks to get there, because of the fighting, trying to hide and dodge from the enemy and with communications from other points to find the best time and place to land. There were no docks to go beside, only barges. They unloaded the trucks and other materials onto the barges and then the barges were brought as close as possible to shore. They drove the trucks off the barges and into the water to reach land. Before leaving England, the trucks were all well water-proofed, with tail pipes reaching above the cabs. The streets of Caen and Bayeux were piled with clutter and rubbish, which the trucks had to maneuver. The air was polluted with grey smoke, the smell of gunfire and the stench of corpses still waiting to be picked up for burial. Farther on where they parked the trucks, were spruce trees so that made easy camouflage to hide from the enemy. They would go ahead to different sections near the front line where the supply service was most needed. At times they would sleep underneath the trucks, in the trenches DANDENEAU, Conrad WWII ➤
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