93 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca CRAWLEY, Richard Osborne WWII Trooper Crawley: “The most important thing in the army was to have friends; if you had them, nothing else really mattered very much. The daily vicissitudes of army life, with its highs and lows, were easy to cope with as long as you were surrounded by congenial, trusted, caring companions. But there was only one way to acquire them; you had to serve the time. You had to share the long hours of Guard duty, the irksome daily chores, the discomforts, but also the good times, the laughs, and the fun. Over the months and years, we became very close to each other, very appreciative of our companions’ virtues, tolerant of their faults. No one was ever lonely; that came later.” Richard enlisted in the Army on May 21, 1941, when the 12th Manitoba Dragoons, the Second Armoured Car Regiment and the Manitoba Mounted Rifles, all reserve units, were amalgamated and mobilized to form the 18th Reconnaissance Battalion, later to be called once again the 12th Manitoba Dragoons. He started training in Winnipeg, then moved to Shilo, then to Borden, ON. A few days after Pearl Harbour, he and his troopmates boarded a train for the west coast and spent the winter between Esquimalt and Otter Point, a rocky promontory about 30 miles west of Victoria, where they guarded the coastline. In May 1942, they were sent to Debert, NS, and on August 18, 1942, the eve of the Dieppe raid, they boarded the Letitia in Halifax harbour, arriving 11 days later in Britain. Richard and his troop did not cross to the beachhead in France until July 10. Their Staghound armoured cars had no room to manoeuvre, so they parked them in an orchard and went on to fill an Infantry role, for which they were ill-equipped. They were exposed to mortar fire, occasional accidents with weapons, and antipersonnel mines. By the time they faced their first action, they had already lost three men and half a dozen were wounded. Richard was wounded on August 3, a very near miss by a mortar bomb. After seven weeks in hospital, he started the long road back to his regiment. As Richard said, “There is no loneliness so intense as to be surrounded by strangers, who do not care what becomes of you, and I suffered from it. Even my mail did not catch up to me, as I moved frequently. Most of all, I was afraid that I would end up in some other regiment, for, by this time, the tanks had been suffering heavy casualties, and trained crew members were at a premium.” Richard’s trade was OP. C.A.C. (Operator, Canadian Armed Corps), which qualified him for the turret position in any Sherman tank. By December 6, 1944, he arrived back at “A” Squadron HQ. At almost the same time, three men in “A” Squadron died in a traffic accident, one of them Richard’s closest friend, 20 years old, with 3½ years’ service. As Richard rode up in a ration truck the next day to take his friend’s place, his mind was a torment of conflicting emotions. He was delighted to be going back to his old squadron, devastated by the loss of his friend, and unsure whether to laugh or cry. But his Squadron had provided a wonderful “welcome home” gift for him. “As I jumped out of the truck, I was aware that they had prepared a full military funeral, something for which we seldom had the time or opportunity. A local undertaker had provided coffins, and even in December there were masses of flowers. As my feet hit the ground, I was seized by two old friends and hustled away. My pack, (Continued)
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