115 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca LAMB, Albert George WWII Albert, born in 1911, enlisted in the 12th Manitoba Dragoons in Minnedosa in 1935. His rank was sergeant when he joined the Fort Gary Horse Regiment in 1940 at the Robinson Building in Winnipeg. He was 29 years old and worked in the C.P.R. coal docks in Minnedosa shoveling coal. They trained for a short time in Winnipeg in the McGregor Armoury, then the Regiment moved to Shilo for more training. After that, they went to Quebec City to pick up German prisoners who were shipped to Canada from the European theatre of war and took them to Red Rock, Ontario, just east of Fort William, an old paper mill site. Many of the prisoners were naval men. They were relieved there by the Home Guard. Quite a few of the prisoners could speak English quite well and had been across Canada several times. From Red Rock, they were posted to Camp Borden, Ontario for more training including training on World War I tanks. They were an American built version of the of the French Renault tank. He was a mechanic instructor at Borden and was promoted from Lance Corporal, to Corporal, to Sergeant. He was then attached to the American Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky for tank training at a tank school. That was a great insight in two ways: he learned a lot about instructing and about all the workings of a tank, including the assembling of the tank engines. In 1941, he was recalled to Camp Borden, given embarkation leave and after reporting back to Borden, their whole regiment was posted to Debert, Nova Scotia. They did some simulated training there, awaiting transport to go across to England. They went to England in 1941 on the SS Oronsay. They fed them Australian pressed rabbit – pressed and dried. It was a southern cruise ship, and the cabin they were in was just a steel wall, the outside of it. Condensation dripped all the fourteen days of their trip. There were about 16 ships in their convoy, escorted by American war ships. They took the Northern route around by Iceland. They had to steam up and down the Irish Sea for a day, 24 hours after they were due to land, while the German Luftwaffe were bombing the heck out of Liverpool. They disembarked at Liverpool after the “all clear”. Then they were loaded onto trains for Aldershot. They were billeted at Queen’s Barracks, which was an old cavalry barracks. There, he was promoted to Warrant Officer II. He was still with mechanics, in charge of the whole regiment, instructing in tank mechanics and driving and the whole bit. At Aldershot, they got four or five General Lee ranks (35 tons) and a light tank. It was an M482, an 18-ton tank with a continental engine, which he studied and worked on at Fort Knox. That was in the winter of 1941-1942. From there, they moved to Crowborough, and they did some training there. They then moved to Brighton for more tank training. That’s where they got Sherman tanks instead of the General Lees. They had a 72-pound gun, the same as the Lee but were mounted differently. They trained out there on the south downs. It was land taken over by the Army and used as a tank training area. They then moved down the coast to Worthing. All this was in preparation for landing on the continent. There they took training on amphibious tanks – Valentine Tanks – 35-ton jobs, that swam. Only two squadrons took that training, B and C Squadrons, including H.Q.’s. When they were finished that, they were moved into a security camp at Lee-on-Solent, an Island off the coast of Southampton Harbour. You had to have a security pass to get in and out, and Albert was in and out all the time (continued)
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