151 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca MURRAY, James Alexander “Jim” WWII Jim was born in Stonehaven, Scotland in 1921. He enlisted in the Army at Ft. Osborne Barracks in Winnipeg, on August 14, 1940, at the age of nineteen. He had been working as a store clerk in Shoal Lake, Manitoba. In January 1941, the 2nd Armed Regiment was posted to Listowel, Ontario. They trained on a few motorcycles as well as World War I tanks. The Lord Strathcona Horse still had horses, but Jim trained on Harley Davidsons. The whole Regiment was posted to Camp Borden in April 1941. They trained on more tanks and had rifle range training. In October, they were posted to Debert, Nova Scotia for about two weeks where more training prepared them for overseas. They were drafted on November 13, 1941, and sailed from Halifax on the Duchess of Atholl. They were in a big convoy of 26 ships, with five or six being troop ships. They sailed for thirteen days and had American escort vessels two thirds of the way over, then the British navy took over. They had a couple of scares but didn’t see anything. They landed at Greenock, Scotland on November 26, and took the train to Aldershot to spend the winter there doing mostly foot drill and rifle range training. From Aldershot, they were posted to Ludshott, where they trained on Canadian Ram tanks. In the spring of 1942, Jim’s unit was posted to Brighton where they had more gunnery range training. They were billeted in leased private homes and stayed in Brighton until July or August 1942, when they learned the Dieppe Raid had taken place. There were lots of Spits and Hurricanes in the air. After the raid, they were put on full alert and sent inland for two days. It was thought the Germans were going to follow the raiders back to England. The next camp was set up at East Anglia on the east coast of England. The closest town was Brandon. They were surrounded by Allied Air Forces – American B-17’s bombing by day, and the R.C.A.F. and R.A.F. at night – Lancasters and Halifaxes. Mosquitoes led them and showed the way – they were the pathfinders. On November 11, 1943, they boarded ships and left on November 13. The rest of the convoy at Greenock was gathered up, and they were at sea about nineteen or twenty days – headed for the Mediterranean and North Africa. Their advance party lost one of their ships to aerial bombing by the Luftwaffe. The trip through the Mediterranean was good. In Brighton, England, Jim claimed his younger brother, Robert, who was in the Engineers (RCCE). He was seventeen years old. There was a lot of red tape to get Bert. He was homesick and seasick. Bert stayed in “C” Squadron with Jim. They landed in Algiers and were there about three or four weeks. The Sicily campaign was on then. They lived in big marquees (tents) that were hot in daytime and cold at night. Then the Regiment crossed over to Naples, Italy. The war was just north of there. In March 1944, they moved to north of Ortona which was taken in the winter of 1944. It was terribly muddy so they couldn’t move tanks. It was all foot patrol – infantry and shelling. The tents were in a vineyard – two men to a pup tent over trenches. The Germans shelled them every night with artillery shells. They wore rubber boots all winter, wore a pair of socks for two days, then had to take them to bed to dry them out. They had to be in their tents before dark, otherwise they might have fallen into a shell hole and drowned. Two of their men (from north Winnipeg) borrowed a donkey to get back to camp. They had been visiting an Italian (continued)
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