Page 18 - Coming Home from Overseas

ISSUE : Issue 34

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1983/8/1

tion Army's. They tore down the Red Cross hut. They tore down all the other churches' recreation huts, but they never touched the Salvation Army. The other fellows were there after your money. The Salvation Army was there, what good they could do. The Salvation Army was good, you know, in the war. Oh, yes. It doesn't matter where you were--if we were on a train, if we were on leave--every station you came to, the Salvation Army was there with a cup of tea for you, if you were a soldier. They were always there, every station. I was in London, and I was there three nights, and there was an air raid on for three nights. And I stayed in the Salvation Army place. They'd give you a menu, you know, when you sat down to eat--a restaurant, like. Then you got a bed. They marked on that, "A Stranded Soldier Made Welcome." (Did the rioters go into the town as well?) No, they never touched the town. Just their own camp. (And they fought with one another?) Oh, yes. There were not too many killed; there were one or two. A couple of officers killed. And Nova Scotia fellows went out and civilized it. They got organ? ized themselves, and they went out and qui? etened the other fellows down. Made war on them. (Canadians fighting with Canadians.) Most of them were the foreigners, they made a lot of trouble. There were a lot of Russians in the Canadian army. An3A('ay, it was over when I got there, a couple of days before I got there, it was over. (Did they tell you what they thought was the real cause of it?) That was the cause of it, they wanted to get home--too, too long waiting to get home. That's what they blamed for it, anyway. Waiting for ships. They hurried up a bit after that. PHARMACIE ACADIENNE tl'' PHARMACY g 1 ARICHAT 226-2214 E=A Leslie Reid: I knew a Russian fellow in Si- beria. He was in the Canadian army. He was sent back from France to Canada, and from Canada over to Russia to be one of our in? terpreters, to get the Russian people to join us, tell them what we wanted. And he had the Victoria Cross on his tunic pocket here. And he had no education. The Queen only made him a corporal. But he captured 51 prisoners, all alone, in a dugout. He bayoneted 47, and he kept 5 of them and he made them carry three machine guns into the Canadian lines. And he said why he did that. He said, he got mad. He had got 5 prisoners one other night, and he had brought them into the Canadian lines. The sergeant took the story down from him, and then put him in the clink for being absent without leave. He never heard anything a- bout it. But he learned afterwards, some? time later, that this sergeant put the story in for himself, he got some kind of a little medal for it. And he didn't get anything. So he said to him--he met him one day--he said, "You stole those 5 pris? oners on me." He said, "But you won't steal the next ones," So he went out two days after in No Man's Land, and he ran across a German dugout where they were all asleep. And the sentry that was on duty at the door, he was a- sleep. So he bayoneted him. Well, then he had all the rest of them at his own mercy. He ordered them up one by one out of the dugout. And he kept 5 of them to carry the three machine guns in. And oh, they grabbed him right off the bat, going to put him in the clink for being absent with? out leave. "Oh no, no. Not while I've got this rifle in my hand," he said. But he said, "You get me the German interpreter, and bring him here, take down the story from these other 5 men." Said, "You take The Cape Bretoner Motel 560 King's Road SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA Phone (902) 539-8101 Telex 019-35172 The shop with a difference everything handcrafted by a local artisan Island Crafts (Furniture courtesy Bonnell-Lubetzki's, Sydney) Beautifully displayed children's toys, sweaters and accessories; fashionable hand-knit sweaters in a variety of colours and patterns; excellent weav? ing, quilts, unique pottery, handpainted jewelry, woodwork, Christmas display 'year round, and ever popular Cheticamp hooking. A complete souvenir line. OPEN YEAR ROUND: MONDAY TO SATURDAY, 9 TO 5; FRIDAY, 9 TO 9 Wholesale: full line of souvenirs 539-6474 329 Charlotte St., Sydney 564-5527 :;i8)

Cape Breton's Magazine