I was working at Wood Fiber on Howe Sound. The war came along and the job I was doing was beginning to bore me. I went to Vancouver to try to sign up. I was a little under age so I fibbed a bit saying I was older than I was! They accepted me and signed me up!

From Basic camp they sent me to Saskatchewan where I learned to drive a truck over the prairie making my instructors very nervous, as I didn’t have a clue about trucks!
I think they sent me overseas early as they wanted me to stop driving!

We went by train to Halifax and went on board the first Queen Elizabeth –a very large ship. I wasn’t assigned to any regiment so I went to a holding unit in a town in the south of England. After a short wait I was sent to a regiment called The South Alberta Regiment in southern England

They weren’t exactly sure what this regiment would do. After awhile we were sent to the
Fourth Division as an Armored Division called the South Alberta Regiment, which was where I was born south Alberta in Calgary.

After a short time of intensive training we were put into tanks. Ours were light tanks called Honey Tanks-four men to each tank. I became a gunner operator, which meant I had to shoot the big gun and operate the radio.

Finally we landed in France and into action. Our tanks were not a very good match to German tanks with 88mm guns but we carried on through Belgium and into Holland As winter was also near we landed in a small town. Four men were sent to each house in the town.

From the first night we became the best of friends and we became part of that house in Holland. We began calling the man of the house Pop! One morning we were going out on patrol and I forgot something and had to go back to the house. The man of the house hadn’t yet gone to work and he stopped me and said “ Jack I share my home with you all and you make fun of me!” I said “We don’t tease you-what do we do?” He said, “You call me Pop- why?” I said “We call you Pop because in Canada it means Father.” He said, “Is this true?” I said “yes!” He said “In Holland it means porridge” then he ran out of the house to tell all the men in town about it.

After that until we moved into Germany they became our best friends and I mean Best Friends. They shared their food and we brought food into the home- a wonderful experience. The war was a terrible thing but the time with them we never forgot.

As of 2007, of the four in our tank, I am the last man! We lost four tanks to enemy fire but we all survived. My Crew Commander, Albert Halkyard just passed away.