00:13:19.380Yeah, just, uh, because I joined when I was 15.
00:13:22.460A lot of the time at the, you must remember, I was just after the depression years and there was a lot of people out of work and so on and so forth.
00:13:30.120And, uh, so it was, as soon as the war broke out, all the young kids were running down to the recruiting office saying, I'm 18.
00:13:38.420You're only 15 or 16, but they're saying 18 and they're, they, they didn't bother checking.
00:13:45.480And so we had to, you look around, you, you see pictures of what we look like.
00:13:49.660You didn't fool anybody because they, you look 15 and 16 and you were supposed to be 18 and 19.
00:13:56.080But the, uh, when you look at it, the, a lot of the young soldiers at the time were underage in the, uh, in the initial people, initial part of the war.
00:14:06.620Uh, there was a thing to do to join up and your parents didn't mind because one less, one less notes to feed, I guess, because that was depression years was hard to, hard to find jobs and hard to, uh, you were at school, but it was a little rough at school because that, uh, you didn't have that much school.
00:14:27.600You know, you know, very necessities and so on, but we, uh, we got along, nobody starved.
00:14:37.660Well, your, your daughter sent me your bio, Mr. Parks, and it seems like D-Day was your very first, uh, taste of the war.
00:14:47.100It was your first day in battle and everything up until then, uh, was more training.
00:14:52.140So what was that like, uh, for your very first glimpse of, of active battle being such a monumental moment and a turning point, uh, in, in the war like that?
00:15:03.480Did, did you realize the scope and the importance of D-Day at the time?
00:15:08.040Well, actually, and I remember, I remember there was one sergeant of us, he was a, he was sort of a gung-ho guy.
00:15:13.740And he, uh, he, uh, after going into the beach, he was, uh, this is this, he was saying, this is it, this is it.
00:15:40.400So, um, then once we got to the beach, we got picked up that sten gun off, Corporal Skate, who'd been, uh, who'd been wounded, badly wounded.
00:17:17.620We got into a place called Kahn, the city of Kahn.
00:17:21.420But that wasn't easy because, uh, we spent about, uh, oh, a few weeks before we got into Kahn.
00:17:28.040And, uh, in fact, the, uh, the Germans had put up a pretty good defensive perimeter and they had all kinds of, uh, they had their, they had the SS tanks and they had the, uh, had the guns and they had very well equipped.
00:17:44.420And we had to, they had to mount a major defensive, offensive to get, uh, that, get past Kahn.
00:17:51.200I think it took about eight or nine weeks before we got out of Kahn.
00:17:54.440And Kahn was only about 12 miles inland from, uh, from the beach, right?
00:17:59.940Because then, but in the meantime, uh, all of Normandy was just getting stacked up with all kinds of, uh, of, uh, army equipment and guns and tanks and everything else.
00:18:14.540And, uh, we did a stage two or three major offensive before they, before they broke through the, uh, broke down the German, uh, the German, uh, defense.
00:18:24.440And then we got past Kahn up to a place called Falei and the Falei was at the breaking point.
00:18:32.420And, uh, they finally, uh, the Germans after Falei, they, they sort of on the run, they, they made their way back to, to the, uh, the big river, the big river.
00:18:42.140They call the Rhine, not the Rhine, but the, uh, I forgot what river, all the roads.
00:18:47.700That's, uh, it was quite a, quite a deal.
00:18:51.140But that first eight to nine weeks was, was rough, rough going.
00:19:22.340In fact, one, one of the generals was, uh, he was driving back in his car and a, and a, a fighter plane come over and it, uh, it, by firing it, it, the car took a base of action and ended up in a ditch.
00:19:36.200And it, one of their major, one of the major generals was, uh, was badly, uh, badly hurt.
00:19:42.320And that, uh, you take some of their major generals away from, uh, from an army, you have nobody to lead them.
00:19:51.560So that helped, that helped us quite a bit.
00:19:54.260That's looking back at, uh, at what they said later, be able to read up why it makes such a difference.
00:20:02.880So what, what kept you going then, Mr. Parks?
00:20:05.780And what motivated you to continue the fight during some of the darkest days of those battles?
00:20:12.420Well, you, you're, you're working as a group and you, everybody works as a team.
00:20:18.080And you look to the other guy and he looks to you.
00:20:21.360And as long as he keeps going, you're going to keep going.
00:20:24.380Like I say, this one guy that we had, Tommy Plum was quite a character.
00:20:28.600He was, uh, he was always, uh, gung ho.
00:20:32.100And he was, uh, he was, uh, he was one of our sergeants and Jimmy Stewart, another good sergeant.
00:20:37.640We have pretty good NCOs and the, uh, they, they provide, uh, provide a good incentive.
00:20:43.500And we were lucky because we had, uh, the leaders they picked part of the going in to prove that there were good leaders when we hit the battle, because it all turned out pretty good.
00:20:53.880And we lost quite a few, uh, the first, uh, first few weeks we killed and wounded.
00:21:03.140So that meant the, uh, the, the junior NCOs would move over and take over the senior NCOs job when they got wounded or killed in action.
00:21:12.640And we lost quite a few that first, uh, that first while, because, uh, when I, when I go over there to visit cemeteries, most of the people I know are buried in, uh, are buried in Normandy.
00:21:25.840When you go further back to Grosbeek in Germany, I don't know as many, but most of the people I do know, if I go by the graves in Normandy itself, I recognize more people.
00:21:35.900But because they were with us quite a few, quite a few years in Canada and in England, we lost quite a few in that first, uh, first few weeks in Normandy.
00:21:46.380What was, what was life like for you after you returned, uh, from the war?
00:21:50.980And what was it like to, to come back to Canada after all this?
00:21:54.780When you come back to Canada, I always call, I look back afterwards and I, I call that the year of the lost souls.
00:22:01.620Because, you know, you come back, you've been so used to being active and, and, and, and, uh, being involved and so much.
00:22:10.080And here you are, you're, you're coming into, into civilian life and, uh, everything's quieter and it's pretty hard to get adjusted.
00:22:19.100And, uh, some people it's easy to get adjusted, but if you're at the front and being, being in action all the time,
00:22:24.880it was a little different from somebody that being, say, stationed in Canada and being in a base, they could adjust easier.
00:22:33.500Where a person being in Europe, being in action, being at the front or being, say, the Air Force, too, being in fighting in the aircraft and so on.
00:22:43.640It'd be kind of hard for the, all those type of people to readjust to, uh, to the momentum was so different.
00:22:50.980And, uh, like I said, I call it the year of the lost souls, the year of trying to get readjusted in life.
00:23:01.160And, uh, I remember the first year you'd go down in Winnipeg.
00:23:05.960At that Winnipeg at that time, uh, if you go to a bar, it was only for men only and no ladies were allowed.
00:23:12.600Uh, in a place that was just jammed full of, uh, of ex-servicemen, drinking one glass of beer after another and refighting the battle, you know.
00:23:35.080I, it took me a while to get, uh, they had all these programs set up, but I, I couldn't take advantage of them at the time because I wasn't ready to be.
00:23:43.800I, I ended up about four years later, I decided to, uh, to, uh, to start to do things on my own, you know, taking night courses and so on and so forth.
00:23:54.160And I was, uh, I didn't realize at the time because I had a, because I had a disability from the war, I was eligible for, to, to get courses free.
00:24:03.680But I was paying for the courses on my own four years later.
00:24:07.820If you, if you did the, your first discharge, you're allowed two, two years to take advantage of any courses that was free of charge.
00:24:16.580But after two years, you had to pay for it.
00:24:34.940Like people would like to, uh, like schools or organizations, they wanted the, uh, people to come forward and, and describe their experiences in World War II.
00:24:45.240And so, uh, I, I, with a friend of mine, we, uh, we got a power, we put a PowerPoint together after a while and he did a very good job of putting up, uh, some, some, uh, shots of World War II.
00:24:58.620And I incorporated my own discussions with it and I'd go to the school, go to the school or organizations and I'd play this and I was able to talk with it.
00:25:09.200And I had this, uh, you know, you, how you have this little light, you, you point at the, uh, the screen and so on and you highlight the, uh, the messages and you're able to describe the, the action a lot better than just pulling out from the memory.
00:25:24.620This is in sight, you remember, my memory got pretty good after a while because I, you got to recollect quite a few things, you know, you wouldn't, uh, you wouldn't bring in all the blood and guts.
00:25:36.140You just bring in the generalizations and you'd describe all the actions and, uh, whatever you could do.
00:25:45.300And so, uh, what is the message that you have when you speak to schools, you speak to students, you speak to young Canadians?
00:25:51.640Uh, what is it that you think is important that they know about what you lived through, uh, what the Second World War was fought for and, and what Canada, uh, means to you?
00:26:03.000Well, what it means is that, uh, just cherish what they have, look around what they've got, they're able to walk, be able to get a job where they want, be able to travel where they want, they can, uh, do what they want each day, get up, you take what job they want.
00:26:17.460But they have, they have the freedom of choice.
00:26:20.800It's a matter of preparing themselves for that choice.
00:26:23.620And they, they stick to the advantage of that, uh, don't take it for granted.
00:26:28.280Just, just, uh, just realize what you have and utilize every, every aspect you can of your energy and your education to do the best you can to make a living.
00:26:39.880Because what, you've got your whole life ahead of you, you've got to prepare for it.
00:26:44.540You've got to make sure you've got a bit of good foundation.
00:26:49.700Prepare yourself for not only the next year, but look ahead a bit and say, well, how am I preparing today so I'm better off next year and the year after?
00:27:01.400Like, if you, if you're looking forward to, uh, when you first get started, you get married, or you want to get a, you want to get a house, how are you going to, you have to plan ahead of time, how are you going to plan to get that?
00:27:41.200Thank you so much for everything you've done for Canada.
00:27:44.160Uh, it's really incredible to get to talk to you, uh, knowing, you know, the sacrifices that you made, where you were, the importance of your role in, in shaping the country that we now enjoy and that we're so privileged to live in.
00:27:57.300So thank you so much for, for joining the podcast.