WWII and life in the 1
st
Canadian Division. Life has some interesting turns for Buster. This chapter has run long. My partner has helped out a time or two and I thank him. There are times I need a little help with the 'soldier' mindset. And for all of you who wanted a bit more about the mysterious doctor from MTJAFT, you get to meet him near the end. Hope you enjoy the story and please vote!
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"Valcartier Army Camp. New wood, probably mine, new buildings and same idiots running it," said Brian softly to one of the men standing around the fire.
"You here in the Great War?" asked a young soldier.
"Aye. I'm only forty-four, but too damn old to be Corporal Davy," said Brian. They'd given him the same rank he had when he demobbed all those years ago. Now three weeks into basic training, he was damned tired of it. Especially of the young British officer that thought he knew everything.
The men nodded. Several of the older men were Great War veterans and it was as if the Army didn't know what to do with them. They trained along with all the fresh faced young men that would die long before the tough older bastards would. Experience counted in war.
"Hey Davy, the Captain is hollering for you," said another private.
Brian looked around. The Captain was hollering. However, he couldn't tell who was wanted, so they all moved up in the end. The Captain had a piece of paper in his hand and waited until most of the regiment had gathered around him.
"Men! I need the following men to step forward," he said. "Afferton, Abbots, Baily, Benoit, Beleau, Carlson, Carter, Davy, Ditterson, Jameson, Kendal, Morris, Oates, Perrie, and Tomas."
The men looked at each other and realized that he'd called almost every Great War vet's name. The men stepped up as the rest fell back.
"Hey, Papa, they gonna kick you out for being too old?" asked Henri.
"Non! Someone need wipe your ass!" Brian hissed at his son-in-law.
Henri smiled. He'd been worried about Brian, and in a way, he hoped that they were sending the older men home.
"As of today, all men of the rank of Corporal are now Sergeant. Sergeant's are now Staff Sergeant's, and Staff Sergeant's are Sergeant Majors, or Warrant Officers. Step forward and receive your rank," hollered the Captain.
Brian blinked. Then he stepped up, still thinking this was some kind of horrid dream. He still was in shock when he looked down and saw Sergeant stripes in his hand. "Captain! Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes! We need you older men to help with the younger ones. Plus, you speak French. According to some of you, I barely speak English, so we need you. The Army is making French Units and for some of them, we will need all the skills we can find. Therefore, your age, your language skills and your military skills are needed. Specifically now!" the Captain shouted.
"Aye Captain," Brian said as he walked away from the assembly.
"Damn! Damn! Damn!"
he thought. Part of the way that most of the shifters coped was by being low profile. Now he would have those damn stripes on his sleeves.
The 1
st
Canadian Infantry Division set sale for England in December of 1939. 58,000 men had enlisted. Brian swore that all 58,000 were on this boat and vomiting. Him included. The Aquitania was no smoother than the ship he took in the Great War. His stomach was no better either. At least the men around him didn't howl too much.
When the ships docked in Clyde, Brian kissed the ground. He hated ships. From there they marched inland and were transported to Aldershot. The majority of the men were given two days to clean up and get their land legs. The barracks were made of wood, with small stoves. The days were cold and the nights colder. No one was use to the damp English weather and bit by bit, men came down sick. Worse yet, this was one of the coldest winters on record for England.
Brian had his hands full as did all the men who'd been moved up in the ranks. His only luck was that his 'aptitude' with dogs was noted and he was put in charge of the animals. It made it easier to deal with those men who were already having problems. One good side to this situation was that the rabbit population was having a mysterious decline in the area around Aldershot.
His son-in-law Henri was not under his direct command, but his son Henry, Jacques and some of the other men from the village were. He made sure that those that shifted worked in pairs when it came to guard duty. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. This time, shifting in battle was going to be a bad thing. Too many people, too much mechanized equipment. Too many chances to be seen.
Some of the men didn't stay at Aldershot long. Hitler had made allies with Japan so some men started the long journey east. As much of it was by boat, Brian was relieved he was not selected. A small contingent of French Canadians went to France early in 1940. They got as far as Laval and then turned back. Many of them returned in the mess that was Dunkirk. The rest of the Canadian regiments trained, trained other soldiers and acted as support for English troops that moved onto the European front. The one thing that they didn't do is go to the Front. It drove the men crazy to just sit and wait.
Moral among the Canadian army began to drop. There was nothing to do and the men were ready to fight. They listened avidly to the radio when Pearl Harbor was hit and followed the very short exploits of the Canadian divisions in Hong Kong and their defeat even though they were outnumbered 5 to 1. They read the papers and listened to the radio and waited to be called.
Staff Sergeant Brian Davy spent all day in civilian court. Three of his men were up on charges. Fighting, destruction of private property and three charges of harassing neighborhood flocks. Luckily the three missing sheep had been found. Otherwise the charge would have been theft. He no sooner got back than the Major pulled him in to complain about the men writing letters home telling people not to enlist. He told the Major that he'd do what he could. The bigger issue was that there weren't enough officers for all the headstrong men that had enlisted. These were men use to being alone in the wilderness and isolated in small towns for months on end and none of them took well to taking orders from people who never saw a days work in their lives. This situation led to issues with training as well. None of these soldiers had any actual battle experience. They had months and months of training, and that was it.
"We're bored!" said Henry. "It's no wonder we get in trouble. Hell, how long has it been since you've had a letter?" he asked his father. Some of the men had now been at Aldershot for nearly four years. There was no rotation for leave as ships weren't available. Too many had been sunk by the German Wolfpack subs. Plus, the Army was afraid that if they let the men go home, they wouldn't return.
"I know!" yelled Brian. "We were some of the first to enlist! It has been 58 long months since I saw your maman. 58 months when my only comfort has been my hand! Unlike some of you who who've gotten wives and children!"
"Well, what the hell do you expect? We aren't priests! We're men! Yes, I have a girlfriend, but I don't intend to marry her. I don't have any children, but damn I need to have some comfort other than this uniform!" yelled Henry back at his father. He'd written home to Maggie and explained. She'd been okay with it, unlike some of the wives. In fact, some of the wives had already written letters telling their husbands that they'd gotten a divorce. If headquarters had it right, there were 1222 marriages in 1940 alone. Some of them had already sent these new wives and children home to Canada for safety as the bombings in and around London grew worse.
"For once, I wish that we were fighting the Germans instead of ourselves!" yelled Brian. He'd had enough. If all went well, he'd be running across the moors tonight. It had been too long for so many things.
Henry stomped out of the barracks and headed off to his girlfriend's house in town.
Wolf ran. Pack members had found him and they hunted on the highlands around the smelly man camp. Rabbits, a goat and two sheep fed the pack. Wolf ran through a stream to clean the blood off of his fur. It was getting warm and the sticky heat made pack members go a bit crazy. Wolf stretched his legs and headed farther up the moor. The rest of the pack fell back as he ran.
"BAAAAAahhhhh!" cried the furballs as he split the herd like a bullet. His tongue hung from his mouth as he grinned. Wolf heard the bark of the shepherd dogs as they began to hunt for him. He ran through the herd again and then vaulted over the wall. Catching his breath a little bit later, he looked back to see the dogs and men still trying to calm down the furballs.
Wolf loped back to the spot where the fence had a split, slipped between and made his way to the wooden houses. He curled up on the bunk that belonged to the man and went to sleep.
"Staff Sargent Davy!" cried the Major who had been a Captain just a month ago.
Brian blinked and realized that the Major was standing at the foot of his bed and that the light had barely begun to show through the windows.
"Sir?" replied Brian.
"Wake up! I need you dressed and down at the kennels right this moment!" screeched the Major.
