Private Wilfred Howard Wilson

"Well, I don't remember too much about the War at all. It was fast and furious for me. I joined up, in five months I was in England and I was there for four years and I drove over one hundred and forty thousand miles in England alone. I was in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and I was on what they called 'heavy recovery.' I had a crew of four and drove what you call here a 'wrecker,' we called it a 'break down' and we recovered all the vehicles that broke down on schemes and so on."

"I was hurt on the D+12 going overseas and spent six months in hospital. When I got out I wasn't allowed to go back overseas. It was my knees that were hurt and I was sent to a convalescent unit and there I was trained to look at photographs. They didn't have the cameras then as they have today. They just took photographs here and there, everywhere else and you had to put them all together. You'd get a photograph taken over Germany and when you first looked at it you couldn't see anything but when you spent half and hour or so looking at it different things would come such as convoys, the train stations and so on. You would mark that all down for them; they would take them away and bring you new photographs again. I imagine that I did that for three months. Then I was sent to a machine shop to repair engines."

"At one time, we were forty consecutive days under bombing that you hardly slept. (Bombing day and night) "

"When I had leave I had a wonderful place to go, it was just like home. It was just fifteen miles from London. I knew England better than I knew Nova Scotia because I travelled all over England and Scotland."

"We came home on the Aquitania and we landed about 11 o'clock at night. My wife met me at the wharf and my baggage was sent to No 6 (Depot Halifax) and I was allowed to go home. We went across on the Dartmouth Ferry and the most amazing thing that I seen was the different colours that the women had on. Over there for four years I saw nothing but dark colors. I'll never forget that, I just sat there amazed at the colors."

"I didn't keep in contact with anyone in England or the people that I worked with."

Author: The Historical Society of Fall River and Windsor Junction

Editor's Note: Howard Arthur Wilson worked for Municipal Contractors for over 30 years. You can read his story in Dear Reader, page 25. He was one of the first members of our History Club. He passed away at the age of 84 on June 11, 1996.