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My name is Don MacKenzie, and I’m a Nova Scotian. I never was away from home for the first twenty years of my life, and war broke out so I volunteered. I joined the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. There were about twenty from my hometown that joined at the same time.

We started off in Amherst, Nova Scotia. I believe it was Stanfield’s Underwear that gave it was a big Nova Scotia flag before we left home. And we went to Debert, and from there overseas. And we thought that when we left Halifax the water would be clear and nice. Well, we just got out of Halifax harbour when we found that there were U-boats waiting there, so we had little run-ins with those. (more…)

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My name is Bill Manning… well, actually it’s William Arthur Manning, but I’ve been known as Bill Manning for many, many years. I joined the Army because they needed Canadians, and I was a volunteer. I joined up in Montreal, and we headed for Valcartier, and of course the Citadel, and finally we ended up in Oregon with the Americans who trained there, and then finally I was sent on Advance Party to the Korean area. I was with the Royal 22nd Regiment – the ‘Van Doos’ – and I was with the Battalion Intelligence Section, which was a great job because I was in and close to all the action, and because I was responsible as well to write the war diary. Writing the war diary, of course, means that I had to be where the action was, and as a young man of nineteen I found it quite intriguing and interesting.

Some of the things that happened in Korea: First of all, I found it very strange. Korea was a checkerboard war. We’d get too far from our stuff and the enemy was stronger, and the enemy would push us back and they’d be too far from their stock and we would win. It was up and down the Peninsula for quite a while. (more…)