People like to say that you make your own luck, but after some of the conversations I’ve had with veterans of the Second World War I’ve come to question that saying. Many of the veterans I’ve spoken with will mention luck at some point. Many credit their survival to luck and greatly appreciate how fortunate they were to be able to come home and build a life after the war. Not to suggest here that training, expertise and the ability to manage fear were absent - it’s just that veterans often have a high appreciation of good fortune. A recent conversation I had with Mr. William Hitchon, an Army veteran now living in Trenton, Ontario, highlighted the luck issue for me. Hitchon was in North Africa when his unit stopped by the side of a road for the evening. His friend wanted to shave, so he dug a shallow hole, poured in some gasoline and started a fire. Unfortunately, this shallow fire pit just happened to lie directly over a German landmine, which quickly detonated. The explosion blew men down and damaged equipment, but miraculously no one was injured. Later in Italy, Hitchon was walking through a field with his unit, when he heard a click under his boot. He’d stepped on a German Box Mine. Hitchon waited for his friends to take cover and then threw himself to the ground in desperate bid to limit injury. Lucky for Hitchon, he had managed to step on a dud and no explosion followed. Again in Italy, Hitchon found himself in a rest area situated near a British Artillery regiment. This regiment was actively trading shells with their German counterparts, so there was little real rest to be had. During a break in the shelling, Hitchon and his friend were playing cribbage in their tent. At some point his friend decided to make a trip to the outhouse and had just stepped outside when Hitchon called him back. He couldn’t explain why he had called his friend back into the tent, but luck was on their side, as moments later the outhouse received a direct hit from a German shell. In my opinion William Hitchon seems pretty lucky in the old fashioned sense of the word and it even looks like he was able to spread some of that luck around.
I often act as the media spokesperson at our Memory Project digitization events around the country. I’ve noticed a certain pattern in the questions I’m asked, from the practical: “So what are we doing here today?” to the probing: “Tell me Jill, what’s the most incredible story you’ve heard so far?” One regularly asked question which surprises me is, “Talk to me about how this project has impacted you personally. What do you get out of it?” I often feel stumped by how to answer properly. How do I convey what I “get” out of this project in a concise sound bite? One way that working for the Memory Project has ‘impacted’ me is by gifting me with a new sense of perspective. It’s hard to hear a war bride discuss receiving a ‘missing in action’ telegram about her new husband and then be upset with my partner for not washing the dishes. It’s difficult to complain about the winter weather after learning the details of work on a Merchant Navy vessel on the icy Murmansk Run. I am confronted on a daily basis with my good fortune and the fact that my generation has never been asked to make the kind of sacrifices that were necessary 65 years ago. I receive countless lessons from the veterans I encounter through the Memory Project, lessons of bravery, humility, honesty and grace. I know that years from now I will look back on our work and recognize the great privilege I’ve been given. I have an opportunity to learn from thousands of veterans of the Second World War. If I can absorb a fraction of their wisdom I’ll be a better person for it. I’ve only begun to understand how this work ‘impacts’ me personally and what I ‘get’ from it will stay with me for the rest of my life. Does that answer the question?
On Monday December 7th, I attended a wonderful workshop with the rest of the Stories of the Second World War team. We met with nurses from Toronto Public Health and Sunnybrook Health Sciences. We also had a workshop with Dr. Steven High, professor and oral historian at Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. Dr. High oversees the “Montreal Life Stories” project, where he and a large team interviews genocide survivors from Cambodia, Rwanda, and also Holocaust survivors from across Europe. The session covered many interesting and applicable topics, from dementia to peer support among the interviewers. We also discussed the editing process used to condense an hour long interview into the 7-10 minute clip that ends up on our website. The choice of what to include in the final clips can be challenging. This editing process, Dr. High explained, is called digital storytelling. Dr. High describes digital storytelling as an art, and discussed how the editing process can put a great deal of the interviewer’s personality and perspective into each online audio clip. We also discussed the difference between using audio or video as a medium. We watched a digital story which used video of a poor quality which had a grainy appearance. Dr. High noted that this lack of quality can distract from the immediacy of the story. I agree that audio is the best medium for our general use, as someone can simply close their eyes and focus on the veteran sharing their experiences. I do believe there is an art to the work that we do. And I’m proud to share these ‘digital stories’ with Canadians.
While interviewing veterans in Moncton and Miramichi this November, I found that these veterans had a different wartime experience than veterans in other areas that I have visited. Veterans based in the communities around southern Ontario, in and around Kelowna, British Colombia, and near Montreal, Quebec, largely met fellow veterans in their towns after the war. The postwar camaraderie of the legions was coloured by different personalities than those they met during their wartime years – and many veterans have told me that they regret falling out of contact with their wartime friends and colleagues. On the other hand, many of the veterans from Moncton and Miramichi knew each other before the war. They often enlisted together and served together largely with the same regiment, the North Shore Regiment, and lived long postwar lives in at home with these same friends. One Miramichi veteran in particular, Mark MacDonald, left a large impression on me. He and his three brothers served in the Second World War. One brother served in the Engineer Corps and three others, including Mr. Macdonald, served with the North Shore Regiment. It was during this time that Mr. MacDonald witnessed the death of one of his brothers, who was killed by a shell blast while they were on opposite sides of a bridge. I have heard other stories of veterans being separated from the friends with whom they enlisted, in order to be spread across different regiments. This distribution was intended, one veteran explained to me, so that a particularly difficult battle which took many lives and involved specific regiments, such as Dieppe, would not disproportionately impact a town or city. This begs the question - would it be better to serve alongside your siblings and friends, knowing that if something terrible happened that you could be there to help them, or would it be worse, for the families back home in Canada. I can’t decide.
Before each event, we advise the media regarding The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War in order to reach as many veterans as possible or people who know of veterans that would like to share their stories of their time during the war. So, during our event in December in Edmonton, Alberta, journalists from the local press, radio and TV joined us at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 175. Being the only person from France within the team, I was interviewed by three different media sources to share my experience as part of The Memory Project. The conversations I held with the journalists lead me to think about the following questions: What place does the Canadian military effort hold in history programs offered in France? And what elements do we actually retain? While we are aware that Canadians played an active role in the Second World War, and that sadly, many of these heroes are at rest in the cemeteries of Normandy, I would never have imagined how many people fought on these battle fields, and just how much Canadian history has been affected by this period. Therefore, the digital archives of The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War can also been used as a research tool for people around the world in order to enrich their knowledge of the role that Canadians played in the Second World War. By scanning through the profiles of the various veterans who generously shared their stories, we can gain a more global vision of this period of history.