Wullu's blog

First off the blocks we have Fred Cederberg. His book, The Long Road Home, is his account of his time in Italy with the 5th Armoured Division.

He fully expected to spend the summer he turned 18 to be spent chasing the local girls, swimming and doing those things that 18 year old boys do. That was until his uncle showed up. Uncle Gordon was a WWI veteran and now a senior officer in the Cape Breton Highlanders. The Highlanders were recruiting and Gordon was determined that his nephew would be one. Less than an hour after he showed up at sister's door he was gone again with a tall skinny 18 year old in tow.

Cederberg was an Ontario boy, but the family was from Cape Breton so the culture shock was not complete when he met up with his soon to be section mates. Men like Alex Joe MacKinnon, Robert John O'Hanley (aka Pithorse), Alex Joe MacKeegan (aka Cowshit), Big Itch McAllister and so many more, fresh from the coal mines, fishing boats and farms of Cape Breton. With these men he would learn the tricks of the trade of soldiering.

Being part of what was basically an army of civilians and not having any life long driving ambition to dig slit trenches, these men took the training in stride, if not really understanding why it was so important that the buttons shone so you could see yourself in them. Soon Camp Borden would be behind them and the train station beckoned for that inevitable trip to Halifax and troop transports to take the entire 11th Infantry Brigade of the 5th Armoured Division on to England and their home for the next long while.