Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 73 continued ... Sproule’s wartime service is best described in a letter he sent home to his father in 1945. There are some notes, provided by his brother, included in italics. High St.,Quick Lydgate, Mossley, York, UK Nov. 29, 1945 Dear Dad, Just you and I, and it’s intended to be a purely ‘semi-military’ report since I landed in England. First saw Blighty (England) at Liverpool, sailed up the Manchester Ship Canal to Salford docks where the recruiting sergeant was waiting to take us to Manchester. As I was too young to join, they let me stay at Ladysmith Barracks, Ashton-on-Tyne (Manchester Regiment) for some time. Here I finally joined. Real old time ‘Square Bashing’ – 6 months of intensive hell. The squad sergeant was exBoer war and WW1 with a sabre-slashed face and the heart of a killer. From there we passed out (graduated), sent to 2nd Battalion at Aldershot and was put on as ‘B’ Company runner. War broke out (sent to action) in ’39 and I pleaded to go with the boys. No dice. Got a job as officers’ batman so could manage to wangle across to France and being the dope, got posted back to Lancashire, to Mossley. Then sent down to Nether Avon in southern England near Salisbury to the famous machine gun school where we set an unbroken British Army record with the machine gun for a machine gun platoon getting into action and marksmanship. I was no. 1 on the no. 1 gun. Made a few machine gun training films. Came on leave Dec. ’39. Dunkirk came along and when I saw the wrecks that came back, bomb-happy, seared fellows, no clothes, no arms, no hope even, thought I would like to move, so volunteered for the first of the Commandos. Got sent off to Scotland. Cold, wet and terrible. Training always at the double, up and down snow-capped mountains. Transferred from 9 Scottish Commando 2nd Special Service Brigade to 11 Scottish Commando and sailed on Feb. 1st 1941 for Mid-East. Touched Freetown and had a few glorious days in Capetown, then on to the Red Sea and Port Suez. Was chased into Durban harbour by the Jerry raider Scharnhorst, I think it was. Sunk by our escort the ‘Coventry’ and ‘Cambridgeshire’. We had 3 Commando ‘mother-ships’, the Glen Gyle, Glen Irin, Glen Roy, all gone now. I was on the Gyle. Sailed up the ‘Canal’ to Ismalia (half way) and went into camp at Genifia. Hard rough desert training, then up and did a small raid at Derna. No casualties on our side. It was supposed to be a training scheme with live ammo. The buggers didn’t tell us that Jerry was to be there, also using ‘live’. Went back near Alexandria after a short spell of Tobruk during the siege of ’41 where the ‘Aussies’ did their stand. Then back up to the ‘Blue’ in time to do patrols, then when Crete and Greece went under, our Commando was put on the island of Cyprus (3 men to a mile of coast). When the people of Cyprus said the ‘Boche (Germans)’ would walk over the island, they were told we were Commandos, and that made it O.K. It got so bad we were adopted by the people, had free everything, and the other 2 Battalions of infantry on the island got nothing. They paid 1 shilling 6 pence for a bottle of 3-star brandy and we got the same for 6 pence (usually nothing). continued ...
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