TRANSCRIPT

After about three or four attempts to get into the army I finally got in, in 1941. My name is Bob Innes and my regimental # is F707 in the Royal Canadian Army Corps. Royal Canadian Army Service Corps supplied all the army and air force troops in that particular region in fact the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps did that all over Newfoundland We had 5 depots in Newfoundland, warehouses, and we supplied all the food and gasoline and transports for the attached forces that was the job of the Royal Canadian Service Army Corps, it looked after the Air force and the Army for food stocks including the regiments and everything in the area. The navy had their own services we didn't have to do anything with the navy. So I went down to Botwood and they had an old warehouse and we were stationed with the army. They had an old warehouse with refrigeration and basically I went into the office and in a couple of months they had a couple of freights and within 6 months I was the army Sergeant in charge of that particular depot, distributing the food supplies bringing in the food supplies, to the air force messes to the army regiments and the attached services in the area. So I was at that for I think about a year and a half almost two years in Botwood, during which time it was interesting because the air force was stationed there as well. There was an air base with the RAF and the RCAF and I'm not to sure how many PBY's, surveillance planes, they had there but they had quite a few probably 6 or eight or maybe a dozen planes and they did surveillance over the Atlantic, checking for U Boats and so on and that was the main job of the Air Force. As well transatlantic flights had started in 1939 ,with the Caledonia, the British Flying Boat and also the American Clippers and Botwood was the base for the transatlantic, they flew across from Ireland to Newfoundland. It was interesting, they had to be refueled and looked after, housed if they stayed overnight and the air force that was the air force's duty and the army of course built a special chalet to handle the VIP's. I had seen Churchill arrive in Botwood and come off the ramp and come up to the officer's mess, leading, about 6 or 8 executives all following him behind and on his way up to the barracks, the officer's mess, he saw two men digging a ditch. He went over and spoke to them, he was a minute and a half or two minutes with them, and turned around and walked away. He got about ten steps away, turned around, and put up his two V for victory signals with his fingers.
Robert Innes