Topic: WWII - Please meet Parkie, the young kid who made a man out of himself

[parkie]

I have received letters and messages from so many asking to share my stories and thoughts,some for the need to soothe the fears that family have, for our young who serve or wish to serve in defence of freedom,others to perhaps form a picture in their own mind of what family or friends may have gone through to make canada what it is today. you humble me.my love to you all.
To my grand daughter who for a small child gives me more than I can ever repay.to my brothers who lay in far away places on land bought with their own blood.I do this for you,because we won't know where we're going if we don't know where we've been.
I will continue on this post so please bear with me ,it will take more then a day to tell

 When I made my decision to enlist,I was both terrified at the thought of dying in a war.but at the same time wondering ,  what the girl's will think of me in a uniform.well what else would a 17 year old think of ? I went to the old school house down the road to talk with the old school teacher Mr Cook.I tried confiding in him my fears and my desires to wear a soldier's uniform since he had served in the first world war.He told me you can't have courage without fear.Courage is the resistance to fear,The mastery of it,but not the absence of it, and yes I do think a uniform will make you a man,After all no one will take you seriously if your naked.I can remember thinking boy this guy must be the smartest man on earth,years later I found that he must have been a fan of Mark Twain.Still,Good advice because I can remember many times ,saying over and over in my mind, master your fear, master your fear.I can especially remember being dug into a foxhole in northern Italy, we would take some ground and lose some ground and at night when you were dug in the germans would bring out a large rail gun they had in the mountain's over looking us and the silence of the night would be broken with the low drone of the engine on the locomotive bringing that damn thing out and it sent shivers down your spine because you just knew hell was coming and where are you going to go.nowhere.master your fear!!master your fear!!out to the left some poor souls crying because he knows what's coming to!master your fear!!master your fear!!Whump the ground would vibrate when that bloody thing let loose and Incoming!! you hear someone shout.no damn kidding, you think to yourself, how could you miss that,it sounds like a freight train coming in has it passes over head and you thank god.Their shelling about a mile down the road,you just know that some other poor buggers getting it,your only glad that this time it wasn't you and now you have about a minute to think of home or somewhere, anywhere but this bloody foxhole with that thing going off over my head,and Whump!!Incoming!!!Master your fear!! Master your fear!!

             

[Kristen]

That has really moved me a lot...thinking that 1 of my 2 friends is off to Iraq. It worries me that he may never come back, His daughter, and girlfriend may never see him again and Augest! I'll send them this story! Thanks Kristen

[parkie]

That has really moved me a lot...thinking that 1 of my 2 friends is off to Iraq. It worries me that he may never come back, His daughter, and girlfriend may never see him again and Augest! I'll send them this story! Thanks Kristen

you must be very proud of him.while he is serving his country and all of us,he will be mastering his own fears in his own way,I pray that you will be able to master your own and be strong for their sake.
                                                                                             A C (parkie)

[parkie]

from letter to sister october 1939
 dear sister
 sorry to leave you with the old man and eleven children to look after but vera and john will help their the oldest now if you have any problems walk down to kay's,have found news here more recent then what we have at home.Hitler has taken all of poland now.reports that the polish cavalry was destroyed by the german tanks.Is that not heroic olive,can you imagine the courage of men charging against tanks on horses.what  courage they must have.can't wait to get over and help.Don't worry dear sister,your big brothers no fool.but I'm no coward either,somebody has to stop this dictator.many here with the same opinion so I am not alone.report to osbourne barracks tomorrow.then hopeful of being in europe by christmas.
                                                                                                                             yours parkie

[parkie]

from orient steamship troop carrier December 1939

Dearest Sister
How are the little one's.all is well I hope.have passed basic I am onboard one of orient steamships troop ships mid-atlantic left canada three days ago.Have a lot of good men here with me.spirit's are good other than you can't step anywhere on board without stepping in some poor fellows supper from the night before.everything is covered in it.men are vomiting on each other has they pass on the walks.and dysentery is running through the lower decks.For some reason it isn't touching me,I could sure go for one of mother's loafs of bread right now,god rest her soul,last night was christmas dinner they served us cows udders sliced up.they had small riots in parts of the ship.Imagine olive a few month's ago I was pulling on them for milk now I'm eating them.I'll say it is awful good of the convoy escorts, they surround the troop and supply ships to keep the subs out. at night off in the distance you can see the sky light up at night and explosion's.remember Elmo,he joined the navy, he's on convoy escort,it is probably him looking out for me,he always thought he was my big brother.write him if you can he's on the windflower

                                                                                      your loving brother parkie

[parkie]

forward to Italy;
 I'll bet you your ration of bully the next one will be an 88(german bomber),formations of bombers have been making daylight bombing Raids on us.we're getting close to ortona, so it's probably Air support for whatever the german's have left to surprise us.boy ,can't beleive my luck,here I am in this hell hole and I run into a boy from my hometown,their bringing ambulance's now in large numbers,You think; Great!! lots of corpsmen lots of ambulances,This can only mean one thing.Ortona has our number on it.Ya! sure see parkie I told you they were 88's.hey what the hell is that whistling noise.I knew full well what it was but i didn't even have time to open my mouth.the first one hit about 50-100 yards off.I can barely remember flopping to my side has the next one hit's.closer yet!!It knocks you so hard your lungs momentarily collapse.and another closer yet! even though I'm laying on my side It shoots me across the ground like a bloody skipping stone.then another and another.your lungs burn from the air being forced out so fast.and you feel like about ten men have kicked the living hell out of you.slowly drag myself to my hands and knees and I'm covered in white downy feathers.their everywhere.I think holy hell I'm in heaven.no.it's what's left of the cushion I was leaning up against that supply truck with.The truck!! it's been cut right in half,That was close,that damn Percy,he's lucky he's only been up at the front for couple of day's,I'll give him a piece of my mind, him and his bloody 88's.
Percy! Percy you potlicker where the hell are you hiding.he must have buggered off, his ambulance was parked across the road.sure ,that's it, he must have took off up the road,probably scared the hell out of the poor kid,never been bombed before.ya.that's it he must have buggered off he was parked right here.what was that.kicked something shiny on the road.ibent to pick it up.well I'll be dammed a silver ring with a P engraved on it.what's the chances of that.I'll give it to percy he's having a baby in about two weeks back home this will pick his spirit's up a bit.what the hell is all this crap all over my boots.sweet Jesus it's percy.


                                                                                                                         A C (parkie) 

[military granny]

Dear Parkie
Once more I will say thank you for sharing you memories, no matter how painful, with us. God bless.

[parkie]

letter dated may 1940,Eastburn.England
 Lowest have felt in months.yesterday german's were coming in with a one man fighter-bomber trying to hit coal works.they were firing on a building full of old people has they passed.Three of the lad's and I took four brens to the roof of the building,The next pair that came in low we let them have it.so close you could see the pilot's face.both went down not far.we went to look at our handi work.both had gone into ground up to the tail end.everyone was cheering.we four stood in silence not a word among us.I wonder if they had family.             


                                                                                                                               Parkie

[parkie]

I am sorry if I am jumping around a bit ,but can not tell to much of one spot for any length of time.it is just to hard
                                                 
Italy.                                                                                                                                               parkie
 near the moro river.german's have been hitting us with long range mortar.Terrible things those,if your lucky you can hear the bang from them when they launch, some a mile or so off. at night they throw them at us in groups of up to a dozen or more.you can hear the damn things go off.And you try and count what's going up 1..2...3..4....5.....6....7 but there's so many going off at once,could be two could be ten,Everyone trys to listen but men are shouting,Incoming!! You *******'s!! It seeems like forever but it's probably only seconds and all hell lets loose.hang tight! and master your fear, you know.Some decide to run left or right out of the path.bad choice!you yell at them stay put. keep your *** in one spot,but it's to late for them.german's know that one you know.shoot up a few in one spot.then just has those are hitting us throw up twice has many on both sides.17 men from reserve brought up today all gone but for one.poor bastards sobbing over in the red patch,nobody wants to go near him,bad luck to be new,nobody wants to be your friend,it's just to hard losing friend's you lose enough every day has it is,no use making more!snipers coming in!germans so close you can hear them talking to one another.Everybody quiet.want to know what recon has to say.TOMMIES!! GO HOME!! you hear the german's yelling at us in a kind of broken english you know.We are the 76 panzer!! something you can't tell what the hell it is he's trying to say then he says WE WILL RETREAT NO MORE!!Some of the boy's are up  and shouting back.WE'RE NOT TOMMIES,WE'RE CANADIANS AND YOU'LL BE BLOODY LEAVING IN SHORT ORDER.who the hell do they think they are, go home!we were just getting started

                                                                                                                                A.C.(parkie)
                                                                                                               Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
     

[parkie]

Good lord give me the strength.
near the moro.
 Boy we kicked their rear ends good at that one.some of the lad's had enough of sitting waiting for something to happen.somewhere off to the right one of the boy's gets up and strolls right straight up through the german line.oh no.some of the boy's are breaking or what ?where the hell did he go.you look around you know and everybody has the same look.minutes go by,you hear some mumbling and somebody stumbling like their drunk.well I'll be dammed out of the bushes he comes pushing three or four german prisoners, smiling like he just won some sort of prize, you know.Go get a couple of your own boy's,these buggers are mine!! All the less to shoot us later eh!If only it could be that easy,still this picks the boy's spirit's up.A couple of the boy's jump up and help push them toward's the rear.men are looking at one another,and you can see everyone's thought's are drifting back to a few night's before.when we were all so pleased at our
luck of finding a small farm.with a house still pretty much intact.and a large cask of wine in one of the outbuildings well everyone had a hell of a good time,good water was hard enough to come by let alone about a two hundred gallon jug of wine.it wasn't till we started getting that jug down we found  five people stuffed in the caske.A man of some age.probably his wife and three little one's.oh lord!!you sonsabitches.you sonsabitches!!how could you do such a thing,you sonsabitches!!you know the dirty rotten B........rds cut a bloody mark in the mans forehead.                                   I have to stop.

                                                                                                              A.C.(parkie)

[parkie]

time for a change.
from diary may 1940  England
 yesterday was very quiet,this morning,large numbers running every direction. everyone on full alert,no one knows what was happening.can hear explosion's from across the channel.Spitfire's coming back with little more than wings left.some not at all.
whatever they were up against they are giving it all.


next entry.
 Explosions coming from across channel.can hear low roar.many fighters going across towards France.most spitfires,many ships going out of all sizes.they are trying to bring home boy's from dunkirk.tried to count planes going out.many going .some returning full of holes.one hit water just off shore.they got him out alive.


                                                                                                                                     parkie

[parkie]

We have received E-mails from some who are wondering if I served at a certain battle site or if I may have known what happened at one fixed battle,please keep in mind that hindsight is much different when it comes to events in the past.for us going through italy there was nothing to really tell you where you were.In some instances you know you were in a region at a certain time period,but with everything being pretty much blown to dust it's hard to say what was where,I apologize if some are finding it to graphic in spots.but,I would not do honor to the men who died writing this story if  I try to make it something less than what it is.This is war! That being said.Please be warned that it only gets worse.                                                 

                                                                                                    A.C.(parkie)
                                                                   Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

                                                                                                         

[sigspig]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your memories.

I have been serving for 19 years now, and after reading your posts, I hope to serve another 19 years.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[parkie]

We have had to pause,unknowingly we slipped into something that perhaps skould have been left buried.He is willing to continue,please, a few hours to settle.
                                                                                                                             A.C.(parkie)

[parkie]

Parkie here we're back .Italy
two bloody weeks of this,I can remember Joe saying.we were sitted along the road leading to ortona.ortona was perhaps 5-10 kms up the road.We only eat at night ,the flour they have been using has been filled with Bug's about 2-3 inches long with long feelers you know ,like the spruce beatle we have here in Canada.great big bloody things,bad enough food is short,very short.we have to eat them anyway so we toast the bread over a small fire,no use trying to pick them out if you do there won't be anything left, you know.so you get probably five or six in every slice plus all the bit's and pieces from the one's that got broke up in the mix,so toast them at night and pretend their raisins ,you know. managed to scrounge six oranges from,A group I think they were red cross ,don't know if they were Canadian or American,The oranges were  delicious,but we got the runs so bad could not eat any more,Joe found a young boy who looked like he was starving,we brought him in and shared our food with him,poor little bugger got violently sick,probably had not eaten in day's, even so he kept coming back for more,had to be careful you know,don't want to kill the poor little bugger.He didn't mind that the bread had bug's,so who the hell are we to pick,you know. you get hungry enough you'll eat any damm thing you can find.
 Sitting not six feet from a Gurkha grave.it's only about a foot long, Wonder how they got that fella in that little grave Joe says.Well I said that's probably more than they found of him.They don't stop those Gurkha's you know ,bravest men I ever saw,fight to the last.
 To them more honor in dying.then to live defeated.You had to love  them though ,you know,has your crawling in your hole for the night their just going out to do their business.No sound,nothing.you could be sitting out on recon at night you know,and all of a sudden,you'll hear,hi Johnny!! Almost enough to make you crap your pant's you know,you don't hear nothing ,but they allready have checked to see if your wearing Jack boot's or not.If you are you'll never see morning,very efficient,We find the odd german with a new smile cut ear to ear.
 Most who knows who finds them you know or if anybody,who cares, you know,let the bug's have the bas.ard's for all we cared.ya.they were quite the little fellows everybody was Johnny.Hi Johnny!!


                                                                A.C (parkie)
                                Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

[Hunter]

Thank you so much for sharing these memories.  I showed them to my ten-year-old daughter, and she just read the entire thread with great interest.  She said to say thank you also.

I think that to most Canadians the kind of commitment and sacrifice your generation made for us is just inconcievable, and they really have no idea how lucky we are as a result.  Yours sir truly is the greatest generation.

[parkie]

I want to apologize to everyone for the episode with the farm house,A little intervention on my part would save some having to read thing's like that, and the pain that it inflicted on my father bringing this out of the recesses of his mind.war is war, but the killing of innocent's is a very tender spot.with any soldier.He loves writing the diary,just a slip that got us into a very dark region.

                                                                                                                           (parkie)

[military granny]

Please don't apologize. We are adults here.  I think everyone realizes that WWII was not a easy time for anyone over there.

[parkie]

The following letter was posted from England July 1940.It was sent and delivered.In 1995 at a family reunion she handed him the letter and the two just cried and held each other for almost a half hour.It made me think about the sacrifices that families had to make during the war and just how precarious things were back then. His sister was sixteen years old at the time of the letter raising eleven children.Their mother dying  giving birth to the last one.
Dearest Sister
  Has you may or may not have heard .All of Europe has Fallen.Big Brother may not be coming home.If we fall here nothing will stop the German's they are taking everything.Talk of them Invading And people here readying for it.If  we do fall,talk among men we will fight to the last man.I love you dear Sister,give my love to all little ones.Tell all we went Bravely.until we meet again.
                                                                                                                Your Always loving Brother Parke

[parkie]

When Dad went to bed last night him and Pattie were talking about the people demonstating against the war on terrorism and how the hell can you demonstrate against the war .Toting your dam signs in yout three piece suits, and you take the free speech that the soldier fights for and you throw it right in his face,Anyway when I got up this morning,I noticed that my father must have got his grand daughter Pattie  to help him with a planned offensive,(old soldiers had enough) against terrorism with the one's toting the signs leading the attack.now that I understand what he meant it's kind of funny.
                                                                                                        A.C.(parkie)

[parkie]

Near ortona
 That night I remember,like it was yesterday,all day German's have been strafing us heavily,Imean so bloody heavy it was a wonder there was air to breath for all the damm lead in the air.Men are gettting blown to bit's from the heavy rounds the german's are using,You thank christ for night fall,so you can't see the bit's and pieces of the boy's all over the bloody place,you know,All nightfall brought was darkness and the odd poor bugger that the med corp couldn't find,moaning in the darkness,nobody knows which direction to even begin to look even if you wanted to,and if you do go looking, the german's have sniper's in every damm tree almost,you know.stand up and just one little reflection off something on you,your dead!Something new for the boy's tonight,must be in honor of our coming,some sort of a damm mortar,fires off about ten round's so fast it will make your head spin ,you know.wam wam wam wam you know all in a row like that.when they come down they make the most god awful noise,you know.sounds like the bloody hounds of hell coming for you.I suppose they were the hounds of hell,killed so many of the boy's,that and chunks of wood as big has your arm flying in every direction,men getting pieces of wood thrown right through them almost,you know,god awful night that, men screaming in pain all night,you know.just bloody god awful.man crawls to you in the night,crying for help with two feet of wood sticking out of him,what can you do,you know.how can you pull two feet of wood out of a man's innard's you know,some tried,All you do is pull the poor bugger's intrail's out,god,bloody god awful!



                                                                                                                     A.C.(parkie)

[parkie]

for Joe.
he was a hell of a nice big fella,came from down in  southern manitoba,

The same day of the heavy mortar attacks. next morning snipers in the trees on the ridge are picking off men has men are trying to care for the wounded and get them out to where they can be tended to ,you know,german fighters still strafing us heavily,never a bloody moments rest,you know.just pour it to you steady.only now they started up heavy bombing again to go with the fighters.where the hell is the damm air support ,you know, caught on this bloody road,snipers giving us hell, and planes shooting and bombing us.you feel like a fish in the barrel,you know we had a small strip of bush to the side of the road,but Jesus it's like a shooting gallery in there to you know,and the german mortar crews have it ranged good.so you go in there.well.nobody wants to look like a bloody pincushion from flying chunks of wood,you know at least here there's a little refuge behind some of the small hills.I'll never forget to the day I die.We spotted a sniper in a tree about 50 yds off.Joe told me.I'll clank.when he pops from behind the tree,you spray the hell out of him with that Thompson.Joe clanked and before I could Even move.they shot him in the forehead. Rest in peace old son!!

                                                                                                           A.C.(parkie)
                                                                                                              PPCLI

[Hopkins]

Thanks alot for sharing Parkie...All of my Granfathers brothers and sisters served in Sicily and Italy...All coming back unfortunately as casualties (Not Fatalities) of some nature.

I Salute your service and everyone elses 

[parkie]

I regret to have to inform everyone,I can't continue with  dad's war diary,We were doing well ,until the entry that contained the event with the farmhouse,whatever happened there it has made a dramatic change in his state of mind.I noticed that entry's did not coinside with his recollection,because his good friend Joe that he often spoke of,died three week's before ortona and his other post's after that should have been week's before the Moro.I noticed that he isn't sleeping at night and he's up roaming the house.He wanted very much to do this for his PPCLI family in support of our soldier's.I have a small entry he was working on for his next post that he wanted me to enter.It is a piece from a song that the boy's use to sing in Italy,poking back at a 'lady Astor of the British  house of commons who said that they were the D-day dodgers.He couldn't remember all of it,,but here is a portion.

                    Forgotten by the Army,remembered by the few.
                    We had our armistice,when armistice was new
                   one million German's gave up to us
                   We finished our war without much fuss
                  we're the D-day dodgers,out here in Italy

  I thank everyone for the support that they showed him,he truly felt like a soldier again,and I do believe  he missed that for many years.
 He is still available to message and such, I just think the way things are with him right now,I'll give him a rest from diary.

                                                                                                           For
                                                                                              A.C.(parkie)
                                                            Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
                                                           1st Canadian Infantry Division 2ND Brigade   -  A title he  is very proud of       

[recceguy]

Thank your father for us, and thank you for helping him make a permanet record of this. We are all appreciative of his efforts and hope he can quell his demons soon.