WW2 RCA Gunner

[John McGillivray]

Karman,

The books by George Blackburn are very good and I strongly recommend that you read them. If you can’t read all three at least get “The Guns of Normandy”. George Blackburn was one of the people interviewed for the show “Canada and the Liberation of Holland” which was shown on Global on Apr. 30th. He was telling about his time he spent in the windmill in Holland. This is also covered in his book “The guns of Victory”. You can still find his books in paperback in bookstores.

Here is a link to the RCA web site.

http://www.artillery.net/english/engstart.htm

There are also the official histories of the RCA, “The Gunners of Canada” (Vols I & II) by G.W.L. Nicholson. Vol II covers the Second World War. These books make for much dryer reading than the Blackburn books. You can still buy then at the RCA kit shop on the link above.

Below are a couple of photos of yours truly. The upper one is in Valcartier in 1974 when I was on the Arty Tech course. The Bty CP belongs to X Bty, 5RALC. The bottom photo is in Shilo Manitoba in 1975. I am the gun commander, between the trails.