George Melvin Ding Dingwell

A lot of my friends was offering their service for King and Country, so I decided to join them. I first applied to join the Navy which was not available. Instead, they offered me an opportunity to join the Army. So I decided that I would join the Army, so I proceeded to St. John’s and enlisted in the Newfoundland Militia. I took my basic training in that city in 1943. After which I volunteered for overseas service. In the later part of 1943, I departed St. John’s; proceeded to Halifax, from Halifax to Liverpool, England, and we were split up in different groups, various parts of the Army service. Some went as gunners, some went as driver/mechanics and some went specialist. And some of us went training for the artillery in the 166th Field Regiment and others were split up and were transferred to the Heavy Regiment of 59^th Artillery. We spent six months in England, after which we traveled to Italy where we were stationed in a holding depot outside of Naples for approximately three to four months. After that, they transferred us to our regiment, the166^th (Newfoundland) Royal Artillery. At that time, we were in action of course and sometime in June [actually May 1945], the war was over of course and they brought us out of action and stationed us at a holding depot where they transferred us back to England, from England back to Newfoundland. I arrived back in Newfoundland September the 14^th, and I finally got my discharge November the 5^th, 1945, back into civilian life again.