Memory Project

Gordon Hansford

This testimony is part of the Memory Project Archive

Gordon Hansford, with Monte Cassino in the distance, during a trip to Italy in 1985.
Medal from the City of Ravenna, Italy, the last city to be liberated by Allied Armies.
While fighting in Ortona, bayonets, like this one, were often used by jamming them into the side of a wall and hanging a grenade on them so soldiers could blow a hole through a wall. It was safer to work through town this way than use the streets.
Gordon Hansford's Army-issue canteen that, in Italy, was used more for wine than water because the safety of the drinking water there could not be trusted.
...I was attached to different units in the 1st Canadian Infantry Division all the way up Italy.
My name is Gordon Hansford, and I live in Kemptville, Nova Scotia. During the Second World War, I served in England and went to North Africa for a short while. I landed in Sicily at a place called Augusta. I went to the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. At that time, I belonged to the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, and I was attached to different units in the 1st Canadian Infantry Division all the way up Italy. And later on, I was transferred over from the 8th Army (we were with the 8th Army at that time) to the 5th Army, on the west coast of Italy. I ended up with the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade. Then, later on, we were transferred up into Belgium and Holland, and I was at that time transferred over to the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. We ended up in Oldenburg, Germany. That was the last place where we were.