ABOYNE – Oliver Randall is a Second World War veteran who celebrated his 100th birthday in July.
The Wellington Terrace Long-Term Care Home resident recently shared his experiences with the Advertiser.
Randall’s war journey first took him and his school pal Bill Fairweather from Alma to London, Ontario.
He was 18 at the time and living with his parents on a farm just outside of Alma.
“We had to go to London because that was our district,” Randall said.
He remained in London for two to three weeks before traveling to Shilo, Man. for basic training. There he trained with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles artillery unit.
As the war progressed in 1944, Randall was shipped overseas as part of the infantry.
He noted how everyone was “crazy” during the war and even though he was trained for artillery, he was ultimately moved to the infantry.
“They needed men, they were desperate for men … there was about four thousand on the ship,” Randall’s daughter Beverly Henderson noted.
As Randall boarded the ship to set sail for about a week, heading to Antwerp, Belgium, he was assigned to man the Orkan machine guns on the Nieuw Amsterdam ship.
He remembers seeing his friend Fairweather and hardly recognizing him from the amount of weight he had lost from the ship’s movements.
“The Nieuw Amsterdam was fast and that was her defence, she had no guard ships or anything,” said Randall.
The ship arrived in October of 1944 and sailed straight into the Battle of the Scheldt, which was a series of military operations to open up the Scheldt River between Antwerp and the North Sea in Belgium.
“It was a very important battle to open up the ports,” Henderson added with her father agreeing.
The soldiers crawled up an embankment, looking over the edge at the enemies. This was when Randall was shot.
A bullet shot through his right shoulder, causing his rifle to fly into the air.
“I remember seeing it in the air flipping around … that was the first thing you thought about was ‘don’t lose your rifle it’s your return ticket home;’ that’s what they used to tell you,” said Randall.
A fellow soldier had seen Randall on the ground and went to his aid.
“I remember the guy who was looking after me he said, ‘you lucky bugger’ he said ‘you got a blighty,’ which means that I got a wound that would send me home,” he stated.
He said he believes the reason he got shot was because he wasn’t trained for infantry but that didn’t matter when men were needed.
“It was just a matter of what you were capable of,” Randall added.
A large bandage was placed on his wound as he was rushed to a two-storey ambulance. The top level was for soldiers who could still walk.
The ambulance ride was rough and Randall was “bounced around up there. I got seasick all over again,” he said humorously.
He was sent back to a hospital in England where doctors worked on his shoulder.
“They did a fair bit; [it] needed quite a bit of attention … it took me two months to get my arm working,” Randall stated.
After several weeks of arm exercises, Randall finally put his uniform back on.
“It was interesting over there and we were treated better than the English soldiers,” he noted.
During his healing period Randall was placed as part of B company, 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion in a town in England called Camberley, Surrey.
There he was part of a drill team, participating in parades and visiting hospitals to boost morale.
“They had to do something with all those guys, to keep us busy,” added Randall.
During the marches, Queen Elizabeth II would speak to the soldiers.
“She was very polite,” he reminisced.
From there on, it was all an adventure, he said. The war was over and the Canadian boys could do no wrong.
“I have to say I was very, very lucky from start to finish,” he stated.
“I’d do it all again if I had to; it wouldn’t bother me too much, but next time you wouldn’t be quite as lucky.”
Life at home
Randall returned home in 1946 and was able to live a good life filled with travel, marriage, children and grandchildren.
Oliver’s first wife Helen Randall passed in 1994 and was also a veteran for the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service.
He remarried in 2021 with his partner Shirley.
His six children are “tremendously proud” of their father and thank him and the thousands of other soldiers who served and continue to serve.
Although growing up Randall didn’t speak of his experiences in the war he said he is proud to be able to speak about it now.
