I'm George Bannerman. I served in World War II in Canada, Great Britain and Northwest Europe. My most memorable time was with the Flame Warfare Technical Staff of the First Canadian Army. I was a team leader of one of two teams who worked with about sixty-five different infantry battalions, several armoured regiments and motor battalions, and we were there teaching people how to use flame in warfare. Also, because we were moving around, picking up information how other people used it. We passed on that information on to others, from Brigadier [J.M. "Rocky"] Rockingham on down. I worked with the Brits, the Canadians of course, and the Dutch and the Poles. One of my most memorable experiences was working with the Guards Armoured Division. I had three NCOs [Non-Commissioned Officers] working with me – W-2, a Sergeant and a Corporal. We just travelled wherever we were needed. So I covered much of the northwestern part of Europe, from October 1944 until V-E Day. The last part of my career I worked in Ottawa.

My dad was a veteran of the First and the Second, so there were three of the Bannermans in World War II, and only my dad of course in World War I.

My dad, George Rocky Bannerman, served as a stretcher bearer with the 1st Canadian Division in World War I, and was gassed and wounded and came back to Canada and raised a family of five, and two of us – Gordon and I – served in the Second World War, and my dad was back in with the Veterans Guard. He went in at age fifty-six, and came out at age sixty-one. He was a private soldier, a very fine looking man, and did a lot of… a lot of his experiences in World War II, he and another chap did a lot of recruiting in Saskatchewan.

I was very proud of my father. He won an MM [Military Medal] in the First World War as well.