The Flamethrower

Heroes Remember

The Flamethrower

Transcript

The training became rather intensive and highly specialized. For instance at one point somebody had the bright idea that a carrier load of flame throwers could be a very good offensive weapon. So they gave the, and of course the largest number of carriers to be found in any unit would have been in a reconnaissance unit, so they picked the 17th or the 7th Recce and they gave us flame thrower mounted carriers. And we trained at a place called Wokingham. We did that training for two or three weeks I guess it was, and we rapidly came to the conclusion that it was, the flame thrower was more a terror weapon than an active, than a killer weapon, because we'd had accidents. People would get sprayed by the flame and you could brush it off. Your first idea when you got sprayed by the flame was now what's going to happen but, it became obvious that you could brush it off your clothing, it's a terror weapon really, once you understood it you didn't worry too much about it.

Description

Mr. Jamieson describes being trained on the flamethrower and how it is more a weapon of terror.

Douglas K. Jamieson

Mr. Jamieson was the oldest of two boys in the family and was born in Toronto on April 3, 1919. At the age of sixteen he moved to Montreal. While in university Mr. Jamieson joined the Canadian Officer Training Corps. His unit was converted to a regular force unit and he was shipped overseas as part a reconnaissance unit in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division with whom he served in England, France, Holland and Germany.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:22
Person Interviewed:: Douglas K. Jamieson
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: 17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars-Recce
Occupation:: Reconnaissance Officer

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03