Description
Mr. Sully describes Canal du Nord in the Cambrai assault.
Willian John Sully
William John Sully was born in Markham, Ontario, on October 26, 1892, but grew up and lived in Saskatchewan. Prior to his enlistment in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, on January 22, 1916, he had been a farm labourer. He went overseas with the 188th Battalion and later served in France with the 46th Battalion. Mr. Sully saw action on three major fronts; Vimy, Lens, and Canal du Nord. He was wounded on three separate occasions. After the war, Mr. Sully returned to farming and was also employed with Saskatchewan Government Telephones. He married Elizabeth MacDougal on March 21, 1923. Mr. Sully died May 23, 1987.
Transcript
The Canal du Nord. We went over the Canal du Nord, I just forget the date. I don’t know what date. And we were in the first wave and I don’t know how far we went. We had to go to Bourlon Wood, anyways, to the left of it, I think, we was going over. That was our objective. And then the next bunch went through us and we kept going and going until the next night at twelve o’clock. I was a runner going through there. We didn’t know whether there was water in the canal or what it was. We had ropes and pails and that, but anyways it was dry when we got there. And there was these two or three openings that had been blowed up. And me and this other runner that was with me, we went in pairs. We went in pairs and we kind of guided the rest of them through as much as we could. We got through and we went through the canal and we got to this wood and they were shelling us pretty heavy in from the wood. This officer give us a message to take to a tank. Of course, we couldn’t get into the tank. We had to hammer at the side of the tank. But they wouldn’t listen to us. My partner, he got killed right along side of me. Oh, the bullets were just like hail stones. I don’t know how I got out of it.