Description
Mr. Marshall explains how our Canadian soldiers were no match in fire power against the Germans until the Americans joined in and provided better equipment.
Calvin Marshall
Mr. Calvin Marshall was born in Montreal, Quebec. At the age of 19, he decided to join the Reserve Army with the Royal Montreal Regiment. After receiving basic training in Farnham, Quebec, he enlisted with the active force in May of 1943. Mr. Marshall was part of the West Minister Regiment. He went overseas on the Mauritania, landed in Liverpool, England where he received advanced infantry training as a Bren gunner and moved in as a replacement with the regiment. After the war, Mr. Marshall was employed at Long Ports Canada Depot, and became a member of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Transcript
Their ammunitions were better than us. They had tanks called Tigers and they had another tank called a Panther. Even their machine gun, they had a, what they called, they had a machine gun called a Spandau. And they had a small arms gun called a Smizer. Whereas, we had a Sten. We had a Bren. We had a Six-Pounder. We were no match for them in the fire power. They could stand off like say, in the distance and hit our tanks and our tanks couldn’t damage them. When the Americans got involved and they came in with their big Sherman tanks and their Seventeen-Pounder guns, big guns, you know what I mean, then they became a match for the Germans because now they could engage, they could engage the Germans. And the oil, towards the end of the war, the Germans were pulling their wagons and their guns with horses. They were using horses. We were still using, we were still motorized. They were beat!