Description
Mr. Barr recalls that the signal corps was able to maintain full communications throughout all battles fought during the Normandy campaign.
Vernon Barr
Mr. Vernon Barr was born November 11, 1921 in Cobourg, New Brunswick. Growing up in the shadows of the great war, Mr. Barr witnessed the return of Veterans and this left a lasting impression on him. Later in life when war was again declared, he volunteered to serve and became part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division as a signals/wireless operator holding rank of corporal. Mr. Barr travelled overseas on the O’Ryan and was part of D- Day and the Battle of Normandy. He remains very proud of his service during the Second World War. Postwar and back in Canada, Mr. Barr and his family moved to Wolfville, Nova Scotia where he resides today.
Transcript
The 12th SS Division were the ones who shot some of our prisoners up in Abbaye, their headquarters were in the Abbey, it’s right up here. We had a muster parade, I’ll never forget it. I often wonder if anybody else is left alive who would remember it. And during the muster parade they confirmed the murder of these guys and they said under no circumstances will revenge in kind be taken. There will be no shooting of prisoners in this army nor was there. He said you must kill the enemy in battle but not afterward. They said something else at that muster meeting. They said always in training we used to get breakdown in signals communications but here in Normandy we haven’t a minute that we didn’t have full signals communication. Ya, I wanted to say that! That was pretty pleasant. Our lineman had a little tag I know that we used to put on and it used to say, “This is your lifeline, don’t cut it!” That’s true.