Description
Excerpt. Mr. MacDougall entered France in March of 1918. He describes here his duties and the experience of trench warfare at the front in Arras. He goes on to recall the important battle of Amiens in August of 1918.
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Transcript
Amiens. That was the greatest battle of the whole war. That was the beginning of the end. The last hundred days. Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you remember the preparation that went in to getting ready?
Oh, it was, it was the most sacred offensive of the whole war. All the move was done at night. We left Arras in the middle of the night, boarded a train and went away on orders the next morning where the hell we were going, you know. We had maps, we were trying to trace where the railway line was going. There was just one line that we missed. That's the one that took us down to Amiens. That's where we ended up. That was the most important battle of the whole war at Amiens.
Interviewer: What do you remember about that battle in particular?
I remember, remember the number of tanks we lost that day. They had completed a new anti-tank weapon. You must remember it was all wide open fields, open fields around, but you'd see a tank gun fire here, there, all over the place. They shot out a hell of a lot over our tanks that day. Yeah.
Interviewer: What did you think of the tanks? (Huh? ) What did you think of tanks?
Oh God, we depended on them. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh Yes, they were, they were great things.
Interviewer: How far, the battle of Amiens was on August 8th through to the 11th.
August the 8th yeah.
Interviewer: Do you remember, do you remember entering the town?
No, no. I never saw the town of Amiens. No, it was all open country where we were. That was, must have been near the town of Amiens. That's why they called it that. All broad, wide open field after we got them out of their first... trench system, you know. We followed the tank commanders across wide open fields.
Interviewer: How far did you go?
Oh 10 miles that one day. Yeah.
Interviewer: Which would be?
The German High Command called it a black day of the German army. We called it the beginning of the last days hundred days.