We Started to Dig a Big Pit to Bury Them In

Heroes Remember

We Started to Dig a Big Pit to Bury Them In

Transcript

While I was there, as acting adjutant, there was a big caboo in one of the, remember we’re now up in the high part of Hong Kong and up the hill is where the big mansions and stuff like that, and there was a big commotion going up further up the hill and apparently a shell had exploded in the house or something and killed a lot of people and I was to go up and George Forchers who was the attached for... what do they call him, anyway, he was a Captain, auxiliary type - look after sports and all of that sort of thing - attached to the battalion, he wasn’t of the battalion. He and I went up there and here we went in a sort of a semi-basement. There was a long hall and rooms on each side and the men who were on duty up there, motorcyclists, carriers and stuff like that, apparently had been getting together to have a meal and this shell came through the building from the other side just over the mountain apparently and into the . . . and exploded downright. Killed, I think it killed about ten of them. So here am I, this is another first introduction to war. Poor damn guys are all dead, cut to pieces, uh bloody awful, so we got busy and, “What the hell do we do now you know?” you know. So we got out some of the men that weren’t killed who were still alive and shovels and started to dig a big pit to put them in, to bury them. Oh, it was a hell of a mess. So we’re out there doing this and George and I both went around and got their name tags off them to collect and we just actually got started when they started shelling again or mortaring I think it was, so we had to get out of there and so we left the men and I don’t know what happened, I never got back.

Description

Mr. White describes trying to evacuate and bury the dead from a bombed out residence, and being thwarted by a mortar attack.

Harry Leslie White

Harry Leslie White was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, on May 24, 1907. His family emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, in 1911. His father, a First World War Veteran, became a policeman. After finishing grade 6, Mr. White had numerous jobs to help support his family. He did some reserve training and was also taught to box by his father. After being turned down by the air force, Mr. White joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers for basic training in Kingston, Jamaica. Here he also helped guard a POW camp holding German and Italian naval personnel. Once in Hong Kong, he joined E Company. Mr. White was captured, but unlike so many others, spent his entire time as a POW in Hong Kong, working on the Kai Tek airport. After the war, Mr. White established an orchard, and later returned to Eatons, where he had worked prior to the war.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:29
Person Interviewed:: Harry Leslie White
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Hong Kong
Battle/Campaign:: Hong Kong
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Winnipeg Grenadiers
Rank:: Lieutenant

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We Started to Dig a Big Pit to Bury Them In

Heroes Remember