We pushed them back

First World War Audio Archive

We pushed them back

Transcript

They moved us down to the Amiens front. Well I remember that we

Mr.Huckerby wearing his uniform inside a crest, posing for a photograph.

left out, we started to march every night as soon as it got dark and we marched until it started to get daylight. And then we were put under cover for the day hours so that the enemy wouldn’t know that we were on the move. And when we landed down there, we had one day’s rest. Like, we landed in the morning, and we had one day’s rest and the next morning at four o’clock we went over the hill. And that’s when we pushed them back. The first day we went to, I think it was probably seven miles, I think we went that day. And we fought down there for three days and then we held them for a while after that. There wasn’t too many casualties on the enemy side, the first day, but the second morning when we started to move forward again we were just

An older Mr.Huckerby wearing a suit and tie.

walking over dead all the time, both enemy and our own. It had been a fierce battle in the wave that was ahead of us. And by the time we went through we didn’t have too much fighting

Mr.Huckerby and his wife standing outside their home.

to do until we struck the, I don’t know, you wouldn’t call them chalk pits, but they were, it was like a mining area, more or less, where there was... it might have been from, mostly from

Sitting at the dinner table, waiting for some Birthday cake.

artillery fire, but the ground was all little hollows and hills. We took that over and held it there then and when we went on to the third day, we were fighting in that and that’s when my,

Mr.Huckerby and his wife sitting, posing for a picture.

my section commander got hit and that’s when I had to take over the section unit. We held that position down there for a few days I wouldn’t like to say how many days, but we held it for a few days before they decided to move us back up north for this next big push. Rushed us up by train up to Dury, for the Dury-Canal du Nord battle.

Description

Mr. Huckerby describes the 46th Battalion’s assault on the Germans at Amiens, and driving them back to a chalk pit.

John Arthur Huckerby

John Arthur Huckerby was born on February 8, 1898, in Golden Plain, North West Territory, (now a part of Saskatchewan). Prior to enlistment, Mr. Huckerby worked as a farm laborer. His sense of patriotic duty led him to enlist in the 217th Battalion at Broadview, Saskatchewan, on March 8, 1916, shortly after his 18th birthday. Mr. Huckerby’s basic training was interrupted when he fell ill with diphtheria. Although not fully recovered when the 217th was deployed to Britain, his officer interceded and took him as a convalescent. He was quarantined at Bramshott Camp for a time and then served as an instructor in bayonet drill and physical training. Mr. Huckerby joined the 46th Battalion, C Company and saw action at Lens, Amiens, Drocourt-Queant, and Canal du Nord. Although there is no record of his having been wounded, he was gassed during a night raid at Lens. He was discharged at the rank of corporal. After returning to Canada, he received a farm from the Soldier Settlement Board and later joined the Saskatchewan Civil Service. Mr. Huckerby enlisted for the Second World War, attaining the rank of sergeant. There is, at present, no record of his service in that conflict. On January 12, 1921, he married Katherine Anne MacDougall and had one son. Mr. Huckerby died on September 16, 1993.

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