The Ground Shook

Heroes Remember

The Ground Shook

Transcript

Just outside of Caen in Mondeville, going down the Falaise Gap, you always got a little briefing beforehand, when the attack was going in. So anyway, they said the planes were coming over and they'd be over at a certain time, 7 o'clock in the morning, around that. And then they just, which was right, they did come over and they were dropping, dropping bombs. Even dropped them on our own Div. Headquarters, but when the first plane started to come they kept on coming for about an hour and a half really and they were dropping their bombs. The ground was like that steady and never stopped going and then they'd get going and all the Germans did to come over, they'd just pull back, that's all. And then when the last plane went over, they'd pull ahead. That's why it was so hard. Everything was, they were getting surrounded down in the Falaise Gap, the Germans, and when they get a lull, they'd move ahead and the planes would come. They could move back, but then they got caught, made their own trap. So they got caught in it.

Description

Mr. McCabe describes the bombardment at Falaise Gap.

Eugene McCabe

Eugene McCabe, the third of six children in a blended family, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on August 21, 1923. Mr. McCabe’s father was a carpenter. He finished Grade 8, and like most of his friends, decided to join the army. Between 1937 and 1939, he served as a batman, earning an extra ten cents a day. After shipping overseas, he joined the 30th Field Company as a sapper. The 30th Field Company saw action from France through to post-war Germany, clearing and laying mines, but principally building bridges to facilitate the Allied advance. After the war, Mr. McCabe worked at St. Dunstan’s, UPEI for 38 years.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:25
Person Interviewed:: Eugene McCabe
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: France
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: 30th Field Company
Occupation:: Sapper

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03