Waiting Onboard For Casualties (2 of 2)

Heroes Remember

Waiting Onboard For Casualties (2 of 2)

Transcript

And then I had one army major in another stretcher and I said, "What happened to you sir?" "Well," he said, "I was all through the North African campaign, through the Italian campaign and they drew me back for this show," and he said, "I was on the beach a half an hour when a big shell went off close to me and broke my back." So he said, "I guess I'm out of it for now." So after this, about two o'clock in the afternoon, why, we had finished unloading the second barge and I wouldn't like to say maybe we had seventy or eighty wounded, dead, dying or wounded on board. So we stuck out and went back, we were heading for South Hampton but when we got there, there was an air raid on and we couldn't go in, we had to wait until the next morning. So I went down to the medical station and had another visit with this army major. We were there about 48 hours I guess and then we took a load of British soldiers in. And then we were back, see they had, they had to clear the beach and they didn't have much of a perimeter to start with you know. And then we took a load of Americans in to another beach, they were on a different section, down around Avranches they called it, we took a load of Americans in there. And then we went back, they sent us up to Barry, Wales for a boiler clean. As soon as we had our boiler clean we were down to the Mediterranean to get ready for the invasion of southern France.

Description

Mr. Vant Haaf continues with his description of the casualties on D-Day.

George Edward Vant Haaf

George Vant Haaf was born in southern Saskatchewan. His father had fought in the Boer War as a sharp shooter for the Boer Army. Before joining the navy, Mr. Vant Haaf had worked in different grocery stores and as a butcher.Six months after joining the navy he was put on and old mine sweeper the Armentieres. Mr Van Haat was drafted by the Sarnia, working on base for a year and then was commissioned to the HMCS Prince David.On the HMCS Prince David they were part of a large convoy that went overseas to participate in the actions of D-Day, mainly as a ship that received wounded soldiersMr Van Haat returned to Vancouver and was drafted to the Royal Navy Escort Carrier for air craft storage training.Returning from a voyage an offer arose for duty with the Pacific. Mr Vant Haaf thought it was a great offer and signed up continuing his service.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:37
Person Interviewed:: George Edward Vant Haaf
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: France
Battle/Campaign:: D-Day
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: HMCS Prince David
Occupation:: Provisions

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Waiting Onboard For Casualties (2 of 2)

Heroes Remember