Battling the enemy

Heroes Remember

Battling the enemy

Transcript

The day the Germans attacked us with shells ... That's what they do first, they shell you to death, then they, after they rush up. There we are in the trench, scared as all heck and my buddy was hit. I had to help him, call the medics, push him back, plug him with mud, stop the bleeding. That was one of the worst days I had for a long while, now. But the day, first day, I seen the Germans ... When we went over the Channel, we had to raid all the house, check all the houses and that, and I look in the garage, there's a dead German. First one I ever seen. I didn't know what a dead German looked like, you know, or, or a German, period. That was the first one I ever seen. Kind of scares ya. Now, they had no clothes on. The Italians took all his clothes. I was trying to think to myself, what kind of people are these, you know, they strip a man off his clothes? Well, anyway ... Then we searched all the houses and made sure there was no more Germans around that. Couldn't touch anything, ‘cause there were booby traps all over the place, so we couldn't. And we kept going and they attacked and, and we were told to fall back, which we did. Then we got our shells going. It kind of drove the Germans back. So many things happening, you know. You don't even know where to go sometimes, you know. You find a hole, you dig and you stay there. That's why I'm shell-shocked now, really, because my nerves are still bad from, you know ... I had one land right alongside me. I thought I was hit, but I wasn't. It was just shock. When some medics came up and said, "You're okay." "I'm okay." And that was it. You know, kept fighting, killing Germans. That's what we were there for.

Description

Mr. Richard talks about his first taste of battle, in Italy, and encountering the enemy in battle at the age of 15.

Donald Richard

Mr. Donald Richard was born in July, 1926, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. At the age of five he and his family moved to Tignish, Prince Edward Island, where his father worked as a snow clearer for the railroads. In 1932, his father was killed during a fierce winter snowstorm, leaving Mr. Richard with out a father at the age of five. At the age of nine Mr. Richard and his family moved to Summerside, where his mother remarried. Mr Richard, at the age of 14, with two other friends went to join the army. To his surprise he was taken into the Canadian army. Mr. Richard crossed the Atlantic for Europe with no training and was stationed in England for seven months, in 1942, serving as a cook. Mr. Richard was discovered to be underage but in 1943, managed to be assigned to serve on the Italian front. Arriving just outside of Rome, Mr. Richard was quickly moved to the front lines. Again Mr. Richard was discovered to be underage and was reassigned to serve on the Western Front as a dispatch rider serving in Nimegan, Holland. At the end of the war Mr. Richard was transported by troop ship directly back to Canada from Western Europe. Mr. Richard was met back in Summerside by his half brother and taken back to the family home. It did not take long before Mr. Richard got restless sitting and moved to London, Ontario, to take a trade of bricklaying. He returned home to open and run his own business in PEI. The business ran into troubles and he went to visit his other half brother who had also served in Second World War. Because of his American Citizenship, Mr. Richard joined the American Air Force and served for three years in Louisiana.

Meta Data