Description
Joseph William Ross
Mr. Ross was born in Montreal on February 15, 1925. His father served during the First World War and was seriously wounded at the second battle at Ypres. When Canada declared war on Germany in September, 1939, Mr. Ross was only 14 years old, working as an office boy for six dollars a week. Later, he worked as an apprentice fitter in the aircraft division of Vickers, near Montreal. Mr. Ross enlisted in the Army on his 18th birthday in 1943. After training in Quebec and Nova Scotia, he was sent as part of the reinforcement troops to England where he was assigned to ‘C’ Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. His overseas action included landing at Juno Beach on D-Day, and serving throughout both Normandy and Northwest Europe (Belgium and Holland). During an encounter with German forces, Mr. Ross sustained injuries from flying shrapnel.
Transcript
Interviewer: You could see those casualties as you passed through “A” and “B” Company?
No, quite frankly, you know, you, you’re oblivious to what was happening around you. Our orders was to get up and get off the beach. Nobody could stop and pick up a friend if he was shot. You had to leave him there, let, the medical people look after them. We got out, there, LCN on our right, it hit a mine going in on the structure work that they had and they had mines tied on it, it hit a mine and the sergeant, the door got jammed, the Sergeant Dave Kingston had this tall fellow went to jump out, he jumped out with out a word of caution, jumped out and was up to his, so once he stood up in the water then Dave give the order to the guys, “Alright, go.” The door was jammed so they went over the wall, and they cleared, they had casualties going up. We went down, our doors opened up okay, we went in between, run up the beach and the Lance Corporal Barbour (sp.) Andrew, he stopped me, I was in a path right in front of me was a mine. He saved me.