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The Bob Gladnick Anecdote

Heroes Remember

The Bob Gladnick Anecdote

Transcript
He was an American. He fought in Spain in the Franco War. And he was in a Recce, he was always in front of us. And then he...the story is that he saw a lot of troops, about five hundred to a thousand men walking towards him, and there's a guy came up to him with all medals, blazin' with ribbon and god only knows what. And he wanted to surrender. But he'd only surrender to somebody of equal rank. Bob Gladnick was wearing shorts, filthy as hell, he turned around and he walked back and he came back, he says "I am general so and so and so and so..." He says "I accept your men. Now you," He says, "What are you going to do with us?" He says "You just carry on, you just keep walking." He says "You'll find somebody else down there." Cause they wanted food, they wanted water and everything else. And they just went. So they made him a sergeant afterwards, and he turned around he says "Well maybe because I made myself a colonel or a general" he says "I don't know." He says, "I think they...". They made him a sergeant just to appease him. But he was a very funny guy, yeah.
Description

Mr. Horowitz talks about a very funny American soldier named Bob Gladnick who pretended to be of a much higher rank when a group of approximately 1000 Italian soldiers surrendered to him and how he was then promoted for it!

Robert Horowitz

Mr. Horowitz was born in Cornwall, Ontario, on August 30, 1919, of Jewish parents who immigrated to Canada from Russia. He grew up in Montreal where he studied at Lord Arthur School and then moved on to Montreal High. He enlisted with the Régiment de Trois-Rivières in the latter part of 1939 when he was 20 years old and still in high school. Mr. Horowitz attended Camp Borden during the winter of 1939-40 for approximately 1.75 years. He first set foot on European soil in Scotland and trained in Salisbury. He saw action for the first time in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula before being wounded in Tremali. Following the war, he spent some time with Veterans Affairs assisting Canadian Veterans in England and later retired in Canada.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
01:43
Person Interviewed:
Robert Horowitz
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Italy
Battle/Campaign:
Italian
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Three Rivers
Occupation:
Gunner

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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