Tank battle at Branville

Heroes Remember

Tank battle at Branville

Transcript

Actually the Canadians got further inland that any other outfit on that particular day and that's where we dug in, there was this little town of Branville, which was a, after we got dug in, lucky we got dug in on time, we got surrounded, the whole village was surrounded by tanks, that's when Rommel came at us there. So there was quite a battle there. I didn't see too much of that battle because I was in a hole in the ground. It was more or less a tank battle and so forth, it wasn't man to man deal. It took daylight to see these tanks and so forth so the Germans knew where they were firing but we didn't because they had already been in the village, they knew how many yards to fire, what points and everything else which we didn't know. So at daybreak when I believe it was the Polish Armoured Division, I'm not too sure, they came in and beat them off.

Description

Mr. Buote describes advancing to and digging in at Branville, being surrounded and shelled by German panzers, and finally being rescued by a Polish tank battalion.

Peter Buote

Peter Buote was born in Rustico, Prince Edward Island in 1924, the youngest of 7 children. His early years were spent in an orphanage. After moving to Moncton, New Brunswick he left school at age 14 and went to work in the Minto coal mines. At 16, he went to work at a dry-cleaners. Despite being of age, Mr. Buote was turned down for Naval service because he looked too young. He later joined the Regina Rifles and was involved in the D-Day landing. He served as a sniper in Europe. Mr. Buote also served in Korea, and after returning to Canada, operated a dry-cleaning business.

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