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Attention!
Cette vidéo contient des scènes au contenu graphique qui pourraient choquer, et est réservée à un auditoire averti.
Description
Mr. Close describes action during the battle of Arras. Two flanking platoons are wiped out by artillery, a soldier speaking in his ear is shot through the mouth, and finally he describes leading 10 of 15 men to safety through a grain field at Parvillers, for which he receives the Military Medal.
Transcription
The worst one, as far as we were concerned with casualties, was one out of Arras. It started off, well, not too bad, but there was two big German shells come over, and at that time, instead of advancement in a line, we’d go over about six men, one behind the other, maybe 20 feet apart. They thought it might save casualties. And he made two direct hits on, one next to us and then next one over and they were all wiped out, although they never knew what hit them. There was a scream in the air both times that I can still remember. We got up into a place called Parvillers. All the houses were knocked down but the Germans had escaped the barrage there under these brick cellars. Things didn’t go very good then. Our officer was killed. A fellow called LaPorte was killed right beside me. A fellow called Stanley from Dunville went to yell something in my ear about a barrage and I saw blood spurt out of his neck. The bullet went in his open mouth and he never lost a tooth. I still remember the surprised look in his eyes and then he waved me bye-bye and he disappeared. So there was 15 of us then. We got cut off and long in the afternoon the sergeant had been wounded and gone out. The corporal in charge, he said, “We should surrender,” and I said, “There’s too many of us. There’s 15 of us, we’re not going to surrender.” I was just a private. I started crawling in the hay, it was a hayfield, and I come nose to nose with Milton Greg, who was our adjutant, who afterwards won the Victoria Cross and was sergeant-at-arms in Ottawa. So he told me that if we crawled a certain way on our belly, another 150 yards, that he thought we’d be okay. So I crawled back and I led the way and there was ten followed. Jock McCall, the last man, unknown to me got hit in the leg and was taken prisoner and he lost a leg, I think, below the knee but he come back to Canada. But the corporal and three fellows who were conscripts the first time in, they surrendered. I took the fellows with me over the top the next morning in another barrage. Anyway, I said I got a military medal for being stubborn, I guess. I was recommended by a sergeant and several of the other men, so that ended that episode.