September 29th, 2007, 07:20 PM
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Wilts UK
Posts: 841
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Re: Pics : 'Wartime Hell'
Thought I'd add this short extract from a longer piece from Art Bridge, a rifleman in 14 Platoon, C Company ,Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.
Quote:
B Company was holding the houses at the extreme south end of St Lambert and for some reason we kept going down the road, out of town, towards Chambois which is about a mile and a half further on. By now it was quite dark with visibility provided by burning houses or vehicles which had been knocked out along the road. Since we had not been made aware of the gravity of our position, we were having a ball scrounging through the trucks along the way, with no particular feeling of concern (the rum?).
We had covered half the distance to Chambois , to a hamlet called MOISSY, when a machine gun opened up on the front of the column. We were spread out in single file and the OC and two or three others were hit by the burst. As the firing continued and we couldn't tell where it came from , we took to the shelter of the ditch and started shooting back at the unseen enemy, who were close by as they began throwing hand grenades at us.
One of their grenades fell among several of us in the ditch and exploded, making a lot of noise but causing little damage.
With the OC out of commission there was considerable confusion in our ranks, as nobody seemed to know what was going on, so we simply lay there in the ditch for awhile , as CSM George Mitchell and our platoon officer, Lt Phil Whithead, tried to figure out what to do next. Ants from a disturbed anthill made waiting uncomfortable.
Finally when the shooting let up we took off through a farmyad into an orchard a couple of hundred yards off the road, where we took up positions and waited some more. It had been a long day and wariness took it's toll I fell asleep lying there in the dark. Not for long , though, as there were Germans all about , and we nabbed a few prisoners there in the orchard.
Eventually it was decided that we should return to St Lambert and rejoin B Company and the South Albertas for the night
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Lots more where that came from, my fingers hurt at the moment.
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