Getting Caught in a Minefield

Myself and a sergeant and another fellow, his name was Smith. We were detailed to lay telephone wires one day from, shall we say the observation office back to the artillery gun. I remember the sergeant now he was a World War Two Veteran and he was sitting in his seat and I was driving and this fellow Smith he had a coil of wire on his back, it was on his back. So the sergeant said, “Stop here now!” We stopped and he said, "We gotta put a wire across that rice paddy.” So he said to Smith, he said, “You walk across the rice paddy onto the dam of the rice paddy and we’ll drive up around the top and pick you up on the other side." So just as we start to move off, we heard this, “Brrrmmm!” And when the two of us looked, here was this chap Smith, he was just after walking on a mine or something and he was up in the air just going around just like a rag doll and he come down and he come down and splashed right on the rice paddy. And I was driving the jeep and I went to go turn the jeep around to go back and the sergeant grabbed me by the shoulder, “Stop Mercer,” he said, “what you’ll do is you listen to me. You back this jeep up in the same tracks as we came in. We could be in a minefield.” So I backed the jeep up and the two of us got out then and we walked in and fellow Smitty was still alive and he was getting up out of the rice paddies and I always remember his glasses were down like that! And he was all full of mud and everything. So we got him up and got aboard and said, “You hurt Smitty?" One of his legs got hurt alright, apparently the leg he walked on the anti-personnel mine is what he walked on. Anyhow, we got him aboard the jeep and brought him back the road a bit and the first aid station was a French Vandoo first aid station and we dropped him off there.

Finding themselves in a minefield, Mr. Mercer recalls how his comrade Smitty recovered after stepping on one during a routine job of laying wire.

Leslie Mercer

Mr. Leslie Mercer was born June 24, 1927 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Being a child of the Great Depression, he went to work at the dockyard at a very young age. He was too young to volunteer for the Second World War but when the Korean War broke out he was quick to join with the Special Force. He became part of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery as a bombardier. After spending a year in Korea, Mr. Mercer returned to St. John’s, Newfoundland, married and raised a family.