Description
Mr. Wood describes the role of the 18 pounder artillery piece and its variety of ordnance, and then discusses the shelling of Vimy Ridge and its effect on the outcome.
Thomas Wood
Thomas Wood, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland was born on March 23, 1898 into a family of printers. His family emigrated to Canada shortly before the war and he grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. At age 16, in 1914, Mr. Wood left school and joined the recently mobilized 1st Battery in Ottawa, followed by training in Valcartier, and went to England in October, 1914. He then went to France in February, 1915, a member of the 57th Battery, 15th Field Artillery Brigade. Mr. Wood was involved in the Vimy bombardment, viewed German gassing technology at Ypres, and sustained a hip and leg wounds from shrapnel. After the war, he was a fixture maker and also a sign painter and lettering artist for Coca-Cola Co. for about 40 years. He was transferred to Toronto, then to Vancouver where he worked as the sign shop manager until retirement. He was married twice and had one son. Mr. Wood died on January 2nd, 1988 in Vancouver, BC.
Transcript
We used to be in with an 18 pounder, we used to be in the first line, you know. Because you could roll them up and put them in, you see. Oh, an 18 pounder, it depends on the shot you were firing. It could be shrapnel, it could be high explosive, it could be anything, you see, in them days. It depends how far away you were. We were, half the time we were about maybe a hundred yards away from the Germans. That’s why we used to have the 18 pounders right on the front line pretty near. And it depends on, if it was a battle scene that was coming up, well, you had everything there, way back to the six pounders, and the eight pounders, 18 pounders, forty-fives. Well Vimy Ridge, there is Petit Vimy and Vimy, you see. Petit Vimy is right on the canal bank there, just sort of a bank, you know, a railroad and everything else there, you see. Well, that was the largest, at that time, that was the largest barrage that was ever fought in any battle, you see. We had them going, we had them shooting from about 21 miles away . . . from the front line I’m talking about now, you see. And they used to, oh God yes, and that’s why we won the Vimy Ridge, you see, just through that. We had so much artillery back of us, see, it was just out of this world. Just out of this world.