Description
Mr. Burton describes a German bombing raid which spooks the horses in his care. He discusses not only the potential danger of the bombs, but also that from 'friendly' spent ammunition used against the bomber.
Robert Burton
Robert Burton was born on February 21, 1896 in Dundas, Ontario. After public school, he was accepted into university which he attended from 1914 to 1916, in the Canadian Officer Training Corps. For a time, he worked at Massey, checking shrapnel shells. Despite being shortsighted, Mr. Burton was recruited into the 13th Brigade in Mar, 1916. In England, he joined the 5th Division, a reinforcement unit, and deployed to France with the 2nd Division as a sapper. Mr. Burton became a mounted courier at Courcelette, and had several interesting experiences in that capacity. He witnessed and was attacked by Gotha bombers at Arras, and was shelled at St.Pol. Mr. Burton also served in the trenches at Amiens. During the 2nd World War, he was a very successful engineering instructor at camp Petawawa, where he attained the rank of Major.
Transcript
We got to a place called Caix Wood, C-A-I-X and I was on a stable picket there and they had a rope tied between two trees and there was twelve horses tethered and six horses on each side of that. This bomber came over there, there were some tanks just a couple hundred yards away there and I guess the tanks they were coming over and the bomber came over to try and hit those tanks, dropping those bombs and everything and the horses got on one end of that rope came loose and the horses were going crazy. Here was twelve horses all milling around up on their hind legs and doing all sorts of things. I had to get a hold of the end of that rope and I finally got it snubbed around a tree and just about the time I got it snubbed around a tree and got the horses quite why the plane got out of the search lights and all of a sudden peace is wonderful, you wouldn’t believe it, the stuff was coming down those trees like a hail storm, you know, sort of thing. Everybody was firing and all what goes up comes down and it was all coming down all over the place there. I don’t know if anybody was hit, certainly I wasn’t but it wasn’t a very healthy place to be.