Building Bridges Across the Orne River
Heroes Remember
Building Bridges Across the Orne River
Transcript
When we went into France, yes, we were,
we went in to the town of Caen and
the Germans were on one,
and we had bombed about three weeks
before but they bombed only the one
half of the town but that was to stop
the Germans from coming through,
it was like a hub, everything come to there and
then they spread out along the coast and
that was to stop their armour and supplies
to come through that hub.
So we went in there, it was nothing but
rubble approximately ten or fifteen feet high so
we had to go in there with dump trucks and
shovels and stuff and dig a
mile down to the river Orne.
And the Germans were all on the other side
in the church tower so every time we moved
a vehicle or anything like that,
they would mortar us all the time.
We had infantry and that also in
that area to protect us.
Our main thing was to get that roadway
down to the river where we could
build a bridge,
to put another bridge across the Orne river.
Description
Moving into France, Mr. Sommerville describes building bridges so that the fighting could continue.
Donald Sommerville
Mr. Donald Sommerville was born September 19, 1922 in Chatham, Ontario. Mr. Sommerville grew up on a farm and attended public school. He and his buddies decided to join the army and left for overseas as part of the Royal Canadian Engineers. Mr. Sommerville became part of the 23rd Royal Canadian Engineers, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. He takes pride in the service provided as part of “Operation Duck” - an operation that lasted nine days before the war ended. Mr. Sommerville has returned to Holland for commemorative anniversaries. He now resides in Ontario with his family.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Recorded:
- May 6, 2015
- Duration:
- 1:12
- Person Interviewed:
- Donald Sommerville
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- France
- Battle/Campaign:
- Liberation of Holland
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Candian Royal Corps of Engineers, Electricians and Mechanics, 2nd Tank Troop Workshop
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