Zuber Evened the Score!

Heroes Remember

Zuber Evened the Score!

Transcript

Took me up to The Hook that one afternoon and I reported to the platoon commander that was there to tell him I was on location. They gave me the topographical maps and I asked a few questions about what activities, what areas should I look for, enemy activity this type of thing. And I had to find what we generally call the hide, some place where I could hide myself. And the chances of taking extremely long rifle shots did not really exist because it was somewhat like the First World War, establish lines. We lived in trenches as the enemy did only about 400 yards apart. That’s like next to nothing. The shooting I did, I’d set my sights on a field elevation of 400 yards. In any case there was a blown out observation post we had and it was completely destroyed. I crawled under what was left of it and there was a little slit so if I kept my rifle muzzle in there so that the blast wouldn’t be seen by the enemy, they couldn’t even detect where the sound came from because I put plugs in my ears, of course. I remember it was toilet tissue rolled up in a ball. That’s where I did my shooting from. My very first day about three o’clock that afternoon a fellow climbed out of a Chinese trench in broad daylight. He climbed out of the trench and starts walking out to the end of this point that he was on. He was obviously going out to set himself up for the evening. It was winter and 3 o’clock it was starting to get dark. By 4 o’clock it’s dark. So he was moving out and they were so bloody brazen. There had been no anti-counter sniper activity at all. And in broad daylight this bloody fool walked out, well I shot and killed him. His body fell down into the front of our position. The reason I guess that I am telling you all this is that there’s a human side to all of these things. People can imagine of course. But very briefly. This is not meant boastful, I hope it’s not thought of that way. But that night they did a search for intelligence purposes on that Chinese body and he had an American snooper scope, an infrared scope mounted on an American .30 caliber carbon rifle. The night before this our own patrols coming in through the wire to come back up onto our position. They had finished whatever they were going to do out there in “No Man’s Land” the last fellow in the group was a corporal. Corporal Gill was his name. He was shot right through the head as they were coming in through our own wire. Some sniper but obviously with night equipment had shot and killed Corporal Gill. Corporal Gill had been the batman to the colonel for a couple of years in Kingston, or excuse me, Cornwall and then Petawawa. And when the unit went into the field the officers had to give up their valets or batman and in this case Corporal Gill became a section leader within one of the rifle companies. And he was killed as such. But he was almost like a son to the colonel. The very next day a runner came up to find me unofficially, of course, with a brand new unused sandbag and in there was a bottle of single malt scotch from the colonel’s private collection. And a verbal, no written, of course, verbal instructions were Zuber, find a cave and hide yourself for a couple of days. In other words, go away and get drunk. Well, in actual fact what happened the bottle lasted about an hour and a half in that little tunnel. I was a hero for about an hour. Anyway, when they did the search on that Chinese sniper, they found Corporal Gill’s dog tags on him. That was his trophy. And in the war diary, every unit keeps a diary on a day to day basis, and the regimental war diary which has since been released from the secret list, of course years ago, it mentions that Zuber evened the score today.

Description

Mr. Zuber modestly recounts a specific encounter with the enemy where he was thought of as a hero.

Edward "Ted" Zuber

Mr. Edward “Ted” Zuber was born October 16, 1932 in Montreal, Quebec. As a child, he was born with the gift of painting. Although not enthralled with school, Mr. Zuber did graduate and then went on to Queens University (Fine Arts). When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he was adamant to enlist and serve his country. He became a parachutist with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. Arriving in Korea in 1952, he took on the role of sniper spending much of his time on the front lines. During this time, Mr. Zuber produced many drawings and, upon returning to Canada, presented thirteen of his canvas collections to the Canadian War Museum. Presently known as the unofficial war artist for Korea, Mr. Zuber’s paintings have become very popular. His painting “Freeze” has been unveiled in honour of the 65th Anniversary of the Korean War. Mr. Zuber has great pride in his service during the Korean War and is honoured to have been recognized for his artwork. Present day, Mr. Zuber finds himself in his studio continuing to paint the images of his wartime experiences, images that never seem to go away. Mr. Zuber resides in Kingston, Ontario with his wife and family.

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