Rimini Airport

Heroes Remember

Rimini Airport

Transcript

We went in, that was an airport. We went in there and went ahead maybe a little too far that time and, and that's when these mustangs started coming out they looked like... They was coming they were stalking. We got into this church and, and everyone of them planes carried one bomb, I think, a 200 pound bomb. They bombed the church we were in, and then got rid of a couple guys there, ya know, having your own planes, American's bombing you. It's awfully demoralizing, ya know and I remember on the side hill there. We were attached to the 8th Army and the 8th Army had these Churchill tanks, big tanks. They were going up on this side hill and there was a couple of guns on top of the hill there. 88's, they called them you know, German artillery. They knocked out the back one. They just worked on the rest of them. Knocked everyone of them out. And you know I thought, Jesus Christ how bad is it, ya know. That was.. then we went to Ravenna then we were in Ravenna we went to a little town Aturilli, Aturalli. That's another town there on the static front. We stayed there all winter then the next spring is when we went to France. Interviewer: What do you remember about that last winter in Italy Oh that was a static front. We lost a lot of men on the front, in fact the Eden Regiment lost about a whole Company there in one night. They went over and they got surrounded. They went over this dyke and the Germans were dug in. They let them go through, but they, they come behind them and we had, we had to go in after and ah, you know. We lived in the basement we stayed in the basement cause you know shelling day and night you didn't know where the hell... and the forward bridges... The closer to the front were more safe, then you were in the back. Ya know we had dug outs there and they had to man these bridges incase there was a counter attack. And that was pretty rough there.

Description

Mr. Berard relates that the effort to take Rimini Airport was not easy.

Robert John Berard

Robert John Berard was born in 1921 in Tofield, Alberta, son of a farmer, with five brothers and three sisters. In 1941, he enlisted in the Edmonton Fusiliers and was sent to Scotland in June 1942 as part of reinforcements for the Regina Rifles. He joined one of his brothers with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Sicily.

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