If I Hadn’t Fallen, I was Gone

Heroes Remember

If I Hadn’t Fallen, I was Gone

Transcript

We got out of there and we got in the water running on the trail like for water catch and my gosh, and my foot, I was running and I tripped in a vine, like a branch or something and it was cut plumb right in front of me (inaudible). There I looked and I looked and I couldn’t find nothing to haul myself up and I was hooked there, my foot. And now the Japs was behind - they were coming over the hill. Finally I got, I got myself up and I was running again and the first thing I hear, when I got to the water catch, first thing I heard was the guns . . . bak, bak, bak, bak, bak. Bren guns and rifles. I says to myself, “I’m done.” I kept going, so when I got up to the water catch, I fell, I tripped again and I fell and when I fell the bullet struck in the water catch and the stuff all come down over my helmet, the cement. If I hadn’t of fallen, I was gone. I don’t know if that’s what saved me. Then I kept going there and there were puddles, they were like squares into the water catch. They call it a water catch - the big squares about this deep and the water lodge into that, that’s what they call a water catch. Well, anyway there was a kind of a bend in it and I hear “bang, bang,” so I happen to look. That was Lance Ross and Sgt. Major MacDonnell. They were shooting off the Japs, keeping the Japs back with a (inaudible) and a rifle, they were behind us. Anyway they told me, “Keep on, the lunch cart was over there,” and I started and kept going but what did I come across, was a uniform and a cap and a pair of boots, but no body. There were no body, they took the body out, must of. Anyway, I kept going and I come to about where the others were there, our boys, and they says, “You’re too late, the lunch is gone.” I says, “The lunch is gone, I don’t care for the lunch. I don’t feel for eating anyway.” I said, “I had all what I can handle.” They says, “Well, where did you eat?” I says, “I didn’t eat. I am played out running, I had to run!”

Description

Mr. Hunt describes his lucky escape from the Japanese in an aqueduct.

Hector Hunt

Hector Hunt was born in Pabos Mills, Quebec, on December 9, 1911. His father was the local river guardian. Mr. Hunt was the second oldest of 16 children. He had little schooling, having gone to the woods at the age of ten to cut pulp with his father. He also transported supplies to his father when he was busy on the river. At sixteen, Mr. Hunt started work at the Chandler pulp mill for twenty-five cents and hour. When the opportunity to enlist occurred, he signed up anticipating better wages and lifestyle. He had very little basic training and no live ammunition weapons training. Mr. Hunt served in Newfoundland before eventually being shipped overseas toHong Kong. He was a POW in both Hong Kong and Japan, where he worked in the coal mines near Niigata. Mr. Hunt credits his strong faith for helping him to endure his time in captivity. After completing his service, Mr. Hunt returned home to work in the local mill.

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