Ammunition in the Gun Pits

Heroes Remember

Ammunition in the Gun Pits

Transcript

Coming in new, and we’d been really taught to dig. We’d dug gun pits all over Britain and everything else, and we dug. We’d take one gun out at a time and you dug and dug and you had a big parapet up and your slit trenches. You had good slit trenches, and put up camouflage nets. Why, I really don’t know because the Germans knew exactly every movement. Every time anybody went to the bathroom, they knew. Anyway, that was something to do, you put them up. So then your ammunition came in. So, I think we had about five, six hundred rounds per gun piled up. We probably buried or put below earth maybe a hundred and fifty rounds were in the gun pit, in on the sort of some protection. The rest were all stacked all around where our slit trenches were I think it about 10th of January somewhere. I was off shift all by myself in my slit trench and I had lowered my tent over it. And all of a sudden, I heard a different noise and that was incoming shells. You know right away, even though you haven’t been under shell fire before, you know what they are. They're coming in and all of a sudden there’s crashing and exploding all of a sudden there’s crashing and exploding all around. And pretty soon, you see a few daylights go through your little tent from one side to the other. And then you think, oh my God, you got ammunition piled up yay high all around you. Next thing you hear is going, ching, ching, ching, ching, the pieces flying into this ammunition. So you’re waiting then for a fire or an explosion. Well, you’re probably … your heart is going pretty fast, you’re probably ... the adrenaline is up. You’re thinking, my God, the crew that’s in the gun pit, that’s a big pit! You’re in your little narrow slit trench, what about them? They really poured it to us. Well, soon as it’s all a quit, everybody pops up Everybody all right? This guy’s alright. Guys in the gun crew alright? Everything above the ground was full of holes.

Description

Mr. Bannerman describes a situation within the gun pit with piles of ammunition all around them.

Gordon Bannerman

Mr. Gordon Bannerman was born September 13, 1921. He was raised in Neville, Saskatchewan with his three brothers and a sister. His father served in the First World War with the 1st Canadian Field Ambulance. Following in his father’s footsteps, Mr. Bannerman enlisted and became a member of the 17th Field Regiment Artillery. He began his military career as a general service gunner and was soon promoted to sergeant. He trained in Petawawa, Ontario, was sent to Aldershott, England, eventually fought in Italy from 1943 to 1945 and through northwest Europe to the Netherlands in 1945. During his service time, Mr. Bannerman had plenty of close calls and was wounded by mortar fire. As a sergeant major, he considered himself a good listener who maintained strong morale amongst his fellow soldiers. After the war, Mr. Bannerman and his wife, Edith, whom he met in 1945, settled in British Columbia.

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