Don't shoot

First World War Audio Archive

Don't shoot

Transcript

I guess they had, you know, it kinda looked like they had a

Picture of young soldier.

machine gun behind every tree up there. They had enough of them anyway. They were really sweeping the ground there. We had quite a few casualties and we started then to, whenever you had opposition like that, to start these tactics - one group will rush forward a piece and lie down and fire while the next ones rush ahead. So we had just made one of these rushes ahead. We stopped because there was a small shell hole there, which most of my section got into. Myself and number two man went just a few feet in front of it, set the gun down, started to fire and just as I, I think I almost, the moment I started to fire, I got struck. That’s where I got wounded. I didn’t know exactly how badly I was wounded at the time but actually the bullet had, the crease along my jaw, entered my neck and come out behind my left shoulder. I was bleeding quite copiously at the time. In fact, there was blood all over the gun. But, I suppose, it must have kinda clotted or something because a couple of fellas behind me in this little shell hole grabbed my heels and pulled me back in there and they put a bandage on my neck but it seemed like it had almost stopped bleeding by the time they done that. And one of them said to me, “How are you feeling?” You know, I was kinda half stunned. I didn’t know hardly how I felt. But I started to kind of twist myself and I said, “Oh, I’ve got a sore back.” “There’s nothing wrong with your back You can’t have a sore back.” “Oh,” I said, “I sure got a sore back.” So, they cut my equipment off and when they pulled me back of course, they didn’t have to not unbuckle it, just cut it off and turned me over and I guess there was apparently quite a hole in my back. I remember the one boy said, “I guess you got a sore back, alright.” The bullet had come right through, you see. It made actually a much bigger hole where it came out than where it went in. They never got any further ahead, that day right there, as they told me afterwards. I remember too that after a little while, I said to them that I didn’t seem to be able to get on my feet. I said, “You fellows help me on my feet. I’m going to get out of here.” One of them said to me, “You’d better stay laying down there. If we help you up on your feet, you’ll get a bullet to your head.” “Well, I’m going to take a chance on that. I think I’ll try and get out of here while I’m able to.” One of them said, “You’d better just wait here. In a little while, we’ll be going ahead and then the stretcher bearers will be up here and pick you up.” And I said, “I seen a lot of guys die waiting for a stretcher bearer. If I die, it won’t be waiting for a stretcher bearer.” They helped me to my feet and I wandered out. There was lots of machine gun fire, but I was fortunate enough, I didn’t get hit again. I got back apiece, not too far. There was a battery coming up, one of our batteries. Most of the guns in those days were horse drawn. The big ones, of course, were pulled by trucks or something but the smaller guns were all pulled by horses. This battery come galloping up and they swung into position just alongside of the road where I was walking - unlimbered their guns and opened up on this town, of course, that was just ahead of us. And one of the men there said, “You’d better stop here with us fellas because

Picture of Veteran.

the ambulance will be following us right up.” And they did, as a matter of fact, I wasn’t there I don’t think more than a half an hour when an ambulance come and picked me up. They were horse drawn too. But they told me afterwards, one of the fellows I met back in England, that they just dug in there because the machine gun fire was so intense they didn’t think they could get up the slope without losing practically all their men. They just dug in there and as soon as dusk come, they went ahead and took the town then. I believe they had quite a battle and took the town then.

Description

Mr. Stevenson describes assault tactics and the events surrounding his being wounded at his advance machine gun post.

Donald Robert Stevenson

Donald Robert Stevenson was born in Bracebridge, Ontario, on October 28, 1897. His family moved to Saskatchewan where he worked with his father, a farmer. Mr. Stevenson felt duty bound to support the British Empire and enlisted on February 3, 1916, in the 217th Battalion. He took his basic training at Indian Head, Saskatchewan. He went overseas in May 1917, going to Bramshott where he joined the 46th Battalion. Mr. Stevenson’s service saw him in action at the Oppy Front, the Somme, and Canal du Nord. He was wounded in the neck and back, and returned to Canada to his family’s farm and then received a homestead through the Veterans Land Act, farming on his own at Fir Mountain, Manitoba. He married his wife, Elizabeth Helen, on November 7, 1923. He worked for Public Works in Winnipeg, and finally joined the railroad as a yardman, retiring in 1952. He then joined the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires. Mr Stevenson died on June 27, 1985.

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