Transporting the Wounded

Heroes Remember

Transporting the Wounded

Transcript

Our duty was then . . . well, it was just to clean the mud that there was so much debris in, in amongst the shore. There was aircraft assault boats that were broken and there, there, there was... And the Germans had rails drove down into, into the ground, and they had mines on top of those rails. And the French underground had most of them detonators taken off of, but we had to clean that up sort of, make a little thing, you know, clear. And then the other ships moved over, and then they told us to go to Cherbourg, Cherbourg Harbour. We went to Cherbourg Harbour, and they said, “Okay, you’re job here is done. You’re going back to Plymouth. Going back to Portsmouth.” And they said, “You’ll be taking with you as many casualties as you can possibly put aboard the ship.” So, they took the casualties that were in there and put them, just laid them on the thing like they would a box of oranges, or they were all up in little stretchers and everything. Merciful man, it was . . . there were, there’s some badly wounded personnel in that thing, there. But they, the most of them, most of them were only young fellas, 19 years old. And they said...we bent over, and they asked for a cigarette, and they give them a cigarette, and they said, “Shot up pretty bad, am I?” And we were told, “Don’t say nothing. Don’t tell them anything.” We said, “No, no, no. We’re just taking you to the hospital. You’ll be alright.” And the fella would say, “Don’t tell my mother or father. Don’t say anything to my mother or my father. They’ll want to know. Just tell them what, that when you seen me, that I was alright, and I’m coming home soon.”

Description

Mr. Gray describes transporting the wounded back to England after D-Day.

Earl Gray

Mr. Gray was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, on May 6, 1924. As a child, he lived in poverty, despite the fact that some of his family worked in the local steel mill. Although there was a large naval presence in Sydney early in the war, Mr. Gray enlisted in the army, only to be released as an under aged recruit. Six months later, he successfully enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. He first experienced life at sea aboard the HMCS St.Croix, a destroyer assigned to convoy duty. After four voyages, Mr. Gray joined the minesweeper HMCS Vegreville, whose responsibility it was to sweep mines between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. After joining the 31st Minesweeping Flotilla in Portsmouth, England, HMCS Vegreville took part in the sweep of the English Channel as part of the D-Day assault. After the war ended, Mr. Gray was married within a month of his return home. He still resides in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Meta Data