Almost Didn’t Survive The Trip Overseas

Heroes Remember

Almost Didn’t Survive The Trip Overseas

Transcript

The next day was D-Day and that's the day they were going to make the big attack on Falaise. The morning we did the shoot, we did a big shoot supporting the Second Division. But I had heard the guys were not going to go into action til later in the afternoon, so we had the day off, so we were standing watching. That's the first time they used bombers with, working with the troops and they were going to put a thousand bombers over. Two hundred fifty come over, two hundred forty-nine, the two hundred fiftieth one dropped his bomb way back behind us right on the Polish Division. A little bit of smoke, a little smoke up here. Two hundred forty-nine bombers and sure enough the path is coming in for the next flight and dropping their flares on that so they start coming up and the next two, talk about luck. I'm down a little hole in the ground. A friend of mine, one of my buddies he intended to live so he dragged a hunk of steel plate from a tank that's knocked off. He covered the slit trench, we were all in these little slit trenches and Tony and some of them had taking off and Lucky and the other guy and they went in the rock quarry so I used Tony's little hole in the ground and you're laying there couldn't see anything. I looked up and you see the bomber, hell I could recognize the tail gunners, so that's how low they were still they weren't too accurate. There are four guns in a row and they seem to just missed us all completely. But the felt twelve field was across the road downhill and that was when the next flight come over this twelve field guy coming and it was a hot day and they were the same as us. So I guess he was having a sleep and he was covered with cuts and he was right out of it and he come up so I dragged him in the hole and Ronnie kept going go no no, everyone gets killed there. So I presume that his crew, cause they got worse than we did, well they were more apt. Then he took off. So when the last flight was coming in we had what you called an Aero-P, flying little sediment type plane. It was an Englishman and he flew up and directed the flight right to the target but to make things worse right with the Spitfires and that, they were supporting. They had a monitor just oh a few, well 50 yards from us and they were in contact with the bombers, and they say, "You're bombing your own men," and they say, "Tell us our code sign." Well the bombers don't get a code deal until they're leaving the plane. So he had pulled back to his headquarters wherever it was, and they went to London and they have to go out and by that time I think it was over.

Description

Mr. Bevan describes embarking for the journey overseas, and a close call during a storm.

James Bevan

Mr. Bevan was born in 1924, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was an only child, and at the age of 6, moved to Red Deer, Alberta, with his family. Mr. Bevan first joined the service with the Calgary Highlanders, but was booted the next day when it was discovered he was underage. Wanting to join the Navy, but unable to convince his parents to allow him to join, he signed up at the local barracks with the 78th Artillery Battery - part of the 13th Field Regiment When War was declared, Mr. Bevan was sent to Calgary and Shiloh for training before eventually shipping overseas. After arriving in Great Britain, the regiment trained until shipping out as a part of the D-Day invasion. After action in Falaise, the 13th Field Regiment worked its way across France and into Belgium, and eventually into Germany - soon after which, the war ended. The regiment remained in Germany for a short period, before returning to Holland to help escort German POWs. Soon after, Mr. Bevan volunteered to join the battle in the Pacific; however, the war ended before he shipped out of England. He returned to Canada soon after, and entered training on a printing press, followed by a 40+ year career.

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