Victim of Friendly Fire

Heroes Remember

Victim of Friendly Fire

Transcript

But the next day was D-Day. And that's the day they were going to make the big attack on Falaise. In the morning we did the shoot, we did a big shoot, supporting the 2nd Division, but our 3rd Division wasn't going to go on in action ‘til later in the afternoon, so we had the day off. So we're standing watching. That's the first time they use bombers with, working with the troops and they're gonna put a thousand bombers over. With 250 come over, 249, the 250th one dropped his bombs way back behind us, right on the Polish Division, and a bit of smoke, there's a smoke up here, 249 bombers and sure enough, the path frame is coming with the next flight and they dropped their path, their flares on that. So, you start coming up and for the next two I think. I never talk about luck. I'm down a little hole in the ground. This friend of mine, one of my buddies, he intended to live so he dragged a hunk of steel plate from a tank that was knocked off and made a, covered his slit trench. We all dug these little slit trenches, holes in the ground, and Tony and some of them had taken off, and lucky that the other guy, and they went in the rock quarry. So I used Tony's little hole in the ground. You lay in there, couldn't see anything. Had you looked up you'd see the bomber. I could, hell, I could recognize the tail gunners, that's how low they were. Still they, they weren't too accurate. There were four guns in a row and they not seem to not, just miss, missed us all completely. But the felt 12 field was across the road, down the hill. That was when next flight come over, this string flight, this 12 field guy coming. 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 rocks and he was right out of it, and he come up, so I dragged him into the hole and Ronnie kept "No, no, no everyone gets killed there." So I presume then his crew, ‘cause they got the worse than we did well they were, they were more accurate. Then he took off and... So, when the last flight was coming in, we had what you called an Air OP, flying little Cessna-type plane and he was an Englishman, and he flew up, directed the, the flight to, right to the target, but to make things worse right, with the, the... It's a bit farther than that, they were supporting. They had a monitor just, oh a few, 50 yards from us and they were in contact with the bombers and they say "You're bombing your own men" and I say "Tell us our code sign." Well the bombers don't get a code ‘till they leaving the plane. So, he had to code back to his headquarters on, wherever it was, and they went to London and they have to go out, so by that time the thing was over.

Description

Mr. Bevan describes how his division, along with other troops, were the victims of friendly fire from bombers during the attack on Falaise.

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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