Charlie

Heroes Remember

Charlie

Transcript

"Charlie" used to come over the hill and he would banzai and some would have weapons and bugles, whistles, sticks, and scream and holler, run right over the top of you and then come back., hollering all the time. And mostly, if it was going to be a full moon, you just knew Charlie was on the way in you know, you just knew that. And they had so many people, I don't think death bothered them a bit, you know, it just, I'm sure it didn't. He had there were so many men that, you know, when you squeezed your round off with a mag, or like a machine gun, you, you just couldn't miss, and it didn't mean nothing to‘em. They came over the wire, and we had concertina wire, there were people that put concertina wire in front of our trenches, where we were suppose to be standing too. And they'd come through that wire and, hang, get shot there, hang up there, and still be hollering and they just keep, they just kept coming after you and I guess when they ran out of breath, and they got over the top of you and to the top of the hill, then they'd come back down again, and then they, they'd be gone, like they came, they, they just disappear. The next morning if, when it got daylight you'd, there'd be a bunch, like when I say where the peace talks were. That morning, it was awful. They didn't bury them in, in holes you know, they just had a, the Americans came up there with a bulldozer, maybe 18 inches, 2 feet deep they'd plow a hole, and they just drag the dead in there and cover them up again. Sometimes these places was pretty large and they would fill them right up, just run over them and pack them down. It was just, unbelievable. You would not think that anybody could do that, but by-cracky they did. Interviewer: And you're seeing this everyday. Yeah, we saw it everyday. As terrible as it was, you'd see it everyday somewhere. Interviewer: But how does someone accept that? You're out there seeing death all around you, how do you deal with that? You don't. It makes you crazy.

Description

Mr. Reitsma explains how the Chinese Army would charge with a huge number of soldiers using anything they could lay their hands on as a weapon, and yelling all the while.

Stuart Reitsma

Mr. Stuart Reitsma was born into a military family in Lacombe, Alberta, in 1928. His father served in the Second World War , and two of his brothers also served in Korea. Before joining the service in 1950, Mr. Reitsma worked with the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway (CNR). While participating in a CNR strike in Vancouver a fight broke out. Mr. Reitsma and a friend enlisted the next day, deciding if they were going to fight, they'd sooner do it in the Army. Soon after completing training, Mr. Reitsma was shipped overseas to Korea. During his year there Mr. Reitsma survived continued heavy action at the front line, a fact he attributes to the excellent training he had received. Returning to Canada after his tour ended, Mr. Reitsma received his discharge in August of 1952. He returned to work with CNR before accepting a position with Alberta Government Telephone which he held for 26 years before retirement.

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