I said 'Fire!'
Heroes Remember
I said 'Fire!'
Transcript
Well it was dark, I don't know what time it was,
I forget the time, it had to be 10:30 or later.
And I was in our tent resting or sleeping and we heard
the bombers, the German bombers coming. So one of the guys
hollered at me, so I, I got up and went up to the gun
and in the mean time, one of our officers came driving up,
and then as soon as the planes got, as the German planes
got closer, our officer started screaming at me. He said,
"Sergeant, don't you open up on these planes." I said,
"What are you talking about?" He said, "That's an order,
don't open up on these here planes." I said, "What in the hell
is going on?" I said, "That's our job." He said, "That's
an order, if you do you will be court marshalled." So as the
planes got closer I told the guys, "Let's go guys!" So number two
as soon as he got on one, on number three, as soon as he got
on number three and the lance bombardier, he is the guy to tell
number four to engage, and then I'm the guy that says fire.
So the bombardier said, "Engage!" I said, "Fire!" The fourth
goddamn shot, we nailed the bugger, the plane. But it started
to smoke, so we don't know where he landed, and as soon as
we started firing or as soon as we give the order to fire, the
Ace officer crawled under the goddamn truck and when it was
over he came out. He said, "MacDougall, you're going to be
court marshalled." So I didn't say a bugging thing and in oh,
an hour, an hour or two, the [inaudible] came flying, flying
back, that's... I'm not going to give the officers name because
it's not fair, but there was three officers in the jig
and I think they'd be the same and he came to me and he said,
"Taffy, the major wants you." So I went up and when I started
walking up to the chief, the three or four of the guys on our gun
were walking after us. So we got up there to the jeep
and the major saw these here guys and told them to get back
to their gun. So he started talking, talking, talking, and this
officer that told me not to fire, he was butting in.
And all of a sudden the major turned to him, he said, "Will
you please shut up, or you're going to be court marshalled."
He talked to me and I don't know if he even asked me what went on
and so I told him how. He said, "Good luck."
Description
Mr. Macdougall describes disobeying a direct order but being vindicated by his Major.
Donald J. MacDougall
Mr. MacDougall was born near Harriston, Ontario, in 1923. He was eager to join the Armed Forces, but was turned down three times because of his age. Mr. MacDougall returned home to work in a dairy but was finally accepted into the army in 1941. Once overseas in England, he was trained as an anti-aircraft gunner. He landed in France one week after D-Day and attained the rank of Sergeant while on the battlefield. Mr. Macdougall served in several battles across Northern Europe. He was married in England, and returned home to Harriston after the war ended.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 04:28
- Person Interviewed:
- Donald J. MacDougall
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Europe
- Battle/Campaign:
- Post D-Day
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- 100th Battery
- Rank:
- Sergeant
- Occupation:
- Anti-Aircraft Gunner
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