I was ready to jump
Heroes Remember
I was ready to jump
Transcript
The, the, there was German troops. They were stationed at the
farm, and they were gonna move one day. And so, they needed a
horse and a wagon, and soft, you know . . . so, I was a young
guy, and I was single, so the guy . . . the, my boss said, "You
take this horse, and just you go," he says. He told me where to
go. So I, I got that, and they started putting stuff on the
wagon, landmines. And some of them were in little boxes, and
some of them were not. And they had a round, round bottom. And
so, I had my load on, and they told me where to go. And they, of
course, kept a safe distance, you know. And so, I, I, I kept the
horse really tight, very slow, you know. And oh, in the
meantime, I came to watch the sky. Of course, there were lots of
Spitfires around at that time, and everything that moved, they
shot at. So, I was ready to jump, I'll tell you. But nothing
happened, so . . . but this was quite an experience, yeah. And
down, down where I was, at the farm, we lived below the dyke,
and there was two pieces of land in front of the house. And, and
one day, the Germans came and they surveyed and they measured,
and this and that, and . . . So, what they did, they, they put
they mined the dyke, ready to blow up. ( inaudible ) a
rather good into the ( inaudible ). And so, when it was done,
the, the whole neighbourhood was evacuated. And they put land
mines in my dad's . . . on our farm, in the, in the surrounding,
the area. And the war was over, and the underground people come
to my dad, and my dad wanted the mines removed, you see. So they
came with a bunch of Canadian soldiers, and . . . or prisoners
of war, German prisoners of war, about 30 or 40 of them. And
they put them all in the field, shoulder on shoulder, with
sticks and so they, they located these mines and they dug them
out. So they were done and, so the guy comes to my dad and says,
"So what do you think, Mr. Lammers." Is this all? My dad says,
"No, I don't think so". So, they went to another farm and they
got a bunch of sheep. And they put the sheep in the field,
and five of them got killed, yet.
Description
Mr. Lammers discusses transporting, planting and removing German land mines.
Henk Lammers
Mr. Lammers was born near Amsterdam, Holland, on March 11, 1926. At the time of German occupation, he was 14 and worked on his and his neighbour’s farms. He offers numerous perspectives on life in Holland during the Second World War. In 1946, Mr. Lammers joined the Dutch Army and served a tour of duty in Dutch Indonesia, namely Sumatra and Java. Mr. Lammers now resides in Ayton, Ontario, where he has been actively involved with the Cadets.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 2:35
- Person Interviewed:
- Henk Lammers
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Holland/Netherlands
- Battle/Campaign:
- Liberation of Holland
- Branch:
- Army
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