He died before we got to town

Heroes Remember

He died before we got to town

Transcript

Yes, the war was finished in May '45, and in November '46, they, you were called up. It, it started off at ( inaudible ) but, of course, they didn't get too many of them, and we were supposed to go to Indonesia. And sure, they, they shouldn't start at the . . . get the conscripts and . . .you didn't train. It, it only . . . we were only in . . . I, I, I got calls in November the 7th, and in May the next year, we were on the boat to Indonesia. We had a very lousy training. I was on rifle range only once. Well, we had, we had . . . In our unit we had the women, five or six of them, that looked after the laundry and that looked after the premises. And a few guys along with them. They did the heavy work and they, they got paid. And, so, every, once a month, when we got paid, we had a collection to give them better money, too. And they, they ate from our kitchen, and they had our smokes, and all that stuff. And, and, and the, the white man, the colonial guy, from the big corporations, they came, and they said, "What? You shouldn't do this. I mean, you're spoiling these people." And you know . . . But we, we couldn't see that . . .they . . . nothing. And that’s the only way. You know, if you're good to people, they'll be good to you. One, one of them, I remember, he was with us all this time and he, he, he was, he was first was, he was a prisoner of war. And he stayed with us, he stayed with us, and at the end he, he carried the Bren gun, too. You know, he was one of us, yeah. The Japanese had to be un . . . disarmed and get it off and you had to restore peace, and people had a . . . the trust of the people . . . had to get it back. This was a rough time too. We got transferred one time. We were in a big column of trucks and went through a mountain road. And our truck was the target and we were, we were in the back of the truck with the three of us. And one guy got killed, and the other guy, he shot through his hand. And I was pretty lucky, I didn't get nothing. And this bothered me for a long time, that this guy got shot and he, he got . . . died before they came to town. And this bothered me for a long time. That, that is a horrifying experience. Yeah, here you have the three of you, and two of them got shot.

Description

Mr. Lammers discusses his army service in Indonesia and once again having to deal with death.

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.

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