Something flashed . . . a German sniper

Heroes Remember

Something flashed . . . a German sniper

Transcript

So, the man who went out with somebody, was just looking around like that and he saw something up there looks like it flashed. A German sniper, firing this way. So, we put a rope on, on a hat and climbed the tree, and put the rope over the end of it and come down like that. Fasten it onto, like that, and pull it up the tree. And ten chances to one, that the German sniper would be thinking somebody's crawling up that tree and fire some shots. So, you were back here and you were writing this all down, with your signaller telling ya, "Okay, it's one more shot." So, he would figure that out . . . go to another command post. They would set it on the guns. Every gun would have a mark, or have drifted up like that for the elevation . . . like that to get onto it. Every gun would do the same. So, when he wanted to get five rounds in there, only one gun is fired, but every gun's got marked on his thing. So, when it comes time to him to, say, it fire five rounds, they get to fire five rounds and drop it right on the enemy tank. The sounds, they were deadly, they were deadly. You never thought that you would hear again. The hearing, it was deadly, pound, pound, pound, from the day we went to France 'til the war was over. You never saw any birds. And I remember the last day, when the guns had stopped firing, and the trees . . . lots of trees around. By golly, the birds came back. But there were no birds when the guns were firing, which is . . . it wasn't only your gun firing. There may be 25,000 guns firing.

Description

Mr. Parsons describes zeroing a battery of gun in, on a sniper position.

Ivan “Benny” Parsons

Ivan Benjamin Parsons was born in Lucasville, Halifax County, Nova Scotia, on February 26, 1922. He was the eldest of 10 children and worked on a local farm. His father was a sawyer at the local saw mill. After finishing basic training in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Camp Borden, Ontario, Mr. Parsons shipped to England aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth. After training as a truck driver, he took part in the D-Day invasion at Normandy. During his service in Europe, his truck crew delivered ordinance to the artillery. Mr. Parsons returned home early in 1946. After working in the retail business for a short time, he returned to the Army. Mr. Parsons later served with the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires for 20 years.

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