Taking of Coriano Ridge

Heroes Remember

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Taking of Coriano Ridge

Transcript

Well after that 21 hours, they had, there was a regiment. They called it Lanark and Renfrew. Well they had disbanded that regiment but they re... they put new life to it there. They went and they gathered people from here, there and everywhere and they made this new regiment and the regiment took the hill in front of us. They moved the enemy out and we were able to get out of there and go on down to where we were supposed to go yesterday. And we were fighting now was Coriano Ridge. Well, I told the people, my people, "I'm gonna take off, you see that house down there, well I'm gonna run as hard as I can go. And you count 5 seconds before you follow me and pass that on. And we were well spread out, and we got down to the house and got in behind it. The same thing onto the road and down the road. And down the road was a confluence and turned to the left there's an underpass. I ran down to the confluence and when I got to the confluence, I walked through 9 platoon laying on the ground, scattered all over, bits and pieces. I saw one individual who I recognized right away. This part, just the top part of him. Well I couldn't stop because of the fact that's what happened to the people that were laying there. They stopped at the confluence. You're looking up on Coriano Ridge and you can see eyeballs looking right at you. So I ran from there, kept right on going on to the underpass, like what these people should have done but an officer hesitated. I could name the officer but I won't. He and his NCO, senior NCO. They pulled a boom... a blooper there and I wonder if they think about it today because I think about it. And those people weren't my people. Got down to the underpass and I turned and looked at my group and you could see on their faces.

Description

Mr. Parker finishes the story of the ill-fated command of the officer, who led them into an ambush on their way to the Corriano Ridge, and the impact it had on his men, and the men who had first been caught there.

Richard Allen Parker

Richard Allen Parker was born in Vernon, BC on May 27, 1917 to a First Nations family. He talks about his early years, the prejudice that he faced, and the meaning of being First Nations. He left home at an early age to work in the mines. He talks about joining the PPCLI in 1942, fighting the SS and Hitler Youth and his time in Algiers and Italy.

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