Patrolling the Battle of the Bulge

Heroes Remember

Patrolling the Battle of the Bulge

Transcript

December 23rd, we were notified to go to Folkestone to go into the Battle of the Bulge, and so we went to Folkestone. We spent Christmas Eve in Folkestone. The next morning, we left and went across the Channel in sort of glorified landing barges, and because it was Christmas Day, at lunch, before lunch was served, we all lined up and had a two-ounce tot of good navy rum, which cheered everyone up. And after we got there, we proceeded up through to where the action was. This was the action, of course, where the Americans took the brunt. It was the, where the, it was the last big stand of the Nazi forces, and the Americans took the brunt of it, and we went in there as backup. And, so, we were there for two months, and we did an awful lot of patrols. We, a group of us, were taken back to Holland

Left to right travelling close-up on the face of a group of a dozen soldiers.

and given assault boat training and after that we were... It was necessary for us, anyone who wanted to go across the Meuse river in France, it was necessary for us to transport them, there and back, and so on. And we also used to go over intermittently to try to take a prisoner to find out exactly who was over there. And there was a lot of standing patrols, and there was also a lot of patrols out through the forest, and so on. And we were out one night and there were six of us in the patrol, five or six of us in the patrol, and so it was, it was awfully cold in the Ardennes at that time. There was a lot of snow and, and so on, and, so, we decided to stop in to this bombed-out house, and so we were cold, so we built a fire. And one of the fellows, from, well, Freddy Muise, from Yarmouth, a hell of a nice fellow, and so he went to sleep, he could go to sleep on anything. So, he went to sleep and he had his feet close to the fire, and we kept watching and the soles of his shoes kept getting thicker and thicker as... So, finally, the lieutenant who was in charge of us, he reached out and he slapped Freddy on the leg, and he said, "Freddy! Get back, back from the fire. You're burning your boots!" And Freddy snapped awake and he reached down and he put his fingers down over his boots, and he burned his fingers. The language wasn't very pretty that come out of Freddy! Anyway, he wasn't put on charge.

Description

Mr. Melanson describes his backup role in the Battle of the Bulge.

Russel C Melanson Sr.

Mr. Melanson was born in Mill Village, Nova Scotia, on August 16, 1922. He worked on a farm and in the woods, and completed his education before his first attempt to enlist. He was turned down by the navy as he was underage. Similarly, after joining the West Novies, an artillery regiment, he was discharged for being underage. He was finally accepted into the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and completed his basic training in Shilo, Manitoba. Once overseas, he was attached to the 3rd Brigade, 6th Airborne Division. Mr. Melanson's first action was at the Battle of the Bulge. His second was the Allied /Russian advance into Germany from the east. After leaving the army, Mr. Melanson became a hydrographer, and retired as the Regional Hydrographer, Bedford Institute of Oceanography.

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