Nearly Drowned While Sleeping

Heroes Remember

Nearly Drowned While Sleeping

Transcript

Well, people they know their positions in there. Germans well dug in. You start moving in closer. They wait until you come real close, then they open up and you got no chance to run. Where you going to run? Mud, stuck to your mud. You’ve got, dig your slit trenches, people lived, dig that deep, you get down there, before you realize you’re a foot in the water. You’re in mud and water most of the time in Ortona. Like muck, muck land you know, real muck you know. I know one night, time I was so beat, I lay down, woke up, my kit bag, everything in that pack, the bed roll I had with me, it was just the head showing above. It was all in the water. I fell asleep, just about drowned there, you know.

Description

Mr. Zayachkowski discusses the difficulty of survival in the muddy conditions around Ortona.

Michael Zayachkowski

Michael Zayachkowski was born in St. Julien, Saskatchewan on September 10, 1923. He was one of ten children. As a youth growing up in the Depression, Mr. Zayachkowski attended school, worked on the farm and helped in the woods. He enlisted in late 1941, and after a stint as a physical training instructor at Shilo, was deployed overseas. During his years abroad, Mr. Zayachkowski served in North Africa, Italy and D-Day through to Holland as a front line medical technician. Following the war, and after farming for a while, he joined the RCMP, where he served twenty-five years.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:04
Person Interviewed:: Michael Zayachkowski
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Battle/Campaign:: Ortona
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Royal Canadian Artillery
Rank:: Sergeant-Major

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Nearly Drowned While Sleeping

Heroes Remember