The Attack of Stanley Village on Xmas Day (Part 2)
Heroes Remember
The Attack of Stanley Village on Xmas Day (Part 2)
On Christmas day after we were pinned up
in the Stanley Peninsula, we received an order
to attack Stanley Village
and retake it from the Japanese.
Totally exhausted, in broad daylight
without any artillery support or any heavy machine gun support,
the Canadians attacked Stanley Village and there,
in my platoon, I think, in my company that day
I think we had 82 percent casualties.
But we took our objective,
we inflicted tremendous casualties on the Japanese
and I tell you this story just to give you some idea
that even the Japanese were shocked
at how these Canadians who for this whole period
had suffered reverse after reverse,
were exhausted running out of food and ammunition,
who had launched such an attack instead of surrendering
and trying to save their lives would come out of their fortress
on the peninsula and attack the Japanese in broad daylight
at one o'clock in the afternoon came as a shock
and a surprise to the Japanese.
But that'll give you some idea of the spirit
and the desire to live up to our orders of the Canadian troops.
Now on that day when I received the orders in the morning
that I was to assume the platoon command of #18 Platoon
and that my company of D company was going to attack the village,
I realized that this would be my last day on earth,
that there would be no return.
The Japanese were behind cover, they were totally prepared
and we were outnumbered by five, ten to one,
God knows what the...
The idea of attacking that Japanese position
in broad daylight was simply madness.
So when I told my platoon of some 35 men
this is what we're going to do at one o'clock,
there was stunned silence.
Almost... and I explained what our mission was
and what we were going to do
and I expected the groans and I expected those
who were already wounded to say,
“No, I've had enough. This is ridiculous.”
Not a single soldier objected. Not a single word of complaint.
We cleaned our weapons, loaded up with grenades
and prepared ourselves for the attack at one o'clock.
The wonder of it is that these young Canadians
were completely prepared to carry out this ridiculous order.
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