A Soldier Turns Veterinarian.

Heroes Remember

A Soldier Turns Veterinarian.

Transcript

We come to a dugout and I says now go in the dugout and see if there is anybody hurt there that I could do him up or something like that so I called down and there's nobody in. I couldn't hear anybody so I came out, I met a, what I met was a horse, big horse, big artillery horse and he was walking towards me, and he kind of neighed you know when he saw me, oh he was having a great time and I went up to him and my God he had a hole in his shoulder I could lay my fist in. There was a junk of shrapnel into that from a gun, from a shell, exploded and I took that, I just took my hand like that and grabbed that and hauled that junk of shrapnel off like that and he just looked around at me and ninnied “eeeeehhh...” you know, and I took my dressing and wrapped that all up and I left him. And I looked back every once in a while and he was still looking at where I was going and he'd nod his head whenever I saw him, my God I never seen anything just like... the same as human.

Description

During a recce for wounded soldiers, Mr. McLeod instead finds a large draught horse with a fist-sized piece of shrapnel in it's shoulder. He removes the large piece of metal and dresses the wound with his own field dressing.

Russell McLeod

Russell McLeod was born on October 9, 1899 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. His father was a fisherman, and prior to his enlistment, they fished together. Mr. McLeod joined the 219th Battalion in 1916 and trained at Camp Aldershot, Nova Scotia. He was sent overseas that fall, and joined the 25th Battalion in France. He served during Canada's 'Last Hundred Days', seeing action at the Hindenburg Line, Cambrai and Mons. After the armistice, he served as a member of the Occupation Army in Germany.

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