Heavy shelling

Heroes Remember

Heavy shelling

Transcript

We were supposed to leave after dark (inaudible)... we left before dark. And we were going down this road, the ocean's about ten feet away on one side with a cliff on the other. There wasn't much room to move. And the Japs had two guns just across the little bay there, which they turned on us. A shell would land and there would be about ten seconds. The second one would land and there would be thirty or forty seconds before the first one started again. I was down... the whole thing was crowded with men... some of them went behind the building. I got down on my hands and knees when there was a shell coming. The concussion blew my helmet off. I picked it up and put it back on when the second come over and blew it off again. They kept shelling this building and apparently the building, it caught fire. Apparently blew in the back walls, and the guys that were in there... well, you could hear them screaming but there was nothing you could do about it.

Description

Mr. Whitman describes being pinned down by Japanese artillery after leaving Fort Stanley, and having to listen as men die in a nearby building which had been struck by shells.

Allan Whitman

Allan Whitman was born in Bridgeville, Manitoba on February 21, 1921. His father ran a general store in which he also worked. Feeling it was his duty, Mr. Whitman enlisted with the Winnipeg Grenadiers in September, 1939 and trained at Minto and Tuxedo Barracks. In Hong Kong, he fought in D Company until his capture. Mr. Whitman became ill with dysentery, and later beri-beri, the debilitating effects of which kept him in hospital in Hong Kong until the war ended.

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