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The Final Battle, Part 1

Heroes Remember

The Final Battle, Part 1

We knew if they ever landed on the Island we were going to be in for a tough fight and it wasn't going to last too long, you could see that. Noon hour, the 18th they moved two of our sections out of pillbox two and three up on the lower slopes of Jardine's lookout and we all ended up back in pillbox one right at the top of the gap and it would be about, oh I guess seven o'clock. It was getting dark and one of our company runners came up and we were told we had to go and guard the Wong Chong reservoir. And I guess about ten o'clock it would be, the runner came up and Ed Mitchell had to go down to company headquarters and we went down to see Bowman and he came back up and he said we're leaving one section here and the other two sections were moving up to Stanley Gap, we're going to meet up with A-Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, they were going up to Mount Butler. And we had a Chinese guide. And we wandered the slopes and at daybreak the next morning we were on the lower slopes of Jardine's lookout and no Chinese guide, he had disappeared and we never knew any part of that country at all. And as it got lighter, Tippy McCorrester from Portage, La Prairie whispered that there are shrubs down there moving. Now that part of the country, the Chinese even dug up the roots for firewood and when you see it today, it's unbelievable the amount of vegetation and tree growth but in that time it was very little in those hills and Mitchell, he pointed it out to young Mitchell and Mitchell called for fire power and everybody let go, I don't know whether we got them or not but what I will say here when I had to fire and knowing I was shooting at a human, I wet my pants. Shooting rabbits when I was a kid was a cinch and I was a good shot but I had never aimed at another human being before and I knew I was going to be.

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