Marching to reinforce D-company
Heroes Remember
Marching to reinforce D-company
Transcript
The Japs had already occupied
Mount Butler,
our commanding officer Major Gresham
got the word that we were to march up to
reinforce D-Company was up there and
so as we got up the first two platoons,
I guess most of them got
in to that valley and got
in up the hill when the Japs started
throwing grenades at them.
I didn't get in there and neither
did some of the others of 6-Platoon.
Just as we were getting up in to the valley,
I got shot in my left leg,
I got a bullet in my left leg and a chap
right in front of me got one in his
shoulder and they were not coming
from the Japs as far as we could see.
We didn't know the Japs were on this
other hill at all or
somebody was on the other
hill or who the heck was firing at us.
So my leg, I felt it but it didn't bother
me too much until -
we had shorts on - once the
blood started running down my leg and
somebody from the further up said,
"Get down and start firing!"
but this was when the Japs
were on the top of the hill.
At the same time, Osborne who was
way ahead of us now in his platoon,
and the front part of A-Company,
they apparently, I don't know,
I hear now after,
they fixed bayonets and decided
to take the hill.
Well, they did take the hill,
they did get up to the top I guess,
but then they were driven back down
again and when they come back down
from wherever these Japs came from,
and that's what I'm thinking,
that they came from this other hill, and
surrounded the whole front end
of A-Company and
I guess took them captive, those who
weren't killed but we were
sort of in the back.
So there was a bunch of us
that didn't get involved
in that encirclement so
so some of them come back saying
there's no use of us staying here,
let's get to some higher ground and
see what the hell we're doing, you know,
and here we met some other units of the
Hong Kong, you know some Hong Kong
volunteers, a mixture of everything,
you know, some Middlesex guys and
so we were without,
except I was, Corporal Bellingwell (sp) and
myself were the two senior officers there and
so we decided that we were,
we joined these British troops,
you know the Hong Kong volunteer groups
and they had a lieutenant with them.
He said, "I think the best thing we can
do is get up in around,
move towards Mount Cameron,
see if we can get up in there
on higher ground before the Japs
get there and see if we can...."
So, they had machine guns,
the Middlesex had machine guns with them
so we got up on the hill
just before Mount Butler and
we set up camp there for the,
this was late,
by this time it was late in the afternoon
and we spent the night there.
Description
Mr. Agerbak recounts the start of the battle. (Part 1 of 3)
Borge Agerbak
Borge Agerbak was born in Odense, Denmark and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1927 to a small town in southern Manitoba called Pilot Mound. Mr. Agerback worked on the farm until war broke out in 1939. Along with his two brothers, he decided to join the Winnipeg Grenadiers.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Recorded:
- July 13, 2013
- Duration:
- 3:17
- Person Interviewed:
- Borge Agerbak
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Hong Kong
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