Maneuvering as a Wireless Operator

Heroes Remember

Maneuvering as a Wireless Operator

Transcript

When we would go out on maneuvers I would have a wireless set on my back and then all the different companies, I would be on the control set with the colonel and then all the difference companies would have two wireless operators in every company. We would be in touch with them continually so if you were a major in charge of a company you were in touch with the colonel. He would tell you where to land of what to do. You had that down anyway. If you run into any problems you would send a message back and the colonel, I’d relay that to the colonel and the other people that the companies would relay it to their major and you were in constant communication. The only trouble with these old wireless sets was they only worked about half the time. The Germans had these jamming machines on. They’d jam our wireless sets at night and that would just be, you know, you couldn’t hardly hear a thing. And it was hard to get through and I often say if we had cell phones in those days, you know, thousands of lives would have been saved but we would lose communication with our companies lots of times because of the jamming, with the jamming. You would go out in the morning, you’d come ashore, you’d be all wet. Maybe out in the afternoon again and that’s the way it went on. And some of it was night training, some of it was done at night and some of it was done in daytime and they probably knew they were going to, they probably knew, the officials knew where we were going to land but we didn’t know. You never think of anything. Just like when they tell you before you go into action, you know, they line up 36 men, they say every third man won’t be coming back. And you look around to the one on your left and you think it’s not going to be you. So you get used to, you get used to that during training, you know.

Description

Mr. Chiasson details the responsibilities of a wireless operator and the unfortunate loss of communication due to the jamming of radios by the Germans.

Havelyn Chiasson

Mr. Chiasson was born May 14, 1921 in Misquamicut Island, New Brunswick. He attended an English and French school while his father worked as a fisherman. When war was declared in 1939, Mr. Chiasson was recruited to the Carleton York Regiment in Bathurst and later with the North Shore Regiment, a regiment he would remain with until end of wartime. Mr. Chiasson held the position of wireless operator and found himself travelling overseas which would become a 5 ½ year experience. Mr. Chiasson was part of the D-Day and Battle of Normandy landings where he reached the beaches in St. Aubin-sur-Mer, Normandy. He carried on through to Holland. Mr. Chiasson remains very active about his service years, speaking to our youth about the importance of service to our country.

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