A Lot of Opposition

Heroes Remember

A Lot of Opposition

Transcript

You know you would have four companies, one company would be always in reserve and the colonel would be in the center, you know, with directing these companies. So you'd have your company out there on the right, you’d have yours on the left, you’d run into some, you’re not supposed to, everything, they were always telling you, there’s not much opposition there but you’d run into a lot of opposition. So then you’d send a message back to the colonel, you know, “I think I should withdraw!” “No! You don’t withdraw.” So he would, maybe you lost twenty five men, well they would send up twenty five new men, you see, and that’s the way. And every night, every night we had what we called a (inaudible) about five miles behind the line some of them, all of our equipment would be about five miles behind the line, maybe two miles. And when we were in action, the reinforcements came in every night so some of us would go down every night. I used to go down every night to see if there were any wireless operators because we were always short of wireless operators. And you’d go down there would be thirty five men there and somebody would be there. Some colonel or major or corporal would be there looking for some gunners. Well, there would be four or five gunners so he would take them. So I would ask for wireless operators. Maybe there would be one, maybe there wouldn’t be any, maybe there would be two. So that's the way we operated. Then you’d make the attack the next day when you got… some company would be short thirty five men well they’d get maybe twenty. That’s all that would come in. And they’d be able to make an attack the next day. That’s the way it went all the way through France.

Description

Mr. Chiasson describes the level of opposition and loss of men during the attack on the beach.

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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