Sixty Days of Battle

Sixty days we were in. We fought sixty days. We captured Carpiquet and Caen, we didn’t get to Caen for sixty days. They thought we were going to get there the second day, it was sixty days so that’s how far off they were, see. The opposition was that bad. And after we captured Carpiquet and Caen, we had three days’ rest. But we fought there I think it was sixty days without a break and we used to go on some little trips here, three of us and four of us and one fellow (inaudible). And one fellow he wanted to eat at twelve o’clock and another fellow wanted to eat at twelve thirty and they said, “Hav, when do you want to eat?” I said, “Whenever the food comes up.” Because that’s the way we used to eat. Sometimes it would be, the shelling would ease off at one o’clock in the morning and the trucks would come up and bring food up, would bring a meal up for us, a hot meal. And that’s the way it went the whole time. And then after every battle, after Caen, after we captured Carpiquet, that airport at Carpiquet was what we were after because all the planes had to come in from southern England across the channel and once they captured the Carpiquet airport, then we set that up as our plane depot for the planes. So they were able to fly right out of France. I got, that’s the Battle of Caen, that’s the battle of Carpiquet. And after we captured,we lost a lot of men there at Carpiquet but then the air force took that, took that over so that was quite a… So then we’d have some, after every battle you’d probably get a couple days’ rest or three days’ rest or something. And then some other battalion took over and then when they captured their objective they would come out and we’d go in. And it kept going continual, just going one beyond the other.

Mr. Chiasson recalls doing battle sixty days without a break!

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.