Winning our Battles

Heroes Remember

Winning our Battles

Transcript

To begin, artillery win battles and, of course, we had for example, I was with the 13th Canadian Field Regiment. We had four members who were walking parties, that is the forward observer, an able and a signaler, they landed with the infantry so that they could bring back fire support wherever the infantry needed it. But our battalions who landed in France were fought on a classic British manner, was two… we made the attack with two brigades up, one in reserve so the 7th and 8th brigade landed at Courseulles, Bernières, St. Aubin and there was no such word as Juno, these were Mike and Nan beaches on our maps, Mike and Nan beaches. And those landings were, I must say, we landed the mechanical devices they had invented. One of them is called a “funny” but they weren't funny; it’s called a Petard Tank. It has a huge spigot mortar on the front of it that would throw a dust bin full of explosives weighing I think 60 pounds, close to 200 yards and that would take a pillbox out. And I know on the 8th brigade front there was a 12 foot sea wall that they blew huge holes in that sea wall. And sometimes I have heard it said that the Germans didn’t fight quite so hard on some fronts than they did on others but I watched a fellow by the name of Jock Bowlan count the empty shell cases in one of their casements there and he counted 79 empty shell cases. They fought that gun to the last round. No, these mechanical devices we landed meant that on all three British-Canadian beaches we had complete success and breakthrough on the three British beaches.

Description

In describing the operational strategies of the artillery, Mr. Barr commends their work having had complete success in all battles fought!

Vernon Barr

Mr. Vernon Barr was born November 11, 1921 in Cobourg, New Brunswick. Growing up in the shadows of the great war, Mr. Barr witnessed the return of Veterans and this left a lasting impression on him. Later in life when war was again declared, he volunteered to serve and became part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division as a signals/wireless operator holding rank of corporal. Mr. Barr travelled overseas on the O’Ryan and was part of D- Day and the Battle of Normandy. He remains very proud of his service during the Second World War. Postwar and back in Canada, Mr. Barr and his family moved to Wolfville, Nova Scotia where he resides today.

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