Wounded by Shrapnel

Heroes Remember

Wounded by Shrapnel

Transcript

I was wounded in Normandy before, well, just as, between Caen and Falaise, when there was a break out. We had taken over new positions, and this was at night, I think, about midnight or one o’clock in the morning, and we had to dig in. Well, we only got dug down about six inches, at least my friend and I did, when it was either a bomb or a big shell come over and exploded. And it wasn’t deep enough, and I got this big chunk of shrapnel right between the shoulder blades. And it went under my shoulder blade and it lodged in my side, though I didn’t know it was there. You know it didn’t hurt at all. It hit so hard, that it numbs your nerves I guess, you know. But I lay there, and I could feel the blood running down my back. Now, if I get up, maybe I’ll get hit again. If I stay there, maybe I’ll bleed to death. Now, that’s just what goes through your mind. So, I finally jumped up and I went to another trench. And they cut my battle dress up the back, and put on a field dressing. And I stayed there for about a half an hour, until things quieted down. And then a guy come for me. He walked in from a jeep. I had to walk about half a mile to a jeep, quarter or half a mile at night, you can’t tell. Climbed in beside the driver and went to a first field dressing station, and it wasn’t until then it started to hurt a bit. Then, they put me on a stretcher and give me a shot of something, maybe morphine I don’t know. And from there, they took me to a field hospital, that’s further back behind the lines. Not too far in Normandy, ‘cause we still weren’t far from the coast. And I lay there until morning. And then, two orderlies come in, oh it would be about six, seven o’clock, with a big pair of shears apiece, and they took my boots off. And then they just started each side, and cut my uniform and underwear, everything right off. And this was so that they could take the top off, ‘cause they don’t know how bad you’re hurt, you know? Is it blood? And rolled me on a stretcher. And I didn’t come to until sometime around noon, I guess. I had been operated on, and I was laying there in a nice clean bed, clean sheets, first time for quite a while. And the medical officer come around. He seen I was awake, and the first thing he said to me, “Boy,” he says, “you sure are a lucky guy.” I says, “What do you mean? This is lucky? Laying here?” He says, “Wait until I show you what I took out of you.” So, when you’re wounded they have a little white bag they hang on your bed, with a pocket knife, and your wallet, you know, or anything, personal belongings and any pieces of shrapnel that’s big enough to keep. So he took it out and showed me. He says, “You’re lucky., Iif that had been jagged, instead of a smooth detonator holder that screwed into the nose,” he said, “it would have went right through you.” So there you are. It kind of slid around under the skin.

Description

Mr. Young describes being wounded in Normandy and how doctors considered him a lucky man to have survived the encounter.

Joseph Young

Mr. Young was born in 1919, on a small farm in Moosomin, Saskatchewan. He was raised in a family with three brothers and two sisters. In 1941, Mr. Young decided to join the army and travelled to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to enlist. There he joined the 8th Canadian Reconnaissance Regiment, 2nd Division, a regiment better known as the suicide regiment. During combat in Normandy, Mr. Young was seriously wounded by a large piece of shrapnel, which perforated his upper back. Despite his injury, he was still able to serve until the end of war. After the war, Mr. Young married and began farming, a passion instilled in him by his father. Mr. Young has written a book of poetry, “My Thoughts in Rhyme” sharing his special times in life both as a soldier and a farmer.

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