Looking For Casualties

Heroes Remember

Looking For Casualties

Transcript

We had to find out what happened to our drivers. Our drivers were all behind at the graveyard. We then go to all the aid posts, casualty clearing stations. We found the first three, was 11 of our troop I think, 10 or 11. And then we come to our TAC headquarters where Major Crown was, and we went in there to find out if any of our fellows were in there. If they were all right. So, we had one fellow yet to find. We’d found Cockwell and Agnew. Cockwell was slightly wounded. Agnew was bare except for a civilian grey coat. Agnew was kind of half crying, he can’t find Jackie MacMillan. We knew where all the rest of them were. We came out the last casualty clearing station and here was a little fellow, sitting on a bench, great big bandage on his nose. I thought, that’s that little beggar. I just walked up to him and I hit him a clout and said, “Is that the only place you can get hit?” He said, “I’m sure glad to see you, Gordie,” and I was glad to see him. So that was, out of the troop we lost, two killed and I think 12 wounded out of about 40 odd fellows. So we took the most casualties in our troop.

Description

Mr. Bannerman speaks about looking for casualties within his crew after being attacked by the enemy.

Gordon Bannerman

Mr. Gordon Bannerman was born September 13, 1921. He was raised in Neville, Saskatchewan with his three brothers and a sister. His father served in the First World War with the 1st Canadian Field Ambulance. Following in his father’s footsteps, Mr. Bannerman enlisted and became a member of the 17th Field Regiment Artillery. He began his military career as a general service gunner and was soon promoted to sergeant. He trained in Petawawa, Ontario, was sent to Aldershott, England, eventually fought in Italy from 1943 to 1945 and through northwest Europe to the Netherlands in 1945. During his service time, Mr. Bannerman had plenty of close calls and was wounded by mortar fire. As a sergeant major, he considered himself a good listener who maintained strong morale amongst his fellow soldiers. After the war, Mr. Bannerman and his wife, Edith, whom he met in 1945, settled in British Columbia.

Meta Data