Inaccurate Artillery

Heroes Remember

Inaccurate Artillery

Transcript

Well, it was … the artillery was good, but they were behind the 25 pounders, way behind. But a lot of times, we had to worry about them, because they used to drop short. And I heard a captain, a major holler down, he said, “Get those damn things up higher. No, not 200. Put them up four. They’re landing on us.” And they were getting close to the observation post where he was. And a lot of times they would fall short, and they'd drop on us. Well, we knew when it was ours. And we used to call it, when they went over, was ‘outgoing mail’. When it was coming in, it was ‘incoming mail’. And someone would say, “That’s outgoing, but it’s coming in here.” So that means that they had to get through the artillery, to tell them not to. Then, the Americans, they used to come up with Bofor guns behind us, just to let the North Koreans think we had more power than what we had. They fire like hell. Then they move out and we start getting pounded because they thought we had them, you know. That’s the way it was.

Description

Mr. Niles describes the occasional inaccuracy of the Canadian artillery.

Joseph Allan Niles

Mr. Joseph Allan Niles was born December 15, 1932, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the oldest of four children. His father enlisted for service during the First World War, but was released for medical reasons, and found work in the dockyards. Mr. Niles grew up in downtown Halifax, and at age fourteen, he left school to work as a labourer, working on many buildings in the Halifax area. Mr. Niles enlisted on May 4, 1951, at age 17, with the Canadian Armed Forces in Halifax. He became part of a Special Force with the Royal Canadian Regiment, serving in Korea. He commenced his basic training in Camp Petawawa, Ontario, and completed his advanced training in Camp Wainwright, Alberta. In March 1952, Mr. Niles left for Korea, first travelling by train to British Columbia, then to Seattle, Washington, where he boarded a troop ship to Japan and Korea. Mr. Niles took part in fighting patrols and saw action on the front lines in Korea. After his one year tour of duty was completed, he volunteered for an additional three year term in the army, and remained in Korea until the end of October, 1953. He was discharged from the Armed Forces in June, 1954, and settled in Montreal where he found a job with the railroad. His employment later took him to Truro, Nova Scotia. Mr. Niles died in the Veteran’s Memorial Hospital in Halifax, on April 30, 2007.

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