He put me in charge
First World War Audio Archive
He put me in charge
Transcript
Horse and carriage.
“Well,” I said, “it’s about time, I think.” “Well,” he said, "I want you to pick out three men and stay here with the pack ponies.” There was four pack ponies he said to take ammunition up to the lines. I looked at him and I said, “You pick them out. I’m not picking anybody out to stay in this suicide place. You pick them out.” “Alright,” so he picked them out and we stayed. Boy, oh boy! That got hotter and hotter. Finally, I presumed that when he told me to stay with these fellows that he put me in charge. So I told them, I said were getting out of here. And I went up to untie my horse. The mule right beside me got killed. Just as I was untying the horse, he got his insides blown out. Dick Svetson, that was a brother of Chris’s, he went and untied his horse. And the horse jumped right over him, and away it went. We never saw that horse again. Some other outfit got it. Didn’t matter, it was a government horse anyhow. And then there was a little English gent by the name of Muckson, I think it was. He got out. He and I got out without our horses,Two soldiers posing for a photograph.
and we just got across the road and into the field and he stopped and he said, “Would you hold my horse for a minute?” He said, “I have to go back.” I said, “Go back into that? What for?” He said, “I left my girl’s picture is there. I left it in my hammersack.” I said, “My God, I wouldn’t go back if the girl herself was there.” Anyhow, he went back and he got out again, too. He got his hammersack with his girl's picture in it. And I often thought of that later, what a guy will do for the sake of a girl's picture. And I don’t know what he thought when I said I wouldn’t have gone back for the girl herself. There were funny things all along the line if you wanted to remember them.Description
Mr. Gleason describes escaping a dangerous situation with his ammunition supply team, and a dangerous yet amusing situation arising from a girlfriend’s photo.
Patrick William Gleason
Patrick William Gleason was born in North Dakota, USA, on October 31, 1897. His family moved to Yorkton, Saskatchewan in 1907. Mr. Gleason was a student in Yorkton prior to his enlistment in the 196th Regiment. He was accepted for duty on May 10, 1916, at Brandon, Manitoba, and arrived in France in early 1917 in preparation for the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Mr. Gleason was wounded in the thigh by machine gun fire at Vimy on April 12, 1917. After returning to active duty in France, he spent the remainder of the war hauling munitions to the front lines, and survived a shell explosion and two gas attacks at Amiens. Mr. Gleason was discharged, rank of private, on June 10, 1919. After the war, he farmed for a few years, then taught at several country schools until 1930 when economic and agricultural conditions left the school board with too little money to pay a teacher’s salary. Mr. Gleason then returned to farming in the Yorkton area, and was also employed as postmaster in his hometown of Tonkin from 1950 until he retired in 1973. He was instrumental in organizing sports activities in his community, as well as a Credit Union of which he was secretary treasurer for a number of years. During the 1940s and 1950s, he was also secretary treasurer of the local school board, president of the Saskatchewan Trustees Association, and president of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party. Mr. Gleason married Marion Cecilia Robinson in 1925 and had eight children. He died of cancer on June 21, 1978, and is buried in Yorkton.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 2:27
- Person Interviewed:
- Patrick William Gleason
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- First World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Europe
- Battle/Campaign:
- Amiens
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- 196th Saskatchewan Regiment
- Rank:
- Private
- Occupation:
- Infantryman
Attestation
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