Bring The Canadian In

Heroes Remember

Bring The Canadian In

Transcript

It’s so very hard to tell just what happened. It could be friendly fire. It could be, you know, you never know. What I could figure out, I never heard any report on it what hit me, but it was a, it looked like a flare. A phosphorous flare. They used that a lot for signal but there was no reason to use it because it was in the daytime. It was about nine o’clock in the morning. Actually our cook was fixing our breakfast and we were getting ready for a big push. We knew that, and we were having breakfast and I just got out of my side of my tank. See there, something hit me right in the side of face. And the shrapnel... there's still a piece up there. But I was lucky, also... I was lucky all the way through because we were advancing so that my own people picked me up, you see. If it had been retreating or something like that, you know, I probably would have been picked up by the German. But we were advancing and then my own ... and they, they were very good. First they gave me a shot to cool me down. I was kind of nervous. I thought I had a hole all over my head. So they gave me a shot right on the breast, tranquillizer of some kind, I guess. And they lay me down on a thing and I was pretty blind on both eyes at the time. So anyway, then they pick me up on those jeep. You know those jeeps with the carriers? They picked me up at night. And I went into the back, it’s called hospital in the back field, in the field hospital. It’s a tent, big tent. And a guy come out and he says, “Oh, what do we got here?” Well he says, “I got a German and I got a Canadian.” He said, “Bring the Canadian in.” So I don’t know where they picked up the German from, but anyway. He said, “Bring the Canadian in.” So I went in there and they gave me pretty good first aid. Took me, put me a hospital uniform, the blue stuff, you know. And I was there about five or six days and then they moved me to England. I thought I was, I felt fairly good. I thought I was going back to my regiment, you know, because they had me covered up, my eye, but the right eye was good. So they dressed me with uniform, but some uniform they had left over in there somewhere, I guess. They took the blue off me and they load me up into a Dakota to fly over to England. The pilot... I was the only walking patient. But you know the Dakota, they didn’t have any covering inside. All the rib you know, the Dakota rib. Nothing fancy at all. Just the black stuff. But anyway, they were all... and the stretchers were on chain like hanging down from the rafters, just kind of a bed like. But they use that for... they were all in, there was quite a few in there. And so a female nurse, she says, “Would you like some tea?” I couldn’t see a stove or a kitchen or nothing. So she had a little round thing she set on the floor and she made me a cup of tea!

Description

Mr. Ducharme describes being wounded by an exploding phosphorous grenade and his plane ride back to England.

Paul Ducharme

Paul Ducharme was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1919. His family moved to Lorraine, Ontario where his father had a successful career with the Abitibi lumber company. Mr. Ducharme left home, penniless, at the age of thirteen. In the years leading up to his enlistment, he was employed as a trapper, a guide, a male poster model, and a mushroom picker. He enlisted in Ontario and volunteered for the new 19th Self-propelled Artillery Regiment being formed in Borden, Ontario. After shipping overseas on the Queen Mary, Mr. Ducharme took part in the D-Day invasion, landing at Juno Beach. He saw further action in France, Belgium and Holland. He was wounded by shrapnel in Holland and sent back to England. After leaving the service, Mr. Ducharme operated an auto body shop for 40 years.

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