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First Battlefield Experience

Heroes Remember

First Battlefield Experience

Transcript
I was assigned to work with the padre and what they called the grave gang where we would, after the unit had settled in another area, we would go back looking for the wounded and the dead and we would be assigned to the padre. The first thing I saw when I went there was that I didn’t see anybody being found until I was looking over the edge of a scrub and I saw a rifle pointing right straight at me. I was looking at it and I didn’t realize that it was a rifle and somebody behind it pointing it at me. But, when I really focussed on it, it turned out to be one of, I could see the outline of one of our own helmets, you see. So I said, well that’s one of our own soldiers. So I went towards him and there in the grave was one of our own men with his rifle pointing right at me and I was looking at him, I was looking right at him and I could see a hole right through the helmet and through his head and his eyes were open and he was staring at me. And I’m trying to talk to him, so I’m saying, “Are you alright, are you alright?” and he didn’t move, you see. So then what happened, I crawled forward and I reached the rifle and I started to pull it and it wouldn’t move. So I went back and called the padre and the gang over and we all went there, and it was a soldier who had been killed there and stayed in that position. What we had to do was put a rope around him and try to drag him out. And it ended up with us using to carry, he had been dead for almost a week maybe, and he had stiffened right up. To me, this is the first time I had seen any part of any action and I think that really set the tone for me for the rest of the war where everything that happened to me or was happening was a movie picture. I was looking at it but I wasn’t really part of it.
Description

Mr. Jones describes the traumatic experience of recovering a dead Canadian soldier during his first day in action in France.

Bud Jones

Bud Jones was born in Montreal, Quebec. He was a good boxer and very athletic, becoming a PT instructor before his deployment to Europe in the Second World War. He was assigned to the Royal Canadian Regiment, whose responsibility it was to eliminate German V2 rocket launching sites along the European side of the English Channel. He would see service in France, Belgium and Holland. Following his war service, Mr. Jones enlisted in the regular forces, becoming a career soldier. During that time, he served in Germany and Japan in addition to his service in Canada.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:48
Person Interviewed:
Bud Jones
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
France
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Royal Canadian Regiment
Rank:
Sergeant

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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