Last Action

Heroes Remember

Last Action

Transcript

The last action was in Germany and we were in Hawkwell Forest there and... Interviewer: What was that like? It was, when we first went in there it was pretty good, like there was German paratroopers in there guarding it. And they, of course the planes were all gone they, they couldn't dive out of them anymore but they were put on the ground as troops you know. And we were facing them. We didn't get close enough so we dug in on a knoll, like to really contact them the first day Well we dug in our trenches, like it was all big trees in there and stuff and we were going to attack the coming night but we were going to spend the whole day there. And three in the afternoon this smoke started to come towards us, the wind was blowing towards us, and here a smoke screen was coming in. Well we knew what was coming, it was a counter attack. So we were getting ready, we couldn't see no one yet because the smoke was, was covering up everything. But we waited, we got all our guns ready and here they, then we saw them through the smoke coming. But they made a big mistake, they were coming in bunches, like in groups, instead of spread out more. And so as soon as we saw them we opened up with everything we had and that was kind of really, not like, I was glad that no one took off. Like some of the guys might get scared and take off because some of them did it once before, not in our regiment but in another one. And but everyone held their ground and, and the closest soldier, a German soldier, got to our trench was from me to your camera there Interviewer: That's pretty close. Yeah, but he was dead after that, like and they all like... Some of them escaped I think because there was a couple hundred maybe, or more, and we only had a company there about, there was only about 50 of us, there's a hundred all together but enough fire power to wipe them out. Yeah but that was a dangerous place that Hawkwell because they'd the Germans had a lot of mortars and they'd fire them into the trees. Soon as they'd hit the limbs the bombs would explode and then spread the shrapnel all over the place, so that was kind of a scary thing. But we had one advantage of most had, at night anyway. Like all the search lights they had in England they moved them to France. And when, at night, when we were invading, they'd shine them up in the sky towards the German lines and they would kind of like looking into the sun, they'd be kind of blind, so that worked pretty good. Like that was a clever way of utilizing the search lights. But they always knew where you were coming, of course they knew that anyway. That every night there would be attacks on their lines, yeah that was scary sometimes.

Description

Mr. Buchanan talks about the mistake the German soldiers made during a counter attack in Hawkwell Forest. He also describes the advantages of using search lights when invading at night.

Floyd Buchanan

Mr. Buchanan was born September 7, 1921, and grew up in the prairie provinces of Canada. Military history was not a new concept to Mr. Buchanan as a record of military service is prominent on both sides of his family. In 1939, while visiting Vancouver, news that war had broken out swept the city, and Mr. Buchanan who had just turned 18 enlisted right then and there in the city of Vancouver claiming that it seemed a natural thing to do. Mr. Buchanan started his basic training right away in Vancouver, then in Ontario, and finally in Nova Scotia where his adventure began by boarding a ship in Halifax in the fall of 1940 for England. Mr. Buchanan was given more training while in England, gaining experience as an infantryman, tank driver, and a gunner. His first battles took place in France, and his regiment then moved quickly into Holland where they were a vital part of the Liberation of the Netherlands. After the war Mr. Buchanan went home to his family in Saskatchewan and currently resides in Whitehorse.

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