I said 'Fire!'

Well it was dark, I don't know what time it was, I forget the time, it had to be 10:30 or later. And I was in our tent resting or sleeping and we heard the bombers, the German bombers coming. So one of the guys hollered at me, so I, I got up and went up to the gun and in the mean time, one of our officers came driving up, and then as soon as the planes got, as the German planes got closer, our officer started screaming at me. He said, "Sergeant, don't you open up on these planes." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "That's an order, don't open up on these here planes." I said, "What in the hell is going on?" I said, "That's our job." He said, "That's an order, if you do you will be court marshalled." So as the planes got closer I told the guys, "Let's go guys!" So number two as soon as he got on one, on number three, as soon as he got on number three and the lance bombardier, he is the guy to tell number four to engage, and then I'm the guy that says fire. So the bombardier said, "Engage!" I said, "Fire!" The fourth goddamn shot, we nailed the bugger, the plane. But it started to smoke, so we don't know where he landed, and as soon as we started firing or as soon as we give the order to fire, the Ace officer crawled under the goddamn truck and when it was over he came out. He said, "MacDougall, you're going to be court marshalled." So I didn't say a bugging thing and in oh, an hour, an hour or two, the [inaudible] came flying, flying back, that's... I'm not going to give the officers name because it's not fair, but there was three officers in the jig and I think they'd be the same and he came to me and he said, "Taffy, the major wants you." So I went up and when I started walking up to the chief, the three or four of the guys on our gun were walking after us. So we got up there to the jeep and the major saw these here guys and told them to get back to their gun. So he started talking, talking, talking, and this officer that told me not to fire, he was butting in. And all of a sudden the major turned to him, he said, "Will you please shut up, or you're going to be court marshalled." He talked to me and I don't know if he even asked me what went on and so I told him how. He said, "Good luck."

Mr. Macdougall describes disobeying a direct order but being vindicated by his Major.

Donald J. MacDougall

Mr. MacDougall was born near Harriston, Ontario, in 1923. He was eager to join the Armed Forces, but was turned down three times because of his age. Mr. MacDougall returned home to work in a dairy but was finally accepted into the army in 1941. Once overseas in England, he was trained as an anti-aircraft gunner. He landed in France one week after D-Day and attained the rank of Sergeant while on the battlefield. Mr. Macdougall served in several battles across Northern Europe. He was married in England, and returned home to Harriston after the war ended.