Wounded and Briefly Captured

Heroes Remember

Wounded and Briefly Captured

Transcript

And a piece of shrapnel hit me in the arm here. And there was a tent hospital I never knew of and a young lad came running out and he took my sleeve up and put a bandage around here, and pointed to across St. Julien across the road with this hospital and a tent type. I went over there and the officer took a look. He said “We’ll fix that.” So they cleaned it out and bandaged it and put in a bring red sling around my arm. And he said “Can you sit down?” I say’s “I’ll try.” So I tried. I had nothing to eat for quite a while and I was tired. So I sat down on the ground and after a while he says, “Can you stand?” I said “I don’t know, sir.” He says “Try it.” So I got up and said “Yes, I can stand.” He says “Could you walk?” I said “I’ll try.” So I tried and he said, “Now, I want you to go out the back door here and keep your head down and go along that hedge,” he says, “because the Germans are gonna come down here and they’ll take ya if they see you.” So I kept going as fast as I can. He had a man on a slab there already treated, he was cut badly on his back. (Yeah) And I said, “Well how about you, sir?” couldn’t talk, so I went out. So I walked down there as far as I could. And so nothing more was going on, everything was quiet. And I got onto the road, St. Jean Road, and along came three Germans, a corporal and two men and they could speak English, he could. He says, “Your our prisoners.” and I said, “No, you’re our prisoners.”I said, “It’s all ours now.” Cause you could hear them way over here, you could hear something. So he spoke German to two of his men, one was to go with him and the other one to stay and watch us. So that’s the way they did it. So he stayed there and this poor German, he was tired and he fell asleep, so when he was asleep we just walked away. And got on to an artillery wagon of ours going down and they saw what was going on and they just stopped, they drove for us and took us down to Ypres, Y-P-R-E. Interviewer: Ypres, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And went to a hotel that had no roof on it they bombed it so much. I sat on the floor, fell asleep. They shook me, got me up and say’s your going by train to a hospital in... Interviewer: Oh yeah. So still had nothing to eat. So we got on the train the best way I could, they helped me out it was a cattle train and it wasn’t very far, I don’t know, about thirty, forty miles. I was in there for, oh about two months I guess ‘till we got through it again. I thought I’d come into England, but they wouldn’t let me go and they sent me back to my outfit again with a little note on it: “Use him for light jobs only.” Just imagine going into a battle with light jobs.

Description

Mr. Green recalls being wounded while at the Front Lines in Northern France, and being sent for treatment at the hospital in St. Julien. He describes fleeing the hospital because of a German invasion, and being briefly captured.

George Leonard Green

Mr. Green was born in Chester, England, in 1895, and, along with the rest of his family, moved to Winnipeg at a young age. Before the war, Mr. Green was in charge of the stationary department at the Great West Life Insurance Company. After joining the 90th Winnipeg Rifles he was sent to Valcartier, Quebec, for basic training. After the completion of basic training, his unit was shipped overseas - they arrived in England on October 12, 1914, as a part of Canada's Expeditionary Force and were shipped out to Northern France soon after. Mr. Green spent two full years at the front lines of Northern France and Belgium - it was rare that anyone would spend that long at the front, let alone survive. After taking sick, he was shipped back to a hospital in England. After he recovered, since he had already spent so much time at the front, he was stationed to a staging camp, teaching Women's Army Corps members to drive. After completing training, he was assigned to Headquarters in London where he stayed until the war ended.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 3:41
Person Interviewed:: George Leonard Green
War, Conflict or Mission:: First World War
Location/Theatre:: France
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: 90th Winnipeg Rifles
Rank:: Sergeant

Language selection

Wounded and Briefly Captured

Heroes Remember