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I’m Paralysed!

Heroes Remember

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I’m Paralysed!

Transcript
Half the time you didn't know where you were or who you were fighting with you know. Like sometimes the British Army and parts of the American Army were attached to the Canadian Army and sometimes we were attached the other way around. Now on the war maps the guy that shows the 3rd Division up around the Rhine River, you know, all the water there. And went through there on amphibious tanks and so on, and but our platoon anyway maybe the company, I'm not sure which and some of the Glengarians, I think, in fact, the whole 9th Brigade ended up attached on the English Army I think. Way down south of that more into Germany at a place called Udem, and some of us were sitting on either side of the ditch, you know, it was quite a deep ditch, maybe as deep as this room here. And a guy by the name of Lumley a very good fellow was standing with his back down the ditch there, there was kind of a bend in the ditch, and this German stepped around the corner the guy with the Schmeisser and he opened up on Lumley, cause he could see him standing up you know, he emptied, I think he emptied his Schmeisser in his back there. I remember Lumley saying, "I can't move. I'm paralysed." And you looked down and you could see his helmet full of blood and everything else and that was enough I'd like to see of that. And Paul O'Shea and I started shooting back towards the corner like that, you know, keep anything back. Some, some officer at the other end there, "What are you guys shooting at, stop that shooting." And so on. We even threw a hand grenade around that corner to keep anything back. Well then a few minutes later the officer come back, our own officer Mr. Eisner, he come back, he said, "Look what we got." He had a German prisoner. One of the guys that bombed the ditch like that. I think that was closest I ever come to committing murder in my life. I had a bead on the bugger and I was going to shoot him, and this Freddy Zewquiski (sp) our stretcher bearer he had a shovel, he took a swing at the guy's head missed him, and Paul O'Shea was standing beside me then and the sergeant just walked in front of us. We got talking about that later on and Paul says, "You know, if the sergeant hadn't of walked in front of me I would have shot that son of a gun." I said well I was the same way. But that, I'm glad it didn't happen in one way. But Lumley was a good man, we were upset about that because he was a good person, good friend and so on. And we got into Udem, they sent us, there was a big house on one side of the road, and across the intersection was another house, they sent, I guess it was our section went across there. We just got into the house, take my equipment off, and lean the rifle against the wall, I was taking something else off like that and the Germans came in the back of the house. They threw a counter attack at us, and they threw a grenade because I heard the click, you know when the firing pin hit the detonator. And it lit down between my rifle leaning against the wall, and the wall. And I made a grab for the rifle there and she blew it out of my hand. And the guy on either side of me like that got hit with shrapnel from the grenade. And my rifle deflected it, I never got a mark on me, got a blast in the back of my ear again that was the second one. And one of the guys threw a grenade in the back room there and we got a couple of Germans back there. And we made a dash across the hallway, into rooms, sheltered, and Helrison(?) a young fella son and a wife and so on, he had been firing the Bren gun, like I say we, we were at the front of the house too like that, it jammed. When I went by across the hallway he had the .38 revolver of mine out and he was shooting, and by the time I got half way across I guess somebody opened up on him, one of the Germans and he was just stood up like a Christmas tree, this (inaudible) going in one side and out the other side. And we got in the room, I think there was five or six of us, I’m not sure how many was in the other room. I didn’t have a rifle, one guy had a rifle and it was jammed. And because I had a little bit of knowledge as a gunsmith I got hold of the rifle and got it unjammed. He tried to open it with the safety on, got that unjammed handed it back to him. And the Sten gun that one fella had brought, it was jammed. A cartridge got cross ways which happened quite often with those things, got it unjammed. The rest were standing there, three, two weapons, the rest were standing there. I don't know how long we were in there. It felt like hours and hours, it might have only been an hour or two, it felt like a long time. And we heard the sergeant yell, he said, "You saved my life!" over there and we said, "Yeah." And so he said, "I’m coming across." And we grabbed what equipment we could find, and I grabbed the Bren gun up like that and took it across to the house across the road, and we stayed there the rest of the night I guess they, they didn’t come back in again. But we left a few dead Germans there, three of them anyway that we know of. And left two or three of our own fellas, too.
Description

Mr. Tomlin describes the devastating results of close combat at Udem

Glen Tomlin

Mr. Tomlin was born in Clinton, Ontario, in 1923. His family moved to Harriston when he was very young. Once he was old enough he worked in a box factory earning $7/week for 60 hours of labour. Despite having had rheumatic fever, which made it impossible for him to walk at a marching pace, Mr. Tomlin was accepted by the army, where he trained as a field gunner. He later switched to infantry, joining the Hard Light Infantry, 9th Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division. Mr. Tomlin's service saw him in several combats in Northern Europe, often engaging the enemy at very close quarters. Mr. Tomlin now resides in Palmerston, Ontario.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
4:49
Person Interviewed:
Glen Tomlin
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Udem
Battle/Campaign:
Rhine
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Highland Light Infantry
Rank:
Private
Occupation:
Gunner

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