Baptism of Fire in Italy

Heroes Remember

Baptism of Fire in Italy

Transcript

Interviewer: How would you characterize your baptism of fire? It was easier for me than the others cause I'd seen plenty of it. I knew what it was to duck incoming shells and so on. But the intensity of it, you know. We had to go down a big river bank almost twelve feet or fourteen feet, across thirty foot of beach, across a stream, another forty feet of beach and get up on the other side. And the Germans had tanks and anti-tank guns and everything all on the other side. And we were raining artillery shells on them and sometimes they were short and they would fall on us. And the infantry were being just decimated. That's hard to watch. We were, the infantry would go in first to try and get a footing in and then we would go behind them. And you would watch them go in and you would see them fall and die and it's hard to watch. Hard, hard to watch. A lot easier when you got in yourself and you were busy. Interviewer: During that period of fighting in the Liri Valley and Hitler Line and Gustoff Line, the Germans were well-prepared. They were dug in. The terrain favoured them. Everything that a defending general would want was there. They never made any mistakes. They'd been at it since the Spanish war in ‘37. Their NCOs were incredible. Incredible! When we would take a position, an important position, we knew that you'd get a counter-attack within fifteen or twenty minutes. They, you would drive them out and their NCOs were so good, they would just pull everybody together and make units, get them going, and counter-attack in fifteen or twenty minutes. And really good counter-attacks. They were excellent, excellent soldiers. They were not easy to fight against.

Description

Mr. Finestone describes his baptism by fire and the very difficult fighting in Italy. He tells of how the Germans were well prepared and did not make any mistakes.

Bernard J. Finestone

Mr. Finestone was born in Sacramento, California, and moved to Montreal when he was ten months old. His father served with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery during the First World War. Mr. Finestone joined the COTC while he was studying at McGill University and when the war broke out he was in officer training. Mr. Finestone served as a tank commander in Italy and during the Italian Campaign, he was severely wounded. Mr. Finestone is an active speaker. He speaks to young Canadians about his military experiences and being a Jewish veteran.

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