The End of My War

Heroes Remember

The End of My War

Transcript

Interviewer: Your war or your campaign came to an abrupt halt on the outskirts of Rome. Could you describe that to me, sir? We were on this last drive and doing very nicely. We were going up this valley. Highway 6, the main highway, was our right boundary and these mountains were there with Frosinone and Rofi, Pofi and Ripi, all these Italian towns. And again, they had the high ground again and we were running up where they could see us. The shell fire was coming in like mad, but that was pretty normal. And we had infantry with us that day. We had learned a lot. We learned to keep the infantry very close to us. We could protect them from machine guns and they could protect us from people coming with anti-tank weapons, you know, hand-held ones 30 yards away taking us out. So, we needed each other and we were moving, I think it was the Westminster Regiment, no, it was the Irish Regiment who were with us. And we ran across the stream and we called for a scissors bridge. I presume you know what a scissors bridge is? Interviewer: Well, explain it to me. A scissors bridge is a tank that has a folded bridge on top of it and it goes up the water and it unfolds the bridge and it puts it over so you can get across. We were at this river, and it was always rivers. Every five or six miles, another river. We kept calling for a scissors bridge and it had broken down and we couldn't get one and Colonel Vokes was screaming and hollering, “Move! Move! Move!” And I was cleaning up his language and passing it along Colonel Kin... to Major Kinlock, later Colonel Kinlock, who was my CO. And he was saying, “There's a river there! Where's the bridge?” After about an hour of this, he said to me, “Where's the infantry?” I said, “They're all dug in. Look at the shells coming in. They're in slit trenches.” He said, “Well, get them out and tell them to go down to the river and walk the river. Maybe there's some place in the river that's only two or three feet deep we can get across without a bridge.” I wasn't too happy about getting out of the tank with all those shells coming in, but I got out of the tank and interestingly enough, not important to the war but important to me, as I was going looking for the infantry, an ambulance Jeep came up to me and the sergeant in it said, “Is there anything wrong with your communications?” I said, “Not that I know of. Why?” He said, “Well, you've been in action for six hours and you haven't called for us yet, which was quite unusual.” I though for a moment, I said, “Yes, very unusual, but it's not the wireless. Our luck can't continue. You better stick around; we'll need you.” And I went on and I found the lieutenant of the infantry and I told him what I wanted, to get out of the trench and get down to the river and walk it and try and find a shallow place. As a matter of fact, in the end, he did. And on my way back to my tank, I went over to Davie's tank, Kinlock's tank, and I climbed up on the back and told him, “There they are. They're going.” And what had happened and I climbed off and was going back to my tank, which was maybe eighty yards away, seventy yards away and an 88 mm shell landed right beside me. They were, that was a big gun. That was the ack-ack gun they were using and it blew me through the air, I'm told, about forty feet. Riddled me with shrapnel, tore my leg apart, and I was lying on the field bleeding to death. Then this ambulance Jeep came, stopped the bleeding, gave me an immediate transfusion, got me into an ambulance, and got me out of there. If they hadn't been there, I would have bled to death on the field. And that was the end of my war. Mind you, my crew came to see me in the hospital a week later, when I was still in bad shape and they said, “You're pretty lucky.” And I said, “What makes you think I was lucky?” They said, “Well, after you were wounded, your tank didn't have a crew commander,” they said, “And Captain Carsley of the 8th Self Propelled Regiment, his tank broke down. He was the FO, he was up with us giving us supporting fire. So they gave him your tank because you were gone and then 45 minutes later an AP shell took his head off.” He said, “So, you were ahead of the game.” I guess I was! Interviewer: From that hospital, where did you go next? Well, I was in bad shape. I wasn't fit to travel so they kept me there for about two and a half months until I was fit to travel. And then they shipped me back to England on a South African hospital ship and I was there in time to enjoy the buzz bombs for about five weeks. And, then I got on the Lady Nelson and came home. That was the end of my war.

Description

Mr. Finestone recalls his last drive towards Rome. They were under heavy shellfire, crossing streams and rivers when he became wounded by an 88 shell. He was bleeding profusely, but an ambulance was close by and took him to a hospital where he spent 2 ½ months. Due to his serious injuries, he was sent back to Canada on the Lady Nelson.

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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