First Attack With the Infantry
Heroes Remember
First Attack With the Infantry
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The first time I went on an attack with the infantry, I had the
same problem. I mean, I'd been in the butts in Canada, like,
where, you know what the butts are? It's like where the targets
are and you're on a firing range, you know, firing rifles and
machine guns. You raise the target up and you lower the target
and you patch it up after the people have shot, you know, and
you, you set it again. And so you hear the, the, the, you know,
the sound of the rifles and machine guns is like firecrackers,
you know. You don't hear the report like you'd hear an ordinary
rifle or machine gun. It's like a firecracker. Well, then when
I, the first time I went in on an attack with the infantry, we
were in the middle of the night, we were walking up this creek
bank, actually, and we had to walk about six or seven miles, I
think, to the start line, and, so, we were walking up and this
machine gun opened up, and this was about four o' clock in the
morning, you know, start time was five. And so I got a Bren gun
over my shoulder and what not, and I wasn't live signaller then,
I was protecting our signaller and captain. I always took the
other guy and the crew to go up, not always but a lot of the
time, we had to provide our own defence, you know. So I'm
walking along the road with this infantry man in front of me and
Sergeant and this machine gun opens up, and I dive for the river
bank, you know, and he grabs me by the shoulder and hauls me
out, you know, and he says, he says, "Dick," he says, "they're
not firing at us!" You know? And I said, "Oh, thank God for
that!" You know, phew! Thank God for that! So we start
walking again. Now a machine gun opened again and he dives for
the river bank. I thought, "Well, I better dive too," you see?
But yeah, they were shooting at us, you know. Or at least they
were shooting in our direction. That kind of thing.
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