Crossing the Tidal Estuary

Heroes Remember

Crossing the Tidal Estuary

Transcript

We, we were selected to be an assault division, or certainly 4th Brigade was, of a tidal, of an assault crossing of a tidal-estuary. So they sent us up to the Humber River, I think it was the Humber a big tidal-estuary river, that had an enormous bed of silt and we practised doing assault crossings here. One of the things we had to do was get an observation party. The infantry would go across in K-pot boats. We had to get across in a low profile deal so, and get established on the other side so we could direct the fire to support them. So, we were left to invent our own system and what we did was, we, we marched the last couple of miles up to the river at night and we had a ten foot square tarp on and we took off our boots and our four rifles with a boot over each end of the rifle, laid them down in a square, put our signal sets and our reels of wire and all our personal kit, particularly our radios, in the centre of the square and then we laced the square up and that was our pontoon, then we swam across. In order to find our own boots each of us tied something different on the shoelaces. I think mine were little pieces of leather lace and everybody had a piece of rag or some damn thing, so in the dark you could find your own boots. Then we swam across, the four of us, pushing that ahead of us and that, we didn't make any wake or any noise and that was very effective. But by the time the second division came to do actual assault river crossings with tidal-estuary, everybody was either dead or wounded of all those people that were trained. But that was the one special thing we were done. We think their tidal-estuaries along the French coast, were mostly crossed and eventually, farther up where it wasn't tidal anymore. Maybe they found it was just too damn hard.

Description

Mr. Smith and four others from the 4th Brigade were selected, to develop a system for crossing tidal estuaries along the coast of France.

Arthur Britton “Britt” Smith

Mr. Smith was born on May 13th, 1920 in Kingston, Ontario. His father was a lawyer, and Mr. Smith was headed to the law firm at a very young age to follow in his father's foot steps when he decided to branch over and become an army officer with the 32nd Battery at the age of 15. Mr. Smith climbed the ranks quickly, becoming a signal sergeant by his 18th birthday. Educated on what was happening throughout Europe, Mr. Smith was not surprised when he heard of the outbreak of war in 1939, and within a year of the declaration, his unit was overseas undergoing artillery training. While in Europe, Mr. Smith's unit became a vital part of the Normandy Campaign, fighting on the dangerous and unforgiving battlefields of France. After the Dieppe raid of 1942, Mr. Smith was promoted to Captain at the young age of 22, carrying the weight and responsibility for 85 men. Mr. Smith's military career was ended abruptly in 1944 when he was wounded in action on the Verriere Ridge in France. Upon arrival home Mr. Smith was awarded the military medal and was finally able to marry his childhood sweetheart Sally. Mr. Smith returned to law school and became a lawyer, creating a home for himself and his wife in Kingston, Ontario.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:13
Person Interviewed:: Arthur Britton “Britt” Smith
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: 4th Field Regiment
Rank:: Captain
Occupation:: Gunnery Officer

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Date modified:: 2019-06-20