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Buzz Bombs and Panic

Heroes Remember

Buzz Bombs and Panic

Transcript
One of the interesting things when we were there was the buzz bombs coming over head. The air craft that the Germans sent over without a pilot jump, okay, and I don't know if they ran out of gas or how they knew when to stop but down they came filled with explosives and we were on a route where they were coming right over us from France right across and we'd see the air craft go out over the Channel, try to get them there. They wouldn't try to knock them down too close to the coast because of the people that live along the coast, but behind us was what they called the Downs or sort of, we would call it waste land, I guess, and then they would take another run at them there and the anti air craft a little behind them would try to get them there before they got to London. Actually when we were in France we saw some of the tracks where they sent them off in what we would call poplar bluff and trees. There would be a set, a narrow gage track, very light, very flimsy and cut in through the trees and if you took a sighting on it with a compass they were heading towards London and you could see where this is where the air craft on the tracks had been set off, started up to go. I have a feeling, I know what it is to be afraid. After I was in England in hospital, I was laying in the middle of the night and we were in a, it was a, it had been a green house, I think, the hospital we were in. I was on an estate and the nice and quiet and calm and I heard one of these buzz bombs coming and all of a sudden the motor stopped and forabout, I don't know how long, perhaps 30 seconds, I panicked. I had a cast on my leg, there was no way I could get out of bed, get under the bed or do anything. I was there and I could just see that stupid thing coming down, you know, but it didn't of course, and then all of a sudden I realized, get a hold of yourself, this is stupid. But I know then, just for seconds, I couldn't have done anything, I was terrified.
Description

Mr. MacLeod describes buzz bombs and the RAF's attempts to shoot them down. He also describes his terror at being immobilized in a hospital after being wounded, and hearing a buzz bomb stop over his hospital.

Malcolm MacLeod

Malcolm MacLeod was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on March 21, 1923, and was one of three children. Despite his father being a rural school teacher, he had to complete grade twelve via correspondence. Mr. MacLeod enlisted in the army rather than the air force in the spring of 1943, and the army performed hernia surgery which he couldn't personally afford. He was quickly sent overseas to reinforce post D-Day efforts in France, joining the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. Mr. MacLeod's war service ended near Antwerp, Belgium when his leg was badly fractured during a shelling.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:23
Person Interviewed:
Malcolm MacLeod
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Branch:
Army
Rank:
Private
Occupation:
Infantryman

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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