New Electronic Surveillance

Heroes Remember

New Electronic Surveillance

Transcript

Currie, he was the prime general over the whole British forces. I saw him and he was a fat man, kind of fat and one thing and another but he was a very, his history was that he joined a regiment out in Vancouver as a private and decided in about a year or two he would become the OC, he was that good at it and he was fat, you wouldn't think he was a soldier at all. They had to have a very strong horse to carry him when he was on horseback but he knew exactly what to do and everything. And Currie wanted it, he wanted intelligence and he got all the battalions to organize trench raids. When they were in the line there and they had the Germans out of it and the Canadians became experts at raiding the other fellows to capture a few prisoners and find out so they could bring them back and question them and find out who if there were any significant movement or anything of the other troops that would indicate if there was going to be any an attack. Currie had that going all the time. These trench raids, capturing a few troops, the Germans. The Canadians learned, they excelled at that, this business of trench raids - going over in the middle of the night and grabbing off a few prisoners.

Description

Mr. Burton describes the use of a new British device which could intercept German radio traffic in the front lines.

Robert Burton

Robert Burton was born on February 21, 1896 in Dundas, Ontario. After public school, he was accepted into university which he attended from 1914 to 1916, in the Canadian Officer Training Corps. For a time, he worked at Massey, checking shrapnel shells. Despite being shortsighted, Mr. Burton was recruited into the 13th Brigade in Mar, 1916. In England, he joined the 5th Division, a reinforcement unit, and deployed to France with the 2nd Division as a sapper. Mr. Burton became a mounted courier at Courcelette, and had several interesting experiences in that capacity. He witnessed and was attacked by Gotha bombers at Arras, and was shelled at St.Pol. Mr. Burton also served in the trenches at Amiens. During the 2nd World War, he was a very successful engineering instructor at camp Petawawa, where he attained the rank of Major.

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