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Description
Mr. Dowie describes guarding a tank for three days in No Man's Land.
Vernon Dowie
M. Dowie est né à Montréal, le 9 juillet 1920. Son père, d'origine jamaïquaine, était médecin et avait reçu sa formation à Cambridge, en Angleterre. Il ne possédait pas de licence pour pratiquer la médecine au Canada et, pour cette raison, il a occupé divers emplois, notamment peintre et porteur pour une compagnie de chemin de fer. Au mois d'août 1940, M. Dowie s'est joint au Three Rivers Regiment et a fait partie de la 1re Brigade blindée canadienne. Instruit en Angleterre, il a servi en Italie, en Sicile et en Hollande. Il œuvre toujours auprès du Three Rivers Regiment.
Transcription
The next place we were taken, the 5th Div. came up to take Pescara and we went in to support the Cape Breton Highlanders. As we moved up through the PPCLI line, we hit a mine and lost our, what would it be, our left track, the bogey on the left side was blown off. Anyway, the whole thing worked out to that we were left stranded about a quarter of a mile ahead of the holding line of the PPCLI and we spent three days in No Man's Land, guarding our tank.
Interviewer: Were you under direct observation of the enemy at that time?
Mr. Dowie: More or less.
Interviewer: Did they at any time bring down artillery or even mortar fire on you?
Mr. Dowie: Yes, and they had also tried to send a patrol in to destroy the tank, but we were able to fight them off.