ACTION:
Canadian infantrymen of The Royal Winnipeg Rifles in Landing Craft Assault (LCAs) head in to land at Courseulles-sur-Mer, France on D-Day.
I saw action on D-Day. We were supposed to land at 6:20 am. It was so stormy and windy on the English Channel. I forget...it must have been after 7 o'clock when we landed. We were all night on the big ship and then they put us in a barge...twenty-four men in the barge. I've never seen a barge in any of the pictures I've ever seen...all American landing craft.! We had twenty-four men to a barge.. .8 & 8 & 8 - 2.4 men...3 teams of 8.
We landed on the beach and had to run to the bank, Oh God! We had to jump up to our waist. We had to carry the gun-carriage. I got half way across the beach and I said "To hell with this, we're never going to get out of this anyway", I said to the Corporal. "We might as well drop this now". We’d landed in between two pillboxes. There was machinegun fire coming at us. Every fifth bullet was machinegun fire bullet. We dropped on the beach and I said, "They've got to change when they run short of ammunition. When they run short of ammunition and change, as soon as they stop, we'll get up and run". As soon as they stopped, I yelled. The Corporal was supposed to give the orders, but I yelled, "Okay, let's go!", and we jumped up and ran to the bank. We got to the bank and I had half a rifle. I don't know how the hell that happened...when I was lying on the ground or when I was carrying it, they shot half of it away. They shot it right through the butt! I carried it for three days before I got a new one!
Winnipeg Rifles advance inland - June 6, 1944
We fought inland. We had to capture an airstrip. We were on the right flank of the airstrip. The "Chaudiere's", they were the Eighth Brigade were on the other side. They were supposed to take the airfield and we were support for them.
The Germans had a machine gun there. It traveled underground, come up, fire a few shots, go back down. We had to knock it out. We had to ask for Spitfires and Bombers to knock it out. The Chaudiere's got slaughtered. They ran across the field and were machine gunned steady.
The third day in we got surrounded. The Germans were down at the bottom of the hill and we were at the top. We were running short of ammunition - everything, so I sent on the wireless truck for "elephants" - tanks. "Oh yea", they said, "There are ten of them on their way up". Oh shit...one tank came up, that's all! We had to retreat back a bit. You could see the Germans coming around us on the far side. That's when a young fellow got shot. He came up beside our wireless truck. He was crying. 1 told the Corporal, "You'd better get out and bandage that fellow up". Christ, be wouldn't move! I jumped out of the wireless truck, took the bandages and bandaged him up. He was only shot through the bustle. I said, "You'll be alright. I'll bandage you up and you'll be alright". I don't know if he ever got out. He was there when we left anyway.
The Germans were running short of ammunition too. We both were.
Then the wireless truck stalled. I remember I jumped out of the wireless truck and I went and got the Lieutenant up above in the bren-gun carrier. I said, "Christ, we can't get started. We're stalled here and our driver is shell shocked. You'll have to give us a tow to get us started". So he sent another bren-gun carrier to give us a pull to get us started. We got out of there but he was going to leave us.
That's when our regular Lieutenant left us. He went back to Brigade headquarters. He got court-martialed after that, because he left us there. Some of the fellows seen him at the Brigade headquaters, but he was in prison then...shell-shocked.
Our Lieutenant was terrible. On the big boat, waiting for the landing, he had us shine our buttons and everything else. Gripes, we were all decked out to go into the invasion, with blackened buttons and everything! He had us shine our buttons and march up and down on the ship. No wonder he got discharged! He left us out there to get surrounded. He left us and went back to Brigade headquarters.
Winnipeg Rifles on the move through the fields. 25 July 1944, Caen, France
Then we got into Caen...blew the Germans out of their place into another further on. We stayed in their slit trenches for a week.
There was a French woman who would come around each week for something to eat. We used to call her "the green hornet". We’d give her something to eat.
There was a German sniper who shot a little girl across the creek where the slit trenches were. Her father was taking her out for a walk that day and the sniper shot her. God, we thought that was terrible, the German sniper killed that little French girl!
There was a fellow in the slit trenches who used to work in the CPR stores here. I didn't know him until I came back and I found out that he was there. He drowned with Jackie Welch in Jackson Lake. Three of them drowned then. He was with me in Caen. (Alain Renaud)
They offered me Corporal's stripes in France, I said, "No way! I don't want the darned things at all". You had to take all the shit from the officers above you. To hell with that! I didn't want the stripes at all. I acted as a Corporal anyway?