At last, thanks to Menno J. de Vries who posted the attached video about the Battle of Otterlo, 16-17 April 1945 on Youtube, I have found something about the action which led to Dad being issued a certificate signed by Montgomery.
Dad only talked to me about that night once, when I was in uniform and in my 20's. I forget where the discussion started, but it wandered its way here and there, as such chats often do, but ended up with some largely humerous stories from Sicily and Italy and then about the only mention I can remember hearing of his time in NW Europe. That is not to say that he was much given to talking about the war, a few memories of the pubs in England (he was 19 when he went overseas) and having to talk a bit of gaelic with some of his Scottish aunts. What stories he did have from active service from Sicily and Italy were generally humerous. Indeed, this story started with a humerous annecdote. He was a Corporal in charge of a signal attachment assigned to an HQ unit and they were having a frustrating time trying to repair a telephone line at night, only to have it cut again immediately each time they fixed it. When the battle was over the next day, they found that they had been yards away from a German MG post and these had probably not wanted to give away their position, and were probably enjoying listening to the 'tommies' cussing and swearing as they went back and forth trying to get the line working!
Anyway, eventually they headed back to town and bedded down in the basement of a house, until the German attack rolled in. In the morning, when the Canadian tanks rolled in, Dad and his sidekick were still defending their basement. He did then get serious and talked about the horrible, sickening stench of the burnt bodies etc, human and animal, after the Wasp flamethrowers rolled through.
Lest we forget.
Thank you Menno J. de Vries for posting the following video about the Battle of Otterlo.
_____________
My dad was the driver of a Wasp carrier. Served in Holland and Germany with the Cameronians. Rarely talked about his experiences. Once mentioned the after effects of the flamethrower; the victims being shrunk "like pygmies" .
ReplyDeleteNeil
Thanks for sharing this, Ross!
ReplyDeleteMuch respect.
ReplyDeleteThats a very nice memento to have in the family. My father-in-law was with the NZ Div in Italy from 1943 as a 19-year-old - he was in ordnance and not much given to frequenting the front line (or talking about his experiences much) but he also mentioned seeing Fallschirmjaegers who had been caught by flame throwers while his unit was crossing one of the numerous rivers - cant remember if it was after Faenza maybe? A very unpleasant weapon which fortunately we seem to have got rid of from current warfare. Dead is dead, of course, but a bullet in the head would be preferable to burning to death.....
ReplyDeleteFascinating stuff, Ross.
ReplyDelete