Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 99 Night Mission It happened one night in July 1944, after the city of Caen had been taken. #2 Platoon of the 11th Field Company was assigned, along with other duties, the clearing of a road and veges (edges) of mines in a small village, which had just been taken by our division. The village had been heavily bombed by our air force and shelled by the artillery. There was heavy damage and fire from the burning buildings gave off just enough light for us to carry out our duties. Mine detectors were big and cumbersome compared to the mine and metal detectors that presently exist. A battery was carried on your back and it was necessary to wear earphones to drown out the surrounding noises so that you could hear the sound made by the detectors when metal objects were located. This could possibly be a land mine. If the operator was by himself, it was necessary to assign another soldier to stay near him to warn, if necessary, of any danger and also to help if a mine was discovered. On this particular night it was my job to carry out this particular duty. I was standing perhaps 30 or 40 feet from the mine detector operator, when off to my left, I heard someone say, "Comrade, Comrade!" I swung around. There was a German soldier coming towards me with his hands over his head. As he approached, I released the safety catch from my rifle and was ready for action. I thought, "Is this a trap? Are there more in hiding?" Thankfully, it wasn't, but there I was with a prisoner on my hands. I finally located our sergeant who assigned another soldier to accompany the prisoner and me back to the rear lines, located in another village about a half mile from the one we were in. It was necessary to walk this half-mile with our prisoner in the dark. Again there was fear of being ambushed from the open fields; however, we reached the village and turned the prisoner over to the Canadian troops there and then returned to our platoon - mission completed. I have many times wondered whether that prisoner is still alive, whether he was well taken care of, and what his thoughts are of that night so long ago. Animals Suffer Too When we recall experiences during wartime, we sometimes forget about the suffering of farm animals. Likely, many of them, if they were not killed, were badly mangled either by shellfire, bombs or land mines and died in agony. I remember one of these tragedies. We came across many dead bodies which were composing and the odour was terrible. Among them was one live cow. It appeared that its legs were badly damaged and part of the stomach area was exposed, but there was still life from the neck up. We looked at the cow and decided the humane thing to do was to end its life. One of the boys volunteered to do the job. He was at an angle to the front of the cow's head, and instead of penetrating the skull, the bullet ricocheted off, doing only a little damage. All the cow did was shake its head. Perhaps our comrade chose the angle because he didn't want the cow staring at him as he ended its life. He had misjudged; the angle was too great. The next shot, however, was directly on and did the job. Yes, I am sure we all felt better as we went on our way to carry out wartime duties, knowing the animal no longer suffered. continued ...
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