It’s cold tonight, being midwinter February, 2014. I am very tired and the old brain is slowing somewhat; so to change the pace I thought it might be a nice break to tell a kinda humorous story of how I came to own a German Wound badge, given to me by a wounded German Wehrmacht soldier.
This incident took place in the third week of March 1945 on the drive north though Holland, not long before the end of the War, when I was working as a signaler in the 26th Battery of the 4th Field Regiment, 4th Brigade of the 2nd Canadian division, Royal Canadian Artillery.
As my readers know from my past articles, most of our combat situations involved forests, farms, fields, villages, small towns and often windmills. One of the reasons for this is that the Germans fortified houses (mostly brick) and windmills in particular. The very thick stone bases of windmills made them excellent miniature castles, almost impervious to shell fire.
They were also used because they had stairways inside leading to the very top portion of the windmill and there were several small window apertures that made excellent lookout spots for directing artillery fire or for enemy snipers. Or as my friend Gunner Spack used to wryly call them, “those GD snippers.”
Our infantry, The Essex Scottish Regiment of Windsor Ontario, our supporting tanks and artillery had been blasting away at this particular fortified Windmill for some hours when finally a white flag of surrender appeared at one of the windows. We held our fire. Soon, about thirty or so Germans came jogging out hands in the air, on top of their helmets or behind their necks. A German officer waving a white flag was in the lead.
As they approached, a few men of the infantry were ordered to go out and bring them in. I guess the Colonel of the Essex didn’t think there were enough men available because he came over to me and asked me to take my Bren gun and give the guys a hand bringing them in.
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Dick Field, editor of Blanco’s Blog, is the former editor of the Voice of Canadian Committees and the Montgomery Tavern Society, Dick Field is a World War II veteran, who served in combat with the Royal Canadian Artillery, Second Division, 4th Field Regiment in Belgium, Holland and Germany as a 19-year-old gunner and forward observation signaller working with the infantry. Field also spent six months in the occupation army in Northern Germany and after the war became a commissioned officer in the Armoured Corps, spending a further six years in the Reserves.
