大象传媒

DENIS EDWARDS WAR

At the age of 19 Denis was a member of the Royal Artillery (RA) on Juno Beach on July 15th 1944. They were a British regiment but attached to the Canadians. Their job was to go round all the channel ports (Boulogne, Deippe, Le Harvre, Dunkerque, Calais in France and Emdon in Germany) to support our front line troops.

His artillery regiment was equipted with American 155mm guns which they nicknamed Long Toms because of their range. The guns were ten mile (22k) sharp shooters and used 45kg shells, so the RA鈥檚 job was to stay ten miles behind the front line and fire on the enemy from a distance.

Denis remembers one incident in Aug 1944 when their regiment had accidentally got too close to the front line, at a place called Falaise Gap, and they were bombed by the British RAF. who had not expected the RA to be there. One of the officers was buried in falling earth for a short while, before they could dig him out, but luckily no one was hurt from the bombing raid.

On May 8th 1945 Denis and his regiment were just outside Emdon and were shelled by German guns on what turned out to be VE day (the last day of war).

Story told by Denis Edwards.
Written and submitted by Paula Phillips.

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