Feature Letter of May 11th, 2025
Cobourg World
Of course you know I have been wounded and that I have reached England. I was wounded in the left hip and the left breast with shrapnel. It was on the first day of attack on VIMY RIDGE that I was hit....I would not have missed that attack for all the money in the world. The Artillery, big and small, were going like machine guns. Our aeroplanes were flying 20 or 30 feet from the ground firing their machine guns at the Germans and the reinforcements coming up. The way we bagged prisoners was not slow. We made good use of the prisoners, too putting them to carry out wounded. Four of them carried me for two miles. Fred and Frank were fairly well when I saw them last. I am feeling like a lord, in spite of my wounds.
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As we move away in time from past conflicts and as our veteran population declines, it becomes increasingly difficult for Canadians to understand the sacrifices that men and women made, both on the battlefield and on the home front, during wartime. The Canadian Letters and Images Project has been sharing their stories, and Canada’s story, for the past quarter century.
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