Submitted By Al Cameron
I’m Mel Barr and I was with the 17th Light Field Ambulance in Europe. I was born in Kenora, Ont. July the 3, 1923 and we moved to Alberta shortly thereafter. I had my oldest brother was in Italy, he was in the 49th Royal Regiment. None of the rest of them did, they tried it but they got out of it in a hurry, none of them liked it. I went on my own, I went to work up at LW Manning’s farm up in Westlock. That’s where I spent most of my years… several of my years.”
Joining up
“Well I decided to join when I left Manning’s and come out to Wetaskiwin. The boys were all there and they were setting up the unit, the 17th light field ambulance in Camrose so…’Come on guy, join.’ So I went and joined.
They made us play football a lot and run around to get in shape but at that time you were in shape, as young men, you know. Then we transferred to…they said get packed up we’re going to transfer out to B.C., the Island. We went out there and we stayed right up on the side of a mountain there and we had to. I’ll remember that all my life, every night right around midnight we had to march up this damn mountain.
Heading overseas
“We entrained to Halifax and went directly onto the ship, RSM Endives to be exact. It was a cruiser I think, and we sailed up around through the Northern passage because by then there was a lot of subs out there waiting for us. You know it is funny, I was never on the water ever and I never got a bit seasick, no matter when I was on it and that was a terrible trip. The ship was gyrating both ways, dipping down then going sideways and rocking. These poor guys were all green in the face. One guy said, ‘Shoot me.’ I said if I had a gun I would you’re puking all over the floor!
England to France
“Ya, we got bombed, but Spitfires kept them off pretty well. Spitfire was one of the better planes. There was one night we were camped, they came over, it was quite a heavy bombing, but it was mainly more to London, that’s where they were after. You could see them flying, you could hear the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns and whatever. That was introduction into war. We knew what we were in for.”
Normandy
“We get entrained and we get going across and we had a lot of support, gunships and whatever. We get over there and boy what a mess it was on that beach. There was dead men laying it the water and tanks that never came up, they went down and stayed right there, the flotation devices didn’t work. It was late night when we got there and guess what…the Germans gave us a surprise. They came over that night and dropped thousands of flares and anti-personnel bombs. We didn’t have time to build a trench underneath the truck, we laid underneath our trucks.
First off, we couldn’t get off the beach very early because the Carpiquet Airfield was there and they had 12’ of concrete on there, they’d drop them big bombs on them and we couldn’t do a thing to them. Dinally landed and they come in and they went over and they cleaned it out. They threw phosphorus. They wouldn’t give up, those guys… I really thought to myself, yep, we’ll be here for a long while by the way we’re going…and we were.”
The life of a front-line medic
“My job was to look after the ill and…as a front-line medic your job is…when your moving in the war your bias disappeared to a degree, we took whoever was injured, civilians and all we took them back. That was our job. I can remember one incident where two, Canadian and German were dueling just ahead in the lines with snipers. They both shot one another at the same time, I took them both back. The German died but the Canadian didn’t.
I seen one that I’ll always remember. The infantry was going around because we couldn’t go through. The infantry was going, it was kind of a cut through road there and the Germans were up in the fields on either side about 50’ above ya and these guys were laying in this ditch and down the road was a German tank and he was lobbing 88s in there. I come in there and they sent me over to see this old fellow and he had a slice, just like you took a knife and sliced all the meat right off his chest. I could see… that’s the first time I ever seen a human heart beating. I filled him full and bandaged him up real tight so no air could get in but I don’t think he ever made it. We took him back and put him in the 21st field hospital. You know you could go back there and see who didn’t make it because they had no choice, they just piled them outside the door. But we saved a lot of them.”
Close calls
“A buddy of mine, he was from Lacombe and he and I went up to set up a place where the infantry had had quite a battle and we were setting up a camp there, getting organized. There was three Germans…we were well up into Germany then…they decided the war was over they’d go out and kill everybody they could. Here come three Messerschmitt’s over the hedge, hopped over the hedge and I’d left my helmet, which is a no-no in the front seat. He was way back over there and he said, ‘Don’t go in there!’ I looked around and these German planes were coming and you could see the pup-pup of the machine gunning and when they got close, they put two APs, right into the red cross. Just blew that ambulance all to hell. I wouldn’t have been here if it hadn’t been for that.
Right behind them came about five Spitfires and rat-tat-tat-tat-tat the whole works of them were gone, they blew them right out of the air. So they got what they were looking for I guess. Isn’t it funny and I felt nothing for them because they were trying to kill me, so, these guys came and put the run on them. We just had an ambulance, why are you shooting an ambulance up? There’s nobody else there, except the dead.
I damn near got killed looking for this one place too, both of us did, Dicky Dots and me. There was a shell, 88, came landing right beside the jeep…and it was a dud. That’s the way life is for you, wasn’t my time.”
End of the war
We were in Germany, we were going on our next move, but the war was over before we did. Finally, we were going to get home, no matter what it is. You know you spend, with training, five or five-and-half-years of your life. I joined up in October, 1941 and was discharged Feb. 5, 1946. I felt I did my job, I felt I was well trained. I was a snippy little so and so, never knew nothing. You thought you knew it all, but you didn’t know nothing. You damn soon learned it.
After discharge, Mel returned to Alberta and retired not far from his childhood home. He passed away on June 4, 2014 in Leduc, Alta.