David Dickson

David Dickson served in the Canadian Army in 1945 as a major and company CO. During his unit's attack on the village of Bienen on March 25, 1945, he was hit by a bullet and narrowly escaped death.

We, my company, D Company, was given the task of following a dyke up along and on the west side of Bienen, and getting into the town. Unfortunately, Bienen was very stoutly defended by a large number of machine guns and we suffered great casualties there. There were I think 18 members of my company were killed. There were 40 killed in the North Nova Scotia Highlanders that afternoon, it was a Sunday afternoon, Palm Sunday, 1945. I suffered a wound while crossing the dyke, trying to get into the buildings of the town. I got a bullet through me which penetrated my right side and came out the middle of my back, and went through my lung, liver and kidneys and the kidney, one kidney which it took out. [The bullet] broke several ribs and went through my diaphragm, and so on. I was very lucky to live because I fell on top of the dyke…my wife used to send me John Cotton pipe tobacco from England and I never could keep a tobacco pouch. I used to keep the tin of tobacco down inside my battle dress blouse. When I was pulled off the dyke ultimately, after one of my sergeants had been killed almost on top of me by a mortar shell. I was pulled by another artillery signals corporal off the dyke, a fellow by the name of Bob Muir. And he, when he got my jacket off, the tin of tobacco fell out and he said, my God, look. He said, the bullet went right through the tin of tobacco. So as the bullet missed my spine by only half an inch where it came out the back and made a big hole, I always felt that perhaps that tin of tobacco saved me from being incapacitated for the rest of my life. Or being dead for the rest of my life, I guess. But, anyway, I was evacuated and I was very lucky to live. Muir incidentally turned me over to a couple of North Novies who were wounded in the hand and in the arm, respectively; and they dragged me back a couple hundred yards to the regimental aid post.

His account - told in his own voice – can be accessed here:

https://webapp.driftscape.com/map/1114b27e-a017-11eb-8000-bc1c5a8f0f67