Collection search - Sinclair, Ian - 13th Battalion - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Sinclair, Ian - 13th Battalion - Interview

Item number (ISN):

116966

Series title:

Flanders Fields : [background interview]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1963-08-17

Item number (ISN):

116966

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

Link to this record

Add to My Research

Link to this record

This link identifies the web page describing this particular record. Unlike the temporary link in your browser, this link will allow you to access, and reference, this page in the future. To link to this descriptive record, copy and paste the URL where ever needed (wiki, blog, document).

Sign in

Sign in to start saving records using My Research

Sign in
Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, RADIO: FLANDERS FIELDS

Accession:

1980-0123

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1963-08-17

Production company:

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Production credit:

interviewer, Frank Lalor

Description:

Show detail Hide detail

Colonel Ian Sinclair talks about his service with the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion in many of the major battles at the Western Front during World War I.~Sinclair describes the "terrific send off" from Toronto, his training at Long Branch and Valcartier camps with "masses of horses and masses of flies" and training at Salisbury camp in England.~Experiencing battle for the first time at Armentières, the battalion was then sent to Ypres and took over the abandoned French trenches where the French had "just buried [the dead] in the shallow trenches." "You were walking on oozing bodies in the bottom of the trenches and there would be a hand or a foot sticking out of the trench. It was horrible."~He recalls the "yellow haze" and the French Colonials who were "gasping and dying." Wounded at Festubert, he remembers burying the Scottish Fusiliers "who had taken the most frightful casualties."~At Messines Ridge, he remembers the "pineapple" bombs that the enemy threw into the Canadian trenches with deadly results. In 1916, "the fighting at the Ypes salient never stopped." "You were under fire all the time." Wounded again, he recuperated in England. As company commander at Hill 60, he recalls that "we were plastered out of existence" as the hill changed hands constantly in the vicious fighting. Marching 30 miles to the Arras front, he describes how the weary Canadians used the natural caves for supplies and how they were "just crouching down in the filth and fighting off German attacks."~At Amiens the battalion encountered "a solid mass of bodies at [Hangard] Wood from the previous fighting between the British and German armies. He concludes the interview with a discussion of the Armistice celebrations and the march into Germany with the Occupation Army.

Language:

English

Detailed holdings information:

Show detail Hide detail

Vault ISN:

104273

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1980-0123/076

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

668372

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

116966-1980-0123-076.WAV

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

BWF

Made from:

1980-0123/076

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

668373

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

116966-1980-0123-076.MP3

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

MP3

Made from:

1980-0123/076

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

156349

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

C07449

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Made from:

1980-0123/075
1980-0123/076

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

GENCAT identity number:

GAD 0FD547

Restrictions on consultation:

Available Onsite Only / Seulement disponible sur le site

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

You can order materials in advance to be ready for you when you visit. You will need a user card to do this.

Cannot visit us on site? You can purchase a copy to be sent to you. Some restrictions may apply.