Robert Roos

My name's Bob Roos - R-O-O-S. When I was twenty-one years old, I was a junior officer - a Lieutenant - with the South Saskatchewan Regiment. We were in the 6th Infantry Brigade in the 2nd Canadian [Infantry] Division. I'd been with the Regiment since late in July, and come through some very, very heavy fighting, when we had reached the Seine River, and fought a major battle in the Foret de la Lalonde. Reading history now, I find out that that battle was completely unecessary because the 3rd [Canadian Infantry] Division had crossed the Seine at El Bouffe just previous to that. But this battle was fought anyways. And after two or three days, we actually lost, in our regiment alone, 43 killed, and 143 wounded. During the battle, my platoon - the anti-tank platoon - was pulled back into sort of a forward headquarters. And as a... not rear guard, but a protection ring around headquarters. And for some reason or another, and this is proved in the history books, our regiment got a notice on the wireless to potentially be ready to pull back - either the regiment or the brigade - to be pulled back to a rest area. So my closest friend, Lieutenant Bruce Urqhart and I were sent back to recce a position. In the process, it was pouring rain and we had gas capes for rain coats. I suggested to Bruce that he knock on this big chateau, and I stood behind him with my trusty World War One revolver - which was useless - drawn. The door opened, and a beautiful blonde young lady appeared, and I tucked my revolver away. And she ushered us in. We were graciously received. The carpets were thick, there were large portraits on the wall. I said to Bruce finally: "Do you know what's going on here?" I said: "These people must have been collaborators", because they still have all their worldly goods. Anyway, they showed us all around their buildings and out buildings, and we mapped out a plan where our regiment could be bivouaced. We gave them our chocolates... our chocolate bars, which was habit of soldiers doing. We were sent back again about six o'clock in the evening to finalize these plans with them, and they presented us with a chocolate cake that they had made out of these chocolate bars. Within the next couple of days we moved out of the Foret de la Lalonde non-tactically, on the way to the great city of Rouen. And coming out of there, I elected to have my six anti-tank guns strung out behind me. And I was writing a letter home to my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and we heard a great big boom. And I reached back and grabbed my tin helmet. My driver slid his seat out from under him and looked through the slits in the [Bren Gun] barrier. And shortly after we came to the ten minute hourly halt, we looked around and there was nobody behind us. The carrier behind me, which was standing in the same position I was, one of our sergeants... this sergeant, along with the other members in the carrier, they all flew up in the air. The compo ration boxes flew up also. They all came down, and the sergeant had both feet broken. So he was evacuated. A couple months later, which is probably to the day, I arrived in hospital in England. And this guy walked up to me, it was the same sergeant, and he said to me: "Where's my pen?" I'd borrowed his pen that day to write a letter home.