The Harrowing Story of an Elite Allied Sniper Unit | The Black Watch Snipers

we were specially trained soldiers from one of Canada's greatest regiments the black watch my body does not carry normal blood it's black watch blood surviving impossible odds we had the highest casualty list of any battalion who were the battalion's top snipers there's less than 50 of us left but there are four snipers funny thing always the first one is in that sniper goes out to create Mayhem until they fired on you you had to keep going if you cannot shoot accurately you are gone you only got one shot we put everything on the line to save the world from the Nazis a lot of times you're scared like hell it's something that has to be done it's Jimmy Russ one thing kept us going we looked after each other that's how we survived my name is corporal Dale Sharp and this is our story [Music] it was the summer of 44 a month after D-Day the Nazis had taken over Europe and they weren't giving it back as easy as we'd hoped no sooner had the blackwatch landed and we were sent in 20 miles to knock the Germans off of verrier ranch but they were waiting for us with everything they had [Music] thank you [Music] I don't know how I escaped with my life I should have been dead I'll never forget that never forget that anybody tells you that they know what's going on they don't they're not telling the truth what I'm telling you is the truth don't know what's going on guys could be getting killed 30 feet away you don't see them I don't care about them you're talking everything about yourself I could hear the guns firing on the shells were bullets flying by they're just dropping like flies in the grass it was bad all the companies are gone hundreds or hundreds of them just gone it was only 20 or something it was left our first big battle 300 killed wounded or taken prisoner the worst day ever for the one it took another two weeks almost a thousand more allies wiped out before we finally kicked the Jerrys off that Bloody Bridge that's when I got out of that SEA company and went into scope of tune doing commanders asked me to ask for volunteers for the Scout platoon a sergeant came along said I might as well tell you the truth it's dangerous Scout is a guy that goes ahead checks where the enemy is and fights with him if he has to the advantage is you won't have to do Sentry Duty right away that was a 20 plus for me because I hated that you had to fight all day and then guard duty all night I'll join black watch marched on Foot North through France Jimmy Bennett he's 21. perform kid from the prairies he didn't know it yet but a scout like the regular foot soldiers he fought with before we didn't have to wear helmets or Hull gear we were snipers and Lookouts fight on the front lines we fought in front of him enjoy the establishing yeah you're nuts they couldn't understand why I was stupid enough to go in a scope that's why they didn't want my job no I didn't offer to take my place put under my seen his share of War on verrier Ridge but never the way he was going to see it with us I told you but this this is gonna get a little used to them being alive before you pull the trigger training him was a job of our 21 year old Corporal from Montreal Jim Wilkinson hands down the best shot in my platoon we just called him hook always hooked that was due to the the size of my nose and most people never knew me by my first name I hate the boast but I was one of the best shots in the regime then there was Mike Brunner 21 also from Montreal except Mike was born in Hungary the only one of us that could speak German I was a good soldier because I did exactly what they wanted and I listened I was good at listening considering who we were up against understanding the German came in real Handy especially the Scout Patrols me I was 26 the old man on the team at least that's how the boy saw me he was a big fella who wired as a bull and a strong as a bowl Dale Sharp who was that type of a guy you'd want to follow him anywhere [Music] truck for the kids my girl Dale Jr and little teddy [Music] and a third on the way with the light of my life Zelma June plenty of reasons to stay home look at this job had to die for my family and everyone else by the end of August we caught up with the Jerry's we knew that each French town we came to was probably crawling the sons of [ __ ] the trick was finding them and flushing them out so our troops could mow them down that's what our Scout platoon was for we had to walk into each Village and until they fired on you you had to keep going until somebody shot at you if you missed you fine if he didn't you were dead duck that's the kind of business I was in you've just become numb immune it's something that has to be done some people can't take that kind of stuff I don't know I just put that out of my mind and went and did what I was supposed to do another way up the channel Coast of France and any allies had already captured the port but the cherries controlled the shield meaning none of our ships could get through from the North Sea without food weapons and ammo coming in from our boys we were sunk headquarters was set up just outside of Antwerp our scalp platoon was called here on the map you see the shell they wanted us to zero in on where the Jerry's had set up this is what controls the entrance we get as much information as we can and pass it on to the headquarters and headquarters applies the information to their attack they couldn't ask the rookies to do it so the job fell to me and hook our orders were to sneak Behind Enemy Lines across the Albert canal Joe Nixon who was my commander at the time said he said help we have a dinghy here for you and Dale but once you're there I'll have to pull the boat back we can't risk the Germans getting the boat so you'll have to make your own way back understood sir [Music] we get to this small cluster of trees there's a German standing guard Duty I said Dale we got to take this son of a gun out I can jump them and you you stab them there's a whole platoon of Germans in there haven't suffered as he was being established screamed [Applause] I said the Dale you better start taking off your boots and a few other pieces of clothing as we got to swim across this Lincoln Albert canal I'll Stand Jesus now we were just trying to get out alive so we got to the embankment and lo and behold the Dengue was still there the Rope they used was too short to pull it back but Lord is looking after us the next couple of nights with more scouting we started to get a pretty good picture of where the Jerry's were set up along the shield [Music] we're everywhere our Scout platoon needed to beef up the brass brought in reinforcements but not enough oh most were just kids who couldn't reload a damn weapon never mind shoot one Russell Sanderson came into the pitcher you think you're at that age you're indestructible and you can solve the problem by going and helping and that's what I wanted to do I'm in sir Sandy was 18 from Niagara Falls you've been trying to enlist since the war first broke out I have a paper that said I was 18. and I was not 18 yet I had my brother's paper I got caught on a recruiting tent twice [Music] sadly struck me as a cowboy type go here and go there let's go he was willing to win the war himself this is corporal sharp excited he called me over and said whatever Dale tells you to do you do it my job was to take these kids Jimmy Bennett Sandy Sanderson and the others and turned them into killing machines they listened I was so taken by working with the man take your helmet off Stay With Me he was so sincere about teaching and his honor about things I'm alive today because of what Dale taught me [Music] what I knew about shooting I learned back home and brother Billy my brother Dale he was nine years older than I was and uh he was on a pedestal as far as I was concerned he was an excellent Sports from the shooter he was my idol all right straight ahead reference Gray Building window on the left third story up the sniper learns real quick that the best Nazi Target is the one you cut the head off the snake and the rest of the division goes blind I used to train sometimes in a in a German uniform and from German they got a White Band on them if they're artillery they got a red band what do you see see a German what's he wearing what's his uniform infantry what rank is he Junior officer not bad we didn't want any Bozo out of the rifle companies he has to be a disciplined man like myself all right so I use a sling as a bracelet put your arm through there said but spotting a Jerry is only half the job deep in the shoulder see that bottle right there if you cannot shoot accurately you are gone your focus is on your breathing you only got one shot deep breath in I was good with a rifle yes half out I had his telescope on it squeeze that trigger how'd I do hook see you do it again [Music] all the training in the world can only take you so far are we going Dale find out when we get there be quiet he takes me over to a place way out to waste my guys to laying down a bit along the river all right Sanderson check your helmet off check up your sight picture my 12 o'clock look for the broken tree we weren't here to shoot bottles or paper targets there's Jerry's on the other side of the river take up your sight pitcher Sanderson look through the sights Sanderson you don't know how that guy is going to react until you try them all right don't worry about the other guy just worry about the one it's going to be him or you breathe slow your hand tightens up like a paralysis and your fingers move so slowly and squeeze that trigger it's just like you're squeezing an orange nice and slow and you see that we're bigger go down and you know that's my first one it's sad to say that that we have to become used to this sort of thing but it's a necessity stop counting now stop after one it's a damn war and we didn't start it and had to be ended so you do the job Sanderson we're leaving [Music] okay glad to have you Sandy we had our team the closest thing we'd ever have here to a family let's go we were sent out to the town of Wilmington just over a mile from the front the cherries had just been chased out four years the people here had been beaten down nearly starved to death but now that's when we came across something we thought we'd never see in this whole hellhole of a war food was a factor because the Germans were confiscating everything so they had to scrounge here live [Music] we're sleeping with animal in the kelders specials ice cream with soda right fellas black watch black watch little kids would come along and they were starving your death was terrible they just kept getting skinnier and thinner and thinner and there was nothing you could do when the Jerry's pulled out of this place they robbed these poor people blind took everything it reminded us why we were here to crush Hitler the world back on track for these kids and mine [Music] you put your left hand in your left hand out your left hand in and you take your liver and you turn around that's what you're about [Music] we liberated part of France and Belgium now we are headed to Holland it was time to kick the Jerrys out of the Shelt and open up the port we were going to be fighting on land flat as a board flooded to high hell getting in and out alive was going to be tough [Music] Scout patrols became more important than ever and more dangerous we were to go out and bring in all the information trucks Vehicles weapons whatever you saw we work in the dark mostly in the dark we had different clothes we wore on different jacket camouflage green you just keep your fingers crossed and hope you get out of it you don't expect to live a very long you've always clear the plan all right good to go let's out of the truck we're on what's called a listening Patrol get as close to the enemy and be in in a hidden position and you just they're enough one minute to the next what's gonna happen on the lesson Patrol was absolutely miserable you don't know whether you're walking into a foreign [Music] the goal is finding their HQ that's where we dig up our best information getting there was another thing pure suicide listen at the windows for the number of voices any mention of of weapons or or places [Music] first officer I really didn't hear much [Music] he's leaving here on the back we walk along the road and very quietly and we'll see if we can hear them and then we'll sneak up on them and get a prisoner it's a good spot go get brother he always had a couple of grenades hooked in your belt you get close enough to him and you'll say Hulk and he halts or he lays on the ground dead [Music] you don't just ask him to come he won't come to come over here and just run off and ask him you have to take him take them back and they'll interrogate them England in the swine hunt sniping and running Patrols gearing up for the big battle at the shelter we were dead tired the only thing that kept us going was each other you developed such close friendships okay that's your rhymes from the same perils and dangers and mishaps I'm a nervous person but Michael Bruner used to always try and get me to slow down because he was a cool fellow you're going out and you're a lot of times you're scared like hell [Music] we're clear even just one bad situation you become attached to each other and that was the case with Jim Bennett and I he's the best guy in the world but here's the thing about war even going back into your own lines you're never really safe and I were coming back and we had to come to an amazing lines the Mason nerve were one of us a french-speaking regiment from Montreal but we still needed to use a password to clear the security checkpoint the password changed every night the password that night was steamer trunk gamer um bag uh you guys says steamer you have to holler trunk if you don't hire a trunk you can get shot right there Demar it's um whoa Luggage baggage we couldn't think of the damn word junk is that a password [Music] you kidding me boy huh show me the feather boy and yeah always carried your Balmoral inside your snipers jacket it's your recognition and there's no one else has the day the feather come closer there's a Better Boy see Maisy it does not feather black watch the black Watchers oh it's on black launch the password is trunk huh you can go fast you can go fast I thought you were gonna shoot us but if we knew what was waiting for us around the corner none of us would have been laughing Black Friday was about to come Crashing Down the juries were set up just outside the Dutch town of wunstrecht they were on an embankment around half a mile away from our position over open ground it was like a funnel there was high ground on one side a high ground on the other side the black watch were sent into fight but this time the Scout platoon had to go too reinforcements were still too green so it was all hands on deck they were just former artilleryman drivers Cooks everything we we taught them to use a gun we taught them to keep their head down too but that wasn't the worst of it moving through the water and muck was slow and it threw off the timing the whole Countryside was flooded because the the Germans had bombed and opened up the dikes once we finally got there we waited for what seemed like forever [Music] it was supposed to rain at 5 30 in the morning and when it come time to move in and across that Bloody great open field it was 6 30. and it was cracking down it was first light there's a big difference between last dark and first light and you can see everything that moves there we went out there and it was murdered we were up against German paratroopers every time we'd woo we get a mortar games were dropping all over the place just like Am I Dreaming or is this the truth how am I going to get out of this mess [Music] it was a black day for the black watch again because of our mortar platoon who filled the field with smoke all five of us made it through but most weren't so lucky dozens dying all around us nothing we could do it hurts it hurt 28. you can't help somebody and you know bloody well that is is Escape Route just cut off the second worst day we ever experienced that we lost 100 men in there [Music] now we were mad as hell we turned it up a notch or two whatever the Germans wanted to fight we fought him we just kept pushing them harder and harder to rent up a sniper Patrols our boys fought hard we took back the shelter one flooded field one Tiny Town at a time it was a sense you you could almost taste it Hitler's luck was finally running out [Music] to Dutch town we freed we rounded up prisoners and snag souvenirs forget about this week went through uh I found the swastika it was a it was a little trophy of the war a little souvenir and you just stood a little taller make it a little short too after what we've been through you couldn't blame us for wanting to rub their faces [Music] one way or another the war had to end it's just too bad that only one of us would be there to see it we moved Northwest to the Dutch town of ghosts we needed to know if it was safe to bring in Italian were there any cherries still coming around somewhere that's when we send in Hook I was the first Allied Soldier in ghosts I was on patrol a one-man Patrol of all by myself it was a very very strange day [Music] I remember everything of the war everything and deliberation on the day of the Liberation there came a man in Colossus that I did not know and something on his head [Music] that was the first Canadian soldiers that I saw foreign this man puts his hands up in the air he says don't shoot I'm a Dutchman and he says the Germans have just left we chased off the Jerry's and free to town that for the last four years lived under the dirty boot of the Nazis more strange one day you're burying your best friend the next you're setting hundreds of total strangers for you they're sure glad to uh see the last of the Germans my mother cried out that our deliberators that are the liberators we are free we are free even Flex came on the frontier of the houses that we have not seen in full and the Hawking it is unbelievable I can hardly tell it without feeling the emotion again [Music] you just don't believe how much the Dutch people appreciate what the Canadians have done for them these girls come on I said Mike and Mike Lynch he said yeah I said this is a nice little girl tell her I love her I love her good [Music] from goes we headed east towards the German border we knew that if this war didn't end by Christmas we'd have to bust into Germany and crush the enemy in its own backyard but the winner of 44 was brutal cold as hell Canadian cold everyone was pretty beat up to make a final push into Deutschland the black watch needed to recharge the brass put us up in a small Dutch town of koik a few miles from the German border the cherries on one side of the Moss River us on the other [Music] bunking up with locals was a nice break from sleeping on the ground a real elderly couple they slept in the basement well us lucky guys we slept in their bedrooms every time we woke up in the morning our our boots were polished greased and everything you washed our shorts at night and hug them all dried out the morning we got up our trip was all washed and dried in the 10 months that I was in the front lines that's the only time I was in a bed [Music] it was Christmas and for the first time in a long time we almost felt normal there was a cafe in the town of church and there was a middle athlete and she had two daughters I always liked girls [Music] Jimmy uh you know he was trying to tell her different things that I had to sort of interpret for him whatever he said I wouldn't say I always thought of him the Dean Martin type dark good looking used to say how come you get all the girls [Music] and he's already told them I love you I was young then my darling little family I hope you're all fine and not getting into too much mischief I bet you keep your mommy on the run all the time be good for Daddy and when I get home we'll have lots of fun my darling June Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with all the love in my heart Dale mostly coik was a pretty safe place but the Nazi bastards never let us forget that the war was far from over so we thought we'd remind them that we were here too Sandy were on this hill we were working together that day it's nothing out there it's Jerry's are out here somewhere you're just hiding Jesus look at that Jerry that's son of a gun's watching us Jim he's aiming at dead on to sandy put your head down [Music] kill them deterred a doornail I think I thanked him profusely sorry sorry we looked after each other that's how we survived word came down from HQ to get ready to push into Germany but first our platoon was asked to scout ahead see what we could find Dale Sharp and I were assigned to see if we can get some information such as capture a prisoner or prisoners [Music] we got into a farmyard which was actually on the German side I see a body we get closer and closer and he doesn't move nothing I got to put my hand on him don't could be booby trapped oh they boobies trap their mother has had a chance [Applause] [Music] and that's when we saw them two Germans that's a Dale will kill one and take the other one prisoner all right all three only one problem with that plan one two bang I take a bullet in the right leg I took the second one in the patella in my knee oh I I said I can't move Dale I said I'm done dry off these two guys [Music] foreign [Music] he saved my life when he carried me across the valley you're doing real good hook you're doing real good they're gonna get you back to the doctor my leg was hanging off with a distractions of bone stay down take care of the boys huh my hook he saved my life beautiful man Brooke the war was over he was lucky at least he was going home for the rest of the black watch it was back into action in February 1945 we crossed into Germany bloody Deutschland this wasn't about freeing anybody anymore [Music] now it's payback time [Music] retaliation you're damn right retaliation they start as a thing and somebody's got to pay the bill we observed the engineers going in and knocking the houses down with bulldozers and just blow them all to the devil it it wasn't pretty but it was necessary it was necessary they had to be talking lesson in this Rex wall Forest the enemy had home field advantage there were boom traps landmines and machine gun nests our job was to clear the way for our boys [Music] they're having trouble with a rifle company advancing and these time may show themselves at one end that they come today the jury laid on them with machine guns my job was to take out the guns and put a bullet into the bloody operator I could tell people it's going to take up the rifle company a rifle company men's and he let go a blast of about five or six rounds I had a bead right above his right ear all right no mercy you couldn't show it anymore by the first month of April we chased the Jerry's across the Rhine and pushed North back into Holland near the town of Lauren we set up camp near their main line just outside of town finally see the light at the end of the tunnel we had those dirty Nazis right where we wanted them against the ropes [Music] but sometimes just a question of being at the end of a place at the wrong time [Music] the door is banged open and the Inn comes a couple of guys carrying a turn up to be Dale Sharp I'm sorry a bag with shrapnel give me a hand here pressure just made a whole so put back uh intestines they were sort of out of the stomach I was scared I didn't know if uh Dale Sharp was going to live or die Runner Colonel needs you right now double time that's when Micah called away card called it evisceration of the bowel all I knew is that it wasn't good things weren't going well for Mike and Jimmy either they were about to step straight into an ambush the store was thousands of Germans and trapped in there hit me one of the chest no no no everybody's we all started running Mike he fired again maybe the back of my head once peace out of my hair and a piece out of my skull I'm gonna die yeah you'll be a good taste blood coming out of my mouth and nose and uh I knew I was well I went through my lungs I'm gonna die I know it hey hey my Jeep came along Road hey hey it was a Red Cross Jeep this is my friend he's been shot in the chest and the head help there's no point seven he's gone you're medic do something there's nothing I can do and I said God damn it the guys shot do something you know it's good for you you'll put him on your Jeep I didn't get a shot I'm sure as hell they're coming stay with us and I just hope he would stay alive till we got 30 Mo that's all you thought about those two days were the worst in my life and I apparently I was crying most of the night but I don't remember a thing about it I guess it just hit me uh [Music] that was the first time I I cried for anything [Music] three of us wounded taken out of action only Mike and Sandy Still Standing the black watch headed north to Groningen to mop up what was left of the Jerry's by now they were desperate but like a wild animal backed up in a corner more dangerous than ever and they pulled back someplace so I got called in finding for us we want to know what what who and how many Cindy everything there's none of our troops there I'm alone in that tires of the city thousands no activity over on the streets ends up or I'll shoot all of a sudden the German Soldier appears [Music] numerous I figured about 28 just over maybe 20 25 or so okay lads get those brain guns to the front let's go and I'm cruising and I get that machine gun over there put that brings on there you guys go that way and I'm hungry to imaginary troops I want two columns one on the left one on the right you guys down the back there's no one there I'm alone in the middle of that street bring the carriers bring the carriers I was absolutely bluffing drop your weapons right now let's go [Music] they put their weapons on the ground get against the wall hands up against the wall let's go let's go so easy to move foreign health [Music] he does this the notes are there that mentioned at Canada best dating on owns Hitler production of stage for all what happened thank you keep moving let's go I lined him up in three in the street let's go move [Laughter] oh yeah two days later we drove every last stinking Jerry out of Groningen for Sandy it was time to celebrate and he found just the right thing the 33. you want some [Music] but the party didn't last too long [Music] I paid for it I wound up in 109 British General in duffel in Belgium are you ready to eat yet foreign being poisoned it had been booby trapped with poison Germans left it behind and I was the only W that drank it [Music] on May 5th 1945 19 days after Sandy drank the bad wine Germany finally surrendered and now the lucky ones were going home but not me I was never going home again I'm not ashamed to my tears he was a good man good man many good men went but Dale Sharp was it was an exception oh I want to cry yes it's so tragic I can't tell you anymore about him Nelson's mustache that's where this come from I I liked I idolized Dale Mr shirt I can remember my mother being very sad um crying a lot I had an empty feeling after I realized what had happened I literally walked around I think for a few days just kind of in a fog I didn't know if I was coming or going what was happening with me I was so mixed up inside to think that I'd never see him again [Music] I try to do good for my dad because my dad's my hero [Music] I have never been to Holland foreign things in my life I've always wanted to be here and see this never thought it would once I get to touch his headstone I'll probably feel a real strong connection [Music] I love you Dad you've always been my hero sorry you died so young I'm old enough to be your grandfather now rest in peace [Music] that King is found by the day after the war and then I got the scared the scare my life it was supposed to have been some Canadian soldiers being held by some German troops who uh probably weren't aware that the war was over but I remember praying and I don't know what language I prayed but I prayed and all I'm thinking is I've been lucky I went through my nine lives something times dear Craig is very bad now I'm gonna get it I started yelling the war is over dick standby and you know I'm really waving that white flag there was no response hello you can see there's a campfire of sorts there and that was it big sigh relief pulled it up to fly oh trudge right back to the carriers to their home city of Montreal the black watch of Canada returned to receive a grand ticker tape welcome when the war terminated I was so happy the famous Royal Highland regiment sustained the greatest number of casualties of any Canadian unit on the Western Front I was happy that I I lived through it it was a relief The Killing was over [Music] the nurses come through and we all got a quart bottle of youngervale [Music] [Applause] when the war was over I knew it was the end of the end of the line I didn't jump up and and I did well I couldn't get on the bed then I was in the hospital thing when I come home my family ever asked me what happened there and I never told them I never did tell I had a knife with a big long blade on a switchblade you know and I took it I wouldn't throw it in the ground and buried it well there was only seven eight years old or ten [Music] I didn't want them kids to find that that knife they didn't even know what a war was [Music] I'm just uh happy that I come to tell somebody what was been in my insides all my life oh Sandy excuse me the black watch is my life my body does not carry normal blood it's black watch blood all the time Sandy we're trying to see how you doing overall that's the best thing that that ever happened to me being assigned to the black launch a black watch as long as you wake up yeah from the right side of the grass that's all buggers very proud and here we are we're still here welcome and every conversation every phone call I love you Jim I love you too thank you but I sure as I always I love that guy we kept each other alive and we did our job we did our job and I'm damn proud of it [Music] not too bad for an old drunk good yeah we'll just wait for the other guys recognize these I'll take that rifle just like the one I use shoes [Music] [Music] [Music] you hit the target four of the five [Music] thank you [Music] please [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: History Hit

Views: 618,221

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, world war 2, military history, black watch, world war ii, war documentary, second world war, world war two, wwii snipers, history documentary, canadian black watch ww2, black watch snipers, snipers, snipers in action, elite sniper, snipers in ww2, sniper rifle, d day, d day footage, history hit tv, history hit ww2, history hit tv documentary, canadian history, wwii veterans reunited, the black watch

Id: iWCrKatprzU

Length: 62min 47sec (3767 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023