- [Dale Sharpe] 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. (gunshots) - [Dale Sharpe] Surviving impossible odds. - We had the highest casualty
list of any battalion. - [Dale Sharpe] We were the
battalion's top snipers. - There was less than 50 of us left. But there are four snipers. (gunshot) Funny thing. - [Dale Sharpe] Always the first ones in. - A sniper goes out to create mayhem. - Until they fired on you,
you had to keep going. (gunshot) - If you cannot shoot
accurately, you are gone. You only got one shot. (gunshot) - [Dale Sharpe] 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. (screaming) - It's them or us. - [Dale Sharpe] Only
one thing kept us going. - We looked after each other. That's how we survived. - My name is Corporal Dale Sharpe (gunshot) and this is our story. 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 Black Watch landed and we were sent in 20 miles to knock the Germans
off of Verrieres Ridge. But they were waiting for
us with everything they had. (ominous music) - I don't know how I escaped with my life. I should have been dead. I'll never forget that. Never forget that. (artillery explodes) (ringing) 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. (gunfire) You don't know what's going on. Guys could be getting killed 30 feet away. You don't see them. You don't care about them, you're trying to think about yourself. (gunfire) I could hear the guns firing, the shells of the bullets flying by. They're just dropping
like flies in the grass. (gunfire) It was bad. All the companies were gone. Hundreds and hundreds of them just gone. There was only 20 or
something that was left. - [Dale Sharpe] Our first big battle, 300 killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. The worst day ever for the Watch. It took another two weeks, almost a thousand more allies wiped out, before we finally kicked the
Jerries off that bloody ridge. - That's when I got out of that C company, I went into scout platoon. - Two 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. The scout is a guy that goes ahead, checks where the enemy is and fights with them if he has to." - The advantage is you won't
have to do sentry duty. - Right away, that was a 20 plus for me, 'cause I hated that. You have to fight all day and then guard duty all night. - I'll join. - [Dale Sharpe] The
Jerries were on the move and it was the Canadian
Army's job to chase them. The Black Watch marched on
foot north through France. Jimmy Bennett was just 21, a
farm kid from the prairies. He didn't know it yet, but as scouts, we weren't like the regular foot soldiers he fought with before. We didn't have to wear
helmets or haul gear. We were snipers and lookouts. We didn't fight on the front lines. We fought in front of it. - Hey, Jimmy. You joined the scout platoon? - Yeah. - You're nuts. - They couldn't understand
why I was stupid enough to go in a scout platoon. That's why they didn't want my job. Nobody offered to take my place. - [Dale Sharpe] Jimmy
was put under my charge. He'd seen his share of
war on Verrières Ridge, but never the way he was
going to see it with us. - I don't know what they told you, but this isn't like the rifle company. You're actually gonna have
to look at your target through a scope. You're gonna get a little used to them being alive before you pull the trigger. - [Dale Sharpe] Training him was the 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 Hook. That was due to the size of my nose, and most people never
knew me by my first name. I hate to boast, but I was one of the best
shots in the regiment. - [Dale Sharpe] 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 want me to, and I listened. I was good at listening. - [Dale Sharpe] Considering
who we were up against, understanding German came in real handy, especially in scout patrols. Me, I was 26, the old man on the team, at least that's how the boys saw me. - He was a big fella, wide as a bull, and as strong as a bull. - Dale Sharpe was type of a guy you'd want to follow anywhere. (gunfire) - Home for me was Corbyville, Ontario, where I drove a truck
for the local distillery. I had two kids, my girl,
Dale Jr., and little Teddy and a third on the way with the light of my life, Zelma June. Plenty of reasons to stay home. But this job had to be done for
my family and everyone else. (engines rumbling) By the end of August, we
caught up with the Jerries. We knew that each French town we came to was probably crawling
with the sons of bitches. 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
till somebody shot at you. If he missed you, fine. If he didn't, you're were a dead duck. That's the kind of business I was in. (ominous music) - You just become numb and immune. (gunshot) 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. - [Dale Sharpe] We clawed our way up the channel coast of
France and into Belgium to the port of Antwerp, the biggest in western
Europe for a big showdown. The Allies had already captured the port, but the Jerries controlled the Scheldt, meaning none of our
ships could get through from the North Sea. Without food, weapons and ammo coming in for our boys, we were sunk. Headquarters was set up
just outside of Antwerp. Our scout platoon was called into HQ. They wanted us to zero in on
where the Jerries had set up. - [Man] This is what controls
the entrance to Antwerp- - We get as much information as we can and pass it on to the headquarters and headquarters applies the information to their attack. - [Dale Sharpe] 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. - Joel Nixon was my commander at the time, said, he said, "Hook, we have a dingy 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. (distant bird cry) - We get to this small cluster of trees. There's a German standing guard duty. I said, "Dale, we gotta
take this son of a gun out." I can jump him and you stab him. (dark music) (screaming) - [Dale Sharpe] And that's
when it all went south. - There's a whole platoon of Germans in there having supper. (screaming) As he was being stabbed, he screamed. (shouting) (tense music) I said for Dale you better
start taking off your boots and a few other pieces of clothing, as we gotta swim across
this blinking Albert Canal. (gunfire) - Jesus, they have the boat still. - Just get in, get in! - [Dale Sharpe] Now we were
just trying to get out alive. - We got to the embankment, and lo and behold, the
dingy was still there. The rope they used was
too short to pull it back. (gunfire) The good Lord is looking after us. - [Dale Sharpe] The next couple of nights with more scouting, we started to get a pretty good picture of where the Jerries were
set up along the Scheldt. They were everywhere. Our scout platoon needed to beef up. The brass brought in
reinforcements, but not enough. - [Man] Halt. - [Dale Sharpe] Most were just kids who couldn't reload a damn weapon, nevermind shoot one. That's when Sandy, Russell
Sanderson came into the picture. - 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. - [Dale Sharpe] Sandy was
18 from Niagara Falls. He'd been trying to enlist
since the war first broke out. - I had a paper that said I was 18 and I was not 18 yet. I had my brother's paper. I tried the recruiting tent twice. - Sandy struck me as the cowboy type. Go here, go there, let's go. He was willing to win the war himself. - This is Corporal Sharpe. - Sergeant called me over and he said, "Whatever Dale tells
you to do, you do it." (engines rumbling) - [Dale Sharpe] My job
was to take these kids, Jimmy Bennett, Sandy
Sanderson and the others, and turn them into killing machines. And if they listened, they
might just make it home. - [Sandy] 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. - [Dale Sharpe] What
I knew about shooting, I learned back home teaching
my kid brother, Billy. - My brother, Dale, he was nine years older than I was. And he was on a pedestal
as far as I was concerned. He was an excellent sportsman shooter. (gunshot) He was my idol. (gunshot) - All right, straight ahead. Reference, gray building,
window on the left, third story up. - [Dale Sharpe] A sniper learns real quick that the best Nazi target is the one with the highest rank. You cut the head off the snake and the rest of the division goes blind. - I used to train sometimes
in a German uniform. Infantrymen, they got
a white band on them. If they're artillery, they got a red band. - What do you see? - [Sandy] I see a German. - What's he wearing? What's his uniform? - [Sandy] Infantry. - [Dale Sharpe] 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 use a sling as a brace. Now put your arm through there. - [Dale Sharpe] But spotting
a Jerry is only half the job. - Deep in the shoulder. See that bottle right there? - [Hook] 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. - [Jimmy] I had a telescope on it. - Squeeze that trigger. (gunshot) - You could pretty well hit a guy at 300 yards in the head
and no trouble at all. - How'd I do, Hook? - Let's see you do it again. - [Dale Sharpe] All the
training in the world can only take you so far. - Where are we going, Dale? - You'll find out when we get there. Stay quiet. - He takes me over to a place way out away from our guys. Laying down along the river. (tense music) - All right, Sanderson,
take your helmet off. Take up your sight picture. My 12 o'clock, look for the broken tree. - [Dale Sharpe] We weren't here to shoot bottles or paper targets. - There's Jerries on the
other side of the river. - Take up your sight pitcher, Sanderson. Look through the sight, Sanderson. - You don't know how
that guy's gonna react till you try him. - All right. Don't worry about the other guy. Just worry about the one. It's gonna be him or you. (tense music) 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. (tense music) (gunshot) - And you see that poor beggar go down and you know there's my first one. It's sad to say that we had 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 it had to be ended. So you do the job. - Sanderson, we're leaving. - You all right? - Glad to have you, Sandy. - [Dale Sharpe] We had our team, the closest thing we'd
ever have here to a family. - Let's go. (tank engines rumbling) - [Dale Sharpe] We were sent
out to the town of Wommelgem just over a mile from the front. The Jerries had just been chased out. For four years, the people
here had been beaten down, nearly starved to death, but
now they were finally free. That's when we came across something we thought we'd never see in
this whole hell hole of a war, ice cream. (speaking foreign language) The guy who ran the place hadn't seen milk in three years. Then somewhere, he found
this farmer and his cow. Now he was getting milk smuggled in. (speaking foreign language) - Food was a factor, because the Germans were
confiscating everything, so they had to scrounge. (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) - Right, fellas. Black Watch. - [Men] Black Watch. - Little kids would come along and they were starving to death. It was terrible. They just kept getting skinnier
and thinner and thinner, and there was nothing you could do. - [Dale Sharpe] When the Jerries
pulled out of this place, they robbed these poor people
blind, took everything. It reminded us why we were
here, to crush Hitler, get the world back on track. For these kids and mine. (children laughing) (speaking foreign language) - You put your left hand
in, your left hand out, your left hand in, and
you shakey all about. You do the hokey pokey
and you turn around, that's what you're all about. - [Dale Sharpe] We liberated
part of France and Belgium. Now we were headed to Holland. It was time to kick the
Jerries out of the Scheldt and open up the port. We were gonna be fighting
on land flat as a board, flooded to high hell. Getting in and out alive
was gonna be tough. Our 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 a different
jacket, camouflage green. - You just keep your fingers crossed and hope you get out of it. You don't expect to live very long. - You boys all clear on the plan? - [Men] Clear. - All right, good to go. (tense music) - Lads, out of the truck. (tense music) - [Dale Sharpe] We were on what's called a listening patrol. - Get as close to the enemy and be in a hidden position. (Germans speaking in distance) - And you'd just never know
from one minute to the next what's gonna happen. (tense music) (Germans speaking in distance) - Going out on a listening
patrol was absolutely miserable. - You don't know whether
you're walking into an inferno of guns. (speaking German) (crickets chirping) - [Dale Sharpe] The goal
was finding their HQ. That's where we'd dig
up our best information. Getting there was another
thing, pure suicide. - Listen at windows for
the number of voices. Any mention of weapons or places. (speaking German) - [Mike] We have a major
and a first officer. - I really didn't hear much. - He's leaving, yeah out the back. - You walk along the road very quietly and we'll see if we can hear them, and then we'll sneak up on
them and get a prisoner. - Ready? This is a good spot, go get Brunner. - Got it. (tense music) - You always had a couple of
grenades hooked on your belt. - Brunner! - You get close enough to
them and you'll say, "Halt." And he halts or he lays
on the ground dead. - Halt! - You don't just ask him
to come, he won't come. He's not gonna come if you
just run up and ask him. You have to take him. Take him back and interrogate him. (speaking German) - [Dale Sharpe] Halfway through October, we were working around the clock, sniping and running patrols, gearing up for the big
battle at the Scheldt. We were dead tired. The only thing that kept
us going was each other. - You developed such close friendships. - Okay, let's go. - You went through the same
perils and dangers and mishaps. - Jimmy, hold here. - I'm a nervous person, but Michael Brunner used to always try and get me to slow down. - Take a deep breath. - 'Cause he was a cool fellow. (tense music) You're going out and a lot of times you're scared like hell. (gunfire) - Go, you're in the best position. (gunfire) (grunts) - We're clear. - Even with 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. - [Dale Sharpe] But here's
the thing about war. Even going back into your own lines, you're never really safe. - Hook and I were coming back, and we had to come through
the Maisonneuve lines. - [Dale Sharpe] The
Maisonneuve were one of us, a French speaking regiment from Montreal, but we still needed to use a password to clear the security checkpoint. - Hey, halt! - Whoa, don't shoot! - [Dale Sharpe] The password
changed every night. - The password that
night was steamer trunk. - Steamer. - Uh, bag. - The guy says, "Steamer," and you have to holler, "Trunk." If you don't holler, "Trunk", you can get shot right there. - Steamer. - It's uh... - [Soldier] Well? - Luggage, baggage. We couldn't think of the damn word trunk. - [Dale Sharpe] Without a
password, we were cooked. - Black Watch, we're Black Watch! - Black Watch, you kidding me, boy? Show me the feather, boy. - And you always carried your Balmoral inside your sniper's jacket. It's your recognition, and there's no one else has that, eh? - The feather. - Come closer. - There's the feather, boy. See, Maisy, that's our feather. - Black Watch. (laughing) - The Black Watchers, old Black Watch. The password is trunk. (laughing) You can go past, you can go past. - Thought you were gonna shoot us. - [Dale Sharpe] 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 Jerries were set up just outside the Dutch town of Woensdrecht. They were on an embankment around half a mile away from our
position over open ground. - It was like a funnel that
was high ground on one side, and high ground on the other side. - [Dale Sharpe] The Black
Watch were sent in to fight. But this time the scout
platoon had to go too. Reinforcements were still too green, so it was all hands on deck. - There were just former artillerymen, drivers, cooks, everything. We taught them to use a gun. We taught them to keep
their head down too. - [Dale Sharpe] 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 Germans had bombed
and opened up the dykes. - [Dale Sharpe] Once we finally got there, we waited for what seemed like forever. - It was supposed to go
in 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 crack of dawn. (tense music) It was first light. There's a big difference between
last dark and first light. You can see everything that moves. We went out there and it was murder. (gunfire) - [Dale Sharpe] We were up
against German paratroopers and they could fight like all hell. (gunfire) - Every time we'd move, we'd get a mortar or a rifle crank. - [Dale Sharpe] We were
caught in a no man's land. (gunfire) - Guys were dropping all over the place. (gunfire) - Just like am I dreaming
or is this the truth? How am I gonna get out of this mess? (gunfire) (gunfire) (gunfire) - It was a black day for
the Black Watch again. (gunfire) - [Dale Sharpe] 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 hurt. It hurt when you can't help somebody and you know bloody well that his escape route is just cut off. (men screaming in distance) - The second worst day
we ever experienced. We lost 100 men in there. - [Dale Sharpe] Now we were mad as hell. We turned it up a notch or two. - Whenever the Germans wanted
to fight, we fought them. (gunshot) We just kept pushing
them harder and harder. (gunfire) - We ramped up our sniper patrols. Our boys fought hard. We took back the Scheldt one flooded field, one
tiny town at a time. - It was a sense you, you
could almost taste it. - [Dale Sharpe] Hitler's
luck was finally running out. With each Dutch town we freed, we rounded up prisoners
and snagged souvenirs for good measure. - As we went through, I found a swastika. (shouting) It was a little trophy of the war, a little souvenir. - Having fun yet? - And you just stood a little taller, make it a little show off too. - After what we'd been through, you couldn't blame us for
wanting to rub their faces in it. 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 Goes. We needed to know if it was
safe to bring in the battalion. Were there any Jerries still
crawling around somewhere? That's when we sent in Hook. - I was the first Allied shoulder in Goes. I was on patrol, a one
man patrol all by myself. - It was a very, very strange day. I remember everything of the war. Everything, and the liberation. On the day of the liberation, there came a man in
clothes that I did not know and something on his head. That was the first Canadian
soldier that I saw. - 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." - [Dale Sharpe] We chased off the Jerries and freed a town that
for the last four years lived under the dirty boot of the Nazis. (cheering) War is strange. One day, you're bearing your best friend. The next, you're setting
hundreds of total strangers free. (cheering) - They were sure glad to
see the last of the Germans. (cheering) - My mother cried out "That are the liberators,
that are the liberators! We are free, we are free!" Even flags came on the
front of the houses, that we have not seen in
four and a half years. (cheering) It is unbelievable. I can hardly tell it without feeling the emotion again. - You just don't believe
how much the Dutch people appreciate what the
Canadians have done for them. - There girls come along. I said, "Mike, you can speak Dutch?" I said, "Yeah." I said, "There's a nice little girl. Tell her I love her, I love her good." (laughing) (cheering) - [Dale Sharpe] 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 winter 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 Cuijk, a few miles from the German border, the Jerries on one side of the Maas river, us on the other. Bunking up with locals was a nice break from sleeping on the ground. - When we were in Cuijk, Jim and I wound up in this house with a real elderly couple. They slept in the basement
while us lucky guys, we slept in their bedrooms. Every time we woke up in the morning, our boots were polished,
greased and everything. She washed our shorts
at night and hung them, all dried out in the morning. We got up, our shirt
was all washed and dry. In the 10 months that I
was on the front lines, that's the only time I was in a bed. - [Dale Sharpe] It was Christmas, and for the first time in a long time, we almost felt normal. - There was a cafe in the town of Cuijk, and there was a middle-aged
lady and she had two daughters. - I always liked girls. We're not going to go into that, though. - Jimmy, you know, he was trying to tell her different things and I had to sort of interpret for him. Whatever he said, I would say. I always thought of him
the Dean Martin type. Dark, good looking. - He used to say, "How come
you get all the girls?" - You just felt like you're- And he's out ready to
tell them I love you. - I was young then. (soft music) - [Dale Sharpe] 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 happy new year. With all the love in my heart, Dale. Mostly Cuijk 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. - Me and Sandy were on this hill, we were working together that day. - [Sandy] There's nothing out there. Jerries are out here somewhere. They're just hiding. - Jesus, look at that Jerry. - That son of a gun's watching us, Jim. - He's aiming dead on to Sandy. Put your head down. (gunshot) - Killed him deader than a doornail. - I thanked him profusely. - It's all right, Sandy, it's all right. - We looked after each other. That's how we survived. - [Dale Sharpe] 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 Sharpe and I were assigned to see if we can get some information such as capture a prisoner or prisoners. And we got into a farm yard, which was actually on the German side. I see a body. We get closer and closer and
he doesn't move, nothing. I go to put my hand on him. - Don't, could be booby trapped. - Oh, they'd booby trap their
mother if they had a chance. (tense music) - [Dale Sharpe] And
that's when we saw them. (ominous music) - Two Germans. - I said Dale, "We'll kill one and take the other one prisoner." - All right, on three. - [Dale Sharpe] Only one
problem with that plan. - One, two. (gunshot) (agonized screaming) - Bang, I take a bullet in the right leg. I took the second one
in the patella, my knee. (screaming) I said, "I can't move, Dale." (screaming) I said, "I'm done." (screaming) Dale is able to drive off
which two guys in the back. (gunfire) He picks me up just
like a bag of potatoes. Dale says, "Don't worry." He saved my life when
carried me across the valley. - You're doing real good, Huck. You're doing real good. They're gonna get you back to the doctor. - My leg was hanging off,
they fractured the bone. - Hey, Dale. Take care of the boys. - Bye, Hook. - He saved my life. Beautiful man. - For Hook, 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. - Now it's payback time. Retaliation, you're
damn right, retaliation. They started the thing and
somebody's gotta pay the bill. (tanks rumbling) We observed the engineers going in and knocking houses down with bulldozers and just blew them all to the devil. It wasn't pretty, but it was necessary. It was necessary, they
had to be taught a lesson. (distant gunfire) - [Dale Sharpe] But in
this Reichswald forest, the enemy had home field advantage. There were booby traps,
landmines and machine gun nests. Our job was to clear the way for our boys. (gunfire) - They're having trouble with
a rifle company advancing. (screaming) And this time they may show themselves at one end of the company. (gunfire) A Jerry laid on them with machine guns. (gunfire) My job was to take out the gun and put a bullet into the bloody operator. (gunfire) I could tell he was gonna
take out the rifle company. (gunfire) The rifle company men started to move and he let go of blast of
about five or six rounds. (gunfire) I was fully loaded. (gunfire) I had a beat right above his right ear. (gunfire) (grunts) No mercy. You couldn't show it anymore. - [Dale Sharpe] By the
first week of April, we chased the Jerries across the Rhine and pushed north back into
Holland, near the town of Laren. We set up camp near their main
line, just outside of town. We could finally see the light
at the end of the tunnel. We had those dirty Nazis
right where we wanted them, against the ropes. But sometimes it's just a question of being at the wrong
place at the wrong time. (explosion) (groaning) - The doors banged open and in comes a couple of guys carrying what turned
out to be Dale Sharpe. - Sorry, Mike. - I was hit bat with shrapnel. - Give me a hand here, pressure. - [Dale Sharpe] I was
losing a lot of blood. - The medic asked me to hold something and put back his intestines. They were sort of out of the stomach. I was scared. I didn't know Dale Sharpe
was gonna live or die. - Brunner, Colonel needs
you right now, double time. - [Dale Sharpe] That's
when Mike got called away. My field medical 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. (tense music) - There still was thousands
of Germans entrapped in there. (gunshot) Hit me one in the chest. - Move, move, move, move! - Everybody started,
we all started running. - Mike. - He fired again, hit me in
the back of the head once. Piece out of my ear, and
a piece out of my skull. - [Jimmy] Mike. - Jimmy, Jimmy! - I'm gonna die. - No, you'll be fine. - I could taste the blood
coming out of my mouth and nose, and I knew I was, bullet
went through my lungs. - I'm gonna die, I know it. - Hold on, hold on. Hey, hey! - A Jeep came along the road. It was a Red Cross Jeep. - He's my friend. He's been shot in the chest and the head. Help him. - There's no point, son, he's gone. - You're a medic, do something. - There's nothing I can do. - And I said, "God damn
it, the guy's shot. Do something." - If you know what's good for you, you'll put him on your Jeep. - I think he'd have
shot him, sure as hell. - Okay, Jimmy, they're
coming, they're coming. Stay with me. (Jeep engines rattling) - And I just hoped he would stay alive till we got to the EMO. That's all you thought about. (people murmuring in distance) Those two days were the worst in my life. And I apparently, I was
crying most of the nights, but I don't remember a thing about it. My guess it just hit me. That was the first time
I cried for anything. (engines rumbling) (somber music) - [Dale Sharpe] 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 Jerries. By now, they were desperate, like a wild animal backed up in a corner, more dangerous than ever. - And they pulled back some place, so I got called in. Find them for us. We want to know what,
who and how many, Sandy. Everything. There's none of our troops there. I'm alone in that side of the city. No activity over on the streets. - Hands up or I'll shoot. - All of a sudden, a
German soldier appears. (tense music) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) - I figured about 20, just
over maybe 20, 25 or so. - Okay, lads, get those grain
guns to the front, let's go. - And I'm cursing, I'm like "Get that machine gun over there. Put that bread gun there. You guys, go that way." And I'm hollering to imaginary troops. - I want two columns, one on the left, one on the right. You guys, down in the back. - And 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. (tense music) - And I thought, "You
gonna get it right now." - Let's go! - They put their weapons on the ground. - Get against the wall. Hands up against the
wall, let's go, let's go! (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) - [Sandy] Keep moving, let's go. - And I lined them up three in the street. - [Sandy] Let's go, move. (chuckling) Ah, yeah. - [Dale Sharpe] 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. (eerie music) - It's a '33. Want some? - [Dale Sharpe] But the
party didn't last too long. (sighs) - I paid for it. I wound up in 109 British
Generel in Duffel, in Belgium. - Are you ready to eat yet? - No. - From the damn wine being poisoned. It had been booby trapped with poison. Germans left it behind, and I was the only dummy that drank it. (cheering) - [Dale Sharpe] 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. (somber music) - I'm not ashamed of my tears. He was a good man, good man. Many good men went, but Dale Sharpe was, he was an exception. - Oh, I'm gonna cry. It's so tragic. I can't tell you anymore about him. - He had his mustache. That's where this come from. I idolized, I idolized Dale. (somber music) - Mrs. Sharpe. - I can remember my mother being very sad. 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. (somber music) - I tried to do good for my dad, 'cause my dad's my hero. I have never been to Holland. It's one of the most
important things in my life. I've always wanted to
be here and see this, never thought I would. Once I get to touch his headstone, I'll probably feel a
real strong connection. (somber music) - I love you, dad. You've always been my hero, huh? I'm sorry you died so young. I'm old enough to be your grandfather now. Rest in peace. (somber music) (speaking foreign language) - The day after the war ended, I got the scare of my life. - There was supposed to have been some Canadian soldiers being
held by some German troops who probably weren't aware
of that the war was over. (speaking foreign language) 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 umpteen times." (speaking foreign language) Now I'm gonna get it. I started yelling, "The war is over!" (speaking foreign language) and you know, I'm really
waving that white flag. There was no response. - Hello? - You can see there was
a campfire of sorts there and that was it. Big sigh of relief. Pulled it up, the flag. Trudged right back to the carriers. (celebratory band music) - [Announcer] In their
home city of Montreal, the Black Watch of Canada return to receive a grand ticker-tape welcome. - When the war terminated, I was so happy. - [Announcer] The famous
Royal Highlands regiment sustained the greatest
number of casualties of any Canadian unit on the Western Front. - I was happy that I lived through it. (cheering) - It was a relief. The killing was over. The nurses come through and we all got a quart bottle of Younger's ale. (cheering) - When the war was over, I knew it was the end of the line. I didn't jump up and I didn't- I couldn't get out of the bed then, I was in the hospital. When I came home, my family never asked me what happened there and I never told them. I never did tell them. I had a knife with a big, long blade it, a switchblade, you know. And I took it out and threw it
in the ground and buried it. I had brothers only seven,
eight years old and 10. I didn't want them kids
to find that knife. They didn't even know what a war was. I'm just happy that I
come to tell somebody what's been on my insides all my life. - Hello, Sandy. - There's that old buggar. Jimmy. - The Black Watch is my life. - Come here, you old buggar. (chuckling) - My body does not carry normal blood. It's Black Watch blood. - A long time, Sandy. - For Christ's sake, how you doing, Mike? - Hello. - Good to see you, Mike. - Overall it's the best thing
that ever happened to me being assigned to the Black Watch. - Just to be alive. (laughing) - Sandy. - I'm very proud of being a Black Watch. - God, it's good to see you, buddy. - Running the race out of
the grass, us old buggars. - I'm very proud. - And here we are, we're
still here, God damn it. (laughing) - Old buggars. (laughing) - I end every conversation,
every phone call, I love you, Jim. I love you too, Sandy. I sure as hell wish that Dale
and Jimmy Bennett were here. - 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. (soft music) - Not too bad for an old drunk. - Good. - Recognize these? - I'll take that rifle. Just like the one I used to use. - Holy mackerel. (gunshot) (gunshot) (gunshot) - Yeah, you hit the
target, four out of five. (soft music) ♪ We see thee rise ♪ ♪ The True North strong and free ♪ ♪ From far and wide ♪ ♪ O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. ♪ (bagpipe music) (cheering) (somber music) (somber music) (somber music)
