The following article was published in The Home-Town News, St. Lambert, Montreal 23, P.Q., Vol. 11, No. 8, November 1, 1945.
Robbie Coveney On Gun Three Hundred Yards Away From Command Post That Received Two Direct Hits
SGT. ROBBIE COVENEY, RCA (1939), son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Coveney, 235 St. Lawrence, recalls the same incident as Art Holmes, when the regiment took the brunt of Jerry’s counter-battery work in the centre of the Gothic Line. “It was the heaviest night we put in in Italy,” says Robbie. “Jerry seemed to know that both the 7th and the 23rd Batteries were using the same house as a gun command post and he sent over all he had.”
Fortunately Robbie, as a sergeant of a gun crew, was three hundred yards away on gun position when two direct hits were made on the house. Two were killed and twenty-five wounded, four seriously. One of those killed was Robbie’s particular chum from Smith’s Falls. After further shelling the gun positions were changed and they moved out of danger.
For more articles from this issue of The Home Town News, see:
“Old Originals” from St. Lambert volunteered to serve during WWII.
St. Lambert Roll of Honour – 1945.