“You were numbed”: Second World War sniper shares story in new documentary

November 10, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Mike Brunner has never been one to talk much about his wartime experiences.

When pressed, the Shelburne resident admits his time spent fighting in Europe during the Second World War was “harrowing” but is reluctant to delve further.

“I used up all my nine lives there,” he tells the Shelburne Free Press. “I was young, I was naïve, and I never thought I was coming back because I saw so many guys getting killed. You were numbed.”

Recently, however, Mr. Brunner, now 93, opened up about his experience – and those of his brothers in arms – in the new documentary “Black Watch Snipers”, which premieres this Friday, November 11 at 9 p.m. on History Television.

Black Watch Snipers, a production of yap films, follows the remarkable story of a “fearless Canadian sniper platoon during World War Two” with first-hand accounts of people that were there, and dramatic re-enactments to illustrate the story.

“Black Watch Snipers uncovers the events in ten months following D-Day in June 1944, as seen through the eyes of five snipers who led the charge in Canada’s oldest and most storied regiment, the Black Watch, which suffered more causalities than any other Canadian regiment during World War II” says filmmakers. “The snipers who led their platoon to victory and survived to tell the tale reveal the harrowing details of their march through Western Europe.

“This real-life Canadian ‘band of brothers’ sacrificed everything and endured the ultimate test of combat to help liberate Western Europe from the clutches of Nazi tyranny.

“The five young soldiers – Dale Sharpe, Jim ‘Hook’ Wilkinson, Russell ‘Sandy’ Sanderson, Mike Brunner, and Jimmy Bennett were all in their early 20s (or younger) when they volunteered for the sniper brigade. They joined partly as a way to avoid the daily drudge work the other enlisted men were forced to do, and partly for the thrills and adventure a sniper’s life promised a young soldier.”

Officers, they say, had the task of “turning these young kids into killing machines, capable of shooting an enemy dead at 300 yards, or learning to spot the highest-ranking German officer quickly and make him their target. Then, they were thrown into action.”

“I was numbed because they don’t tell you, or you are not involved in what the overall picture is,” Mr. Brunner tells the Shelburne Free Press, looking back. “You did what you were told and it became self-preservation, I suppose. But I don’t like to talk about what happened there and what I did there.”

Soon though, through the documentary, what he and his comrades did there will be known to a much wider audience.

Filmmakers tracked down the Montreal native in Shelburne asking if he would be interested in participating in an interview. Mr. Brunner says he said yes, but “almost regretted it.”

“I am not a speaker or anything, but I just talked to them the way I would talk to anybody,” he says, describing the filming process, which saw him reunited with two of his fellow snipers at a reconstructed firing range.

Mr. Brunner went into active service in October of 1942. Initially, he was training to become a paratrooper but by the time advanced training came along, he “flunked” when it was discovered he had a perforated ear drum.

At the time, he says he and his fellow recruits were hoping to join up with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry because they had become fond of the Regiment’s sergeant, but fate intervened when they were training in England.

“They rounded us up one day and, as it turned out most of us were from Montreal, they said, ‘Report to the Quartermaster Sergeant, you’re in the Black Watch,’” he recalls. “I knew all about the Black Watch, having grown up in Montreal. When the war broke out in 1939, I was a message boy for a novelty firm just around the corner from their armoury. When I used to go to work in the morning before 8 a.m., there was a café on the corner and every so often the place was raided and you had all these Black Watch guys coming out the back.”

He was 16 years old at the time, now he was a part of the group – and it was a group that left a lasting impression on his life.

Discharged from the Canadian Armed Forces, after fighting and serving with his Regiment as the allies made their way through Europe, he decided it was time to start making a living.

“A week or so after my discharge, I went to the Black Watch’s armoury to see my fellow comrades, but what I saw were a bunch of old guys talking about how they won the First World War,” he says. “They were all old fogies! I never went back to the Army until maybe 10 years or so later for a reunion. Then, at that reunion, we became the old fogies talking about how we won the war!”

Post-war, Mr. Brunner worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs in their discharge office, making $106 a month. That lasted until a friend of his talked him into working on a tobacco farm for a more impressive $11 a day. Working on the farm for a couple of months, he bumped into a friend and that led to a job at what eventually became Nortel, where the man interviewing him had a son who served with the Black Watch. He stayed with the company for 35 years.

“If I last another couple of years, I will have just as much retirement as I did service!” he says, adding that if the weather cooperates, he and his daughter and other family members will be making their way to Toronto for this week’s premiere. “I’m looking forward to hearing the stupid things I said!”