By Canadian Press

TV docu-drama ‘Black Watch Snipers’ profiles vets from storied Canadian regiment

Nov 8, 2016 | 11:00 AM

TORONTO — They suffered more casualties than any other Canadian regiment on the Allied Western Front during the Second World War.

Now, their stories are being told in the docu-drama “Black Watch Snipers,” premiering this Remembrance Day on History.

The film profiles Canada’s Black Watch regiment through the true stories of five snipers who worked side by side to help defeat the Nazis in the 10 months following D-Day on June 6, 1944.

Four of them, all in their 90s, were alive during the making of the film and appear on camera to describe their harrowing experiences.

“It’s a long and storied regiment,” says Robin Bicknell, the film’s director/producer.

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“They had three or four Victoria Crosses in (the First) World War … and so I think it was in and of itself a story that needed to be told.

“For example, their first battle at Verrieres Ridge, the first big battle, 97 per cent of the kids who went up that hill didn’t come back.”

The snipers who recount their tales in the doc are Jimmy Bennett, Jim (Hook) Wilkinson, Russell (Sandy) Sanderson and Mike Brunner. 

“Some of them have told their stories, even to their families or whatever, but certainly Jim Bennett … it was like I had turned a faucet on and it all just came pouring out and he said, ‘I’ve never told anyone this — not my family, not my wife. No one,’” says Bicknell.

The film is narrated through the story of Ontario-born Dale Sharpe, who died in battle and was said to be the hero of the group’s platoon.

Bicknell says she tracked down the Sharpe family and interviewed them for the film after hearing the other veterans talk about him.

The film has been “life-altering” for the family.

“They didn’t really know anything about what had happened to their dad after he had gone over,” she says.

“They knew some vague thing and they have the telegram that said what happened to him. They didn’t know the impact he had on all of these men.”

Bicknell says when she started the project, there were only about 20 veterans left out of about 5,000 that served in the Black Watch regiment, and of those, there were maybe 10 or 12 that could actually sit for an interview.

When she started production, she realized that four of the interviewees were not only personally close but they were part of the same platoon and had saved each other’s lives.

“Then on top of it, all four of them, separately, spoke about this Dale Sharpe character with such great reverence and sadness and honour, so I really felt like he had to be part of that film as well,” she says.

Bicknell retraced the steps the regiment took in 1944. She also hired actors for re-enactment shoots in Elora, Ont.

“It was moving, it was powerful, they laughed, they cried,” she says of the first-person accounts they filmed.

“It’s almost like we time-travelled a little bit and it felt like they were right back there and could describe it in such visceral detail. It was astounding, actually. My memory is not that good!”

Two of the real-life snipers who appear in the film — Sanderson and Wilkinson — have since died.

Bicknell was able to bring them and Brunner together during shooting (Bennett was unable to fly), and their reunion is captured at the end of the film.

“I took them to a gun range and gave them their old sniper rifles and sure enough, they could still hit those targets, honest to God,” she says. 

“The muscle memory just kicked it. It was amazing to watch.”

Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press