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I have been reading up on Canada's contributions to world War one, and it's staggering. Almost 1 tenth of the population served, one third of those died were wounded or captured. And especially in the last 100 days they played a key role in winning the war. Rest easy soldiers you are not forgotten
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Canada's Contribution
They didn't hang around in WWII either, Dorothy. They were in at the beginning alongside the Anzacs and there were a lot of fighter pilots that wore the CANADA arm flash on their uniforms. If you watch old WWII films that show Canadians their uniforms were identical to the British and they even had the old Lee Enfield rifles. I'm pretty sure the Canadian War Memorial is still in Grosvenor Square and the Anzac and Polish War Memorials are close to where I live.
I was up there yesterday and there were people from the High Commisions at the service.
When I was in the Para's in the late Fifties, the Canadian Government were often recruiting our blokes into the Canadian Fire Fighting teams that used to parachute into the fire's, into the middle usually, so some of the debt was repaid. The Commonwealth still survives. If ever you visit over here,let me know, I'll show you how to find the war mermorials, bring a few American friends as well because a lot of them came up to Canada and swore they were Canadian and not Americans, and joined the RAF. There's a memorial, in Grosvenor Square, to the 'Eagle Squadrons' and it carries the names of all the American Hurricane and Spitfire pilots who died and their ages. I often stopped and went to read them but it's sad, some were still in their late teens. The Eagle Squadrons were formed from the Americans who came over and there were enough to form two full squadrons.
If you have the time, read up the Victoria Cross winners, you'll find a lot of Commonwealth names on the list.
Hope it never happens again though.
Frances
The Silly War
I am pretty anti-war (although not anti-veteran). WW I was stupid, and was fought for stupid reasons. Generals were stupid to send thousands of men across no man's land when that had failed every time in the past, yet was tried again and again. It took four years to finish the damned thing, not the four months initially thought. It bankrupted England and the stupid peace almost ensured that the war would resume 20 years later.
But WW II was not a silly war. It was a necessary battle to end world domination by the axis, plus the holocaust. That is why we refer to those people as the Greatest Generation.
Dawn
Canadians and World War I
One of the things Canada contributed to World War I is that they refused to do things the British way. The British way was to appoint officers based on money or nobility and not on competence. The British officers were in the habit of NOT sharing plans and information with those under them.
Canada tried working under British officers for a bit and then rebelled. They insisted on being included in the planning states at the very top. And then they shared info with the people under them so that when things went wrong (which of course they did) those at the lower levels had the information necessary to unscrew the pooch and save the day.
That thinking is why US
That thinking is why US troops were with French troops until US commanders forced the powers that be to see that their troops could fight as well as the Europeans. The arrogance ignored US troops weren't entirely green since they fought multiple times since 1897!
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
No plan survives contact with the enemy
"No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength" Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke. von Molke recognized the need that "Subordinates would have to use initiative and independent judgment for the forces to be effective in battle." Wikipedia. They can't use their judgement if they don't understand the objective. Canada's approach was correct and necessary. Modern armies are too large for one commander to oversee everything. If they can't delegate, they will lose.
I'm Californian, not Canadian, but my sister was a landed immigrant for a few years in the late '60's, and I visited her in Toronto. And, when I studied highland bagpipe in the mid-'60's, I met men who had gone to Canada at the outbreak of war so that they could serve, while America remained officially neutral. My first bagpipe teacher had served with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada during that war.
Annie Price
I made reference to this book in her story
https://www.amazon.ca/Guns-Victory-Soldiers-Belgium-Holland/...
A sequel to 'The Guns of Normandy', it tells of the slow breakdown of an artillery spotter in WWII. You may recognise the scene where he is hiding behind a wall while an enemy gun dismantles it stone by stone. It tells of the dreadful fight of the Canadians to clear the approaches to Antwerp, a nightmare largely forgotten by today's historians.
Holland
Not sure about Antwerp but the Canadians will always be remembered for liberating the Dutch. It’s 70 years later and we still get a gift of hundreds of tulips each spring to decorate Ottawa.
Dawn
Antwerp
The port was crucial, but it is a looooong way from the sea, down a river, the banks of which were held by the Germans. Antwerp was not just the target of a lot of V-weapons but also the goal of the Bulge. High dikes, muddy/flooded polders, awful fighting. The Canadians took that load and took it as Canadians do.
Dutch tulips
Holland contributes 20,000 of the over one million tulips planted in Ottawa each year. If I remember correctly, we get the some of the experimental strains the Dutch develop a year before they go on sale. (I live in Ottawa - an awesome place to live.)
That's direct...
That's direct...
don't forget the indirect: shipping, mining raw materials for production, ammunition and weapons manufacturing, food production. The list goes on and on. Just being linked to US railroads helped as materials were routed via Halifax, St. John, Montreal etc. Canada and Newfoundland (since they were still separate then) contributed more than anyone gives them credit for.
And as a Bostonian, we know full well the plight of civilians due to the war as we helped Halifax 101 years ago when the Mont Blanc exploded killing 2,000. The citizens of Halifax and Nova Scotia still repay Boston's kindness and help. A special celebration is held as a Christmas tree is given to Boston each year as gratitude.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime