Captain G.E.Dainard C.D
overseas from Dec.1939 - 1945
Gave his best , all he had, and came home a shadow of himself.
Thank you Dad.
Picton ON 1939
http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9vrlplye.jpg
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Captain G.E.Dainard C.D
overseas from Dec.1939 - 1945
Gave his best , all he had, and came home a shadow of himself.
Thank you Dad.
Picton ON 1939
http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9vrlplye.jpg
My Dad and my Uncle. They both earned purple and both came home...
There was no one in my family that I know of in the service. What I do remember every Nov 11 is having to learn the poem "In Flanders Field" for memory work in grade school. At the time it meant little to me but as the years went on and my interest in history, especially Canadian history grew the poem became more and more significant and meaningful.
Yes, getting older brings a whole new meaning to Remembrance Day. John McCrae wrote that poem after his best friend was killed.
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john...ers-fields.htm
All friends or co-workers of mine. This is not a happy time of year for me
Afgan
Ainsworth Dyer
Robert Short
Robert Beerenfenger
Bobbie Girouard
Albert Storm
Jamie Murphy
Anthony Boneca
William Cushley
Anthony Klumpenhouwer
Frank Mellish
Rick Nolan
Plus all my friends who got wounded and the many who have taken their lives in suicide, due to the lack of help by this government and the previous one.
Bosnia
John Ternapolski
Mark Isfeld
Somalia
Mike Abel
There are three I am remembering,my Dad and Mom both served in the military but not in war. My Uncle was the only one that served over seas in war and passed away just a couple years ago. He told few stories but liked the one about how the one day they were up on a hill and their morning supplies didn't come, the guy they sent came back shouting about German's everywhere. They ended up sitting on that hill while the battle of the Bulge went by them (unknown to them, until they needed supplies) and then went back the other way. He had an interesting military career.
"As a member of the 8th Army Air Corps, he was the sole high school graduate selected to join the first class of college graduates for training in the new, top-secret Radar service. Attached to the 482nd Bomb Group, he became a radar specialist with a B-17 Pathfinder bomber crew conducting missions out of RAF Alconbury Air Field in England, using the H2X radar which he helped design.
In the final months of the war he served at ground-based radar stations in France and Germany near the front lines. During the Battle of the Bulge, a turning point of the war, his radar unit accurately directed bombers to important enemy targets and greatly aided the defeat of Hitler's Nazi forces."
There are interesting stories to be heard and told, I learned nothing about the flying part until I read his obituary. There are still heroes out there, I saw a picture of Russ Bannock making an appearance at an air show a few years back, no relation to me but I've always been intrigued by the intruder stories so I hope he is doing well. I've read his story in a couple books, I wonder how many other unknown uncle (cousin, grandfather...) stories are out there, I hope some take the time to ask.
http://www.constable.ca/caah/bannock.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Bannock
Flander's Field is a poem we studied in grade school and it is one of the few poems I have ever been able to remember - word for word. It had a profound impact on me.
I met a WWII veteran in 2002 - he had been with the Canadian artillery pushing north in Italy and he was strafed by a German fighter plane and the shells took a good chunk of his calf away - and killed a number of his battery mates.
My father-in-law is a former Korean war infantry soldier - he was a Bren gunner and a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment. He doesn't speak of the war too much - he can't. But he still has nightmares about it. And PTSD at age 89. I felt compelled to give these old soldiers something in recognition of their service and sacrifices - and this morphed into a poem I wrote called "We Remember". The perspective is that of ghosts from WW1, WW2 and Korea reaching out and imploring us to not forget them. Every year, at this time, I remember them all. Lest we forget.
We Remember
We remember a shrill whistle piercing the chill of morn
Urging us, old boys and young men to scramble over the parapet
And run, crazed of eye and damned of heart
Toward enemy trenches lying in wait in the early mist
Until cut down by lead-winged scythes
We become one with the reaping red ground
We remember the smell of cordite fumes
And the sweat of fear, cold and slick on our backs
As we struggle to bracket the thin, black crosses
Of enemy planes between the tracing arcs of shells
Spewing from our bucking guns
Until we witness the fiery end of foe
Mere moments before we are consumed by flak
We remember wave spume blown on grey expanse of sea
While the deck pitches and rolls beneath our feet
And the look-out’s anguished cry – too late the warning
As white-waked death comes stalking, comes charging
Comes crashing through hull plates and detonates
Breaking our ship’s back and, trapped within
Our souls surrender to eternity’s icy embrace
We remember slogging through rice paddies
Burdened by pack, rifle, lack of sleep and bitter cold
Looking up the snow-capped mountain
Where other men wait to repulse our advance
When suddenly unleashed, artillery shells
Come screaming and tearing through the air above
Erupting the ground beneath us
And shredding our bodies with furious finality
We remember that you mourn us less and less
We who once fought – and died – for you
And that our deeds fade from your eyes
With each passing season
Forget us not …
Not today
Not tomorrow
Not ever
Else you shall fail to keep us forever living
Within the comradeship of shed blood
And extinguished youth
Dan Beaudry 2002
I'll just place this here For all the Vet's and my Grandfather
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kX_3y3u5Uo
I had a great uncle who served in WW2. I think of his service on this day. However, I don't forget about all Canadians who have wrote a blank cheque for their fellow countrypeople.
If anyone is interested Farley Mowat wrote of his experiences in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment during Operation HUSKY. The best book of his writings is The Regiment. I read it when I joined "The Hasty P's". It is a great read and I have read it many times since.
Dyth
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dythbringer
You joined the Hasty P's!!! MY father was a Captain in the Hastings and Prince Edward regiment from, 1939-1945. Good for you.
Farley was their intelligence Officer- great books.
Remembering.....somehow that just is not enough ! We owe so much more to those who have fought, and continue to fight for us. This country needs to do much, much more to support the men and women of our armed forces !!
My wife's grandfather served overseas in WW2 and is still alive. He is 97 and one of the nicest human beings I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
My grandfather fought in the Dutch resistance and was captured by the Germans and than subsequently escaped and was forced into hiding for the remainder of the war.
My other grandfather was a POW for much of the war.
My father was too young to be really involved but used to courier messages for the resistance. 10 or 12 year old kids were not searched too often as long as their papers were in order.
My great uncle was declared a "Righteous Gentile" by the state of Israel after the war for the number of Jews that he saved and hid during the occupation.
My grandmother (wife of the POW grandfather) was forced to board German soldiers during the occupation. My mother who was 5 or 6 at the time used to make a point of telling every soldier in the house that the Fuhrer was going to send them to the Russian front where they would either freeze to death or get killed by the Russians. She did this every night before she went to bed.
That is a wonderful heritage.
Just saw this post. William A.E. McDougall RCN, Able Seaman Oct. 1940 to Nov 5 1945. Served on a couple of boats, but primarily on HMCS Ottawa (HMS Griffin H31 renamed Ottawa on transfer to the RCN). Just sent his Voluntary Service medal and his 1939-45 Star to school with his great-grandson on Friday to show the class. Also the man who got me into the outdoors. I miss ya Gramps!
Yea back in 1992-1993 before I headed off to the reg force while I was still in high school. 'Moro Company' (B Company) which makes the Peterborough armories home was where I signed up and was "assigned" to (assigned is in brackets as wherever you sign up is where you are assigned to).Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharon
Operation HUSKY (and the Italian Campaign) was just as important to the war as NE Europe or the Pacific theatre but was third on the priority list for everything from press coverage to logistical support. Though they successfully did the job they were tasked for.
We should always remember and thank our vets. The one gift that we can never give them is the time they lost, the friends gone in tragic moments, and the pain and terrors that they had to live through and still remember.
If only WE could remember, but let them forget the horrible event's and loses of war.
Absolutely ; and after waiting 3 years in England. My Dad was still mad that the Americans were allowed to enter Rome first , even thought he Canadians had gotten there first- support for the war was waning in the USA so they needed the PR .Quote:
Originally Posted by Dythbringer
So many of the Regiment were killed or wounded by the time they got to the Hitler line ( 1944), that the remainders were sent to other regiments in Holland to drive the Germans out and keep them out.
I still remember at about age 7 going for fruit at a local Dutch
farmer’s place in London and him refusing to let my Dad pay a penny. They never forgot what the Canadians did for them.
Lol. Funny you should mention that. I met Angus Duffy during my basic & infantry training with the regiment (at that time militia units were responsible for basic training until The Forces changed it to how they have basic being done in one place and then you had to go to specialty school somewhere else, I think in the late 90's they did that). It was a tradition that he speak with every training group to convey how special The Hasty P's were and to impress on us what kind of legacy we were inheriting. He had a question and answer period after he spoke and one of the recruits asked him if he had any regrets during the war. He said not being allowed to enter Rome first. He said it nearly broke the men and it was his duty (I believe he was RSM at the time) not to fail the men.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharon
Wonderful man that Angus Duffy. I'm sure you'll live up to the heritage that is yours.
My grandfather David Morris fought with Canadian regiments in WW1 and at the Battle of Dieppe, he was Welsh but made so many friends among his Canadian comrades soon as the war was over he immigrated to Canada and shortly thereafter his wife followed.
I am not longer with the regiment. Transferred to the reg force after I graduated high school. Thought about rejoining them but I moved to the west end of GTA for work. The commute would have been brutal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharon
My Father . Served 1 st world war