Battlefield Mysteries

A-58 - your instinct was right, it was a style thing. It was an attempt to describe the style of narration that tries to over-dramatise a documentary and make it sound like a film (movie) trailer. That was my immediate reaction to the first minute of the Wittmann doc. It did get better, though.

 

Ok, thanks for the insight there. Yes, Americanization of things can get annoying to others, no question about it. It gets very annoying to me too at times, but it's what we do....

 

Shit !

This has started again ...Covering the Spainish Civil War tonight. I hate series link when it doesn't work

 

Ah, so "Americanized" is the American accent! And the Canadian version of English sounds like the way we speak English, which is different from the way the British speak English, but sound American when they sing. Yes, it all makes sense now. I was thinking that it was a style of presenting things....

As Churchill so cleverly put it, "two peoples, separated by a common language".

 

As Churchill so cleverly put it, "two peoples, separated by a common language".

Wasn't that G.B. Shaw?

 

Steve Petersen -
I believe that G.B. Shaw wrote " the Americans haven't used the English language for years " quote of Professor Higgins to the Colonel !

 

Thought the Spanish Civil War episode was very interesting.

 

I thought I would add a little to this conversation. I have attached as a PDF file a couple of pages of the submission of the National Council of Veterans Associations in Canada to the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission regarding the CBC Series, the Valour and the Horror. The Foreword of the submission outlines the objections of the collected organizations.

The entire submission without Newspaper photocopies in the Appendix and the Bibliography is 70 pages. If there is interest, I would take the time to PDF it for reference material.

cheers,
phil

 

On the issue of Americanization of History, I think of the number of publications over the years that I have read where, in the Great War, for example, the first years are almost ignored and what the Doughboys did is tant amount to doing it all single-handedly, John Wayne style. Even here in the medals department, you have the Inter-Allied Victory Medal as a good example of "over the Top" with all the bars issued for each battle or theatre on only the American version. I've never seen a bar for Paaschendaele on a British or Canadian medal for those who were there. [Not sure if there is a Paasch bar for the US medal or not, and it is used only as an example that falls out of my mind.]

The same with WW2 and the books and movies that give cursory, if not ignoring, the "Allied" contribution to the Total War Effort, not the American effort, which again started late in the War. Tom will tell you that there are 5,600 Canadians that we left in Italy and 40,000 more littered across the Continent and around the globe. That doesn't include the other Allied loses.

I will continue in this conversation later as I have to be off just now. It's the Scott Tournament of Hearts, Ladies Curling Championship Day, and I have volunteered for that army, so I must go and report for duty.

cheers,
phil

 

Phil,

Thanks - reading now.

It's the Scott Tournament of Hearts, Ladies Curling Championship Day, and I have volunteered for that army, so I must go and report for duty.

Is hairdressing a serious sport over there?

Andrew

 

Idler -
Try not to visit Canada with that view - these ladies mean business and the rocks they curl with will flatten anyone's ego
Cheers

 

Is hairdressing a serious sport over there?

Andrew


You could have your rocks taken out of the house for a comment like that! Some take curling seriously on this side of the pond!

 

They're in a bag ready to go (if I've interpreted the euphemism correctly).

Getting back on-topic. Until this thread came along, I would have lumped the Canadians in with the Australians and New Zealanders in terms of standing up for their countries' efforts. Seems that's not - or wasn't - quite the case. Has it changed for the better because of the V&H backlash?

The irony of it all is that I sometimes envy the positive approach of the US and Oz (not really seen seen anything from NZ) to their military history, even if the detail is sometimes open to interpretation. Although a lot of the damage is self-inflicted, the victors write the history and it appears that didn't include us.

 

Perhaps you may not know, but they curl with granite.



If you have a bag of these, ..............

Regarding the thread, do the words humble, self-effacing and quietly satisfied with all we have accomplished in the near century and a half of nationhood on the field of battle. Pick your regiment and the battle honours tell the tale. We just don't like to be forgotten that we were at the dance. How many Yanks were following the barrage of steel up that little hill called Vimy? How about Monte Casino? Dieppe? and a lot of other places and times .......


:canflag[1]:

I for one don't want our place in history watered down or forgotten. And as my regimental motto states, we are Semper Paratus!

cheers,
phil

 

Just caught this after recording it. Surprised to see an old friend, Norm Christie, presenting it. Norm used to work for CWGC back in the 90s.

Thought it was a well made doco with good use of film, actuality and technology.

And worth it just to see an interview with Ken Tout.
Just got round to watching this after I V+ it the other week and have to agree with Paul, the conclusion after all the work done by Christie was spot on, and finally we know what happened to Wittmann that day and didnt those Fireflys rip those Tigers apart!

 

Crawling out from under my stone, last night's The One Show featured an interview with one Joe Ekins (and Dan Snow for the ladies) from 21:40.

 

Crawling out from under my stone, last night's The One Show featured an interview with one Joe Ekins (and Dan Snow for the ladies) from 21:40.


I did warn Von Poop it was on, albeit at the time ... Quite interesting for a 3 minute ish slot I thought.

 

Perhaps you may not know, but they curl with granite.



If you have a bag of these, ..............

Regarding the thread, do the words humble, self-effacing and quietly satisfied with all we have accomplished in the near century and a half of nationhood on the field of battle. Pick your regiment and the battle honours tell the tale. We just don't like to be forgotten that we were at the dance. How many Yanks were following the barrage of steel up that little hill called Vimy? How about Monte Casino? Dieppe? and a lot of other places and times .......


:canflag[1]:

I for one don't want our place in history watered down or forgotten. And as my regimental motto states, we are Semper Paratus!

cheers,
phil
I don't understand the meaning of your post friend. Has someone attacked the Canadian participation in the war effort? No need to slam us because of it. I haven't read anything that belittled Canadian participation either lately, here, on ww2f or anyplace else. Of course we all know that there were no US troops present at Vimey Ridge. We weren't in the war yet. Maybe a handfull of individual Americans joined the Canadian Army were there, but then they'd technically be Canadians. The US 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions were involved in the battles around Monte Casino, along with units from many Allied countries, as well as a bear from Iran that served with the Poles. And for Dieppe, there was a platoon of Rangers serving with the British Commandos, who graciously invited them along after training them in Scotland prior to the raid. When I read or even see the word "Dieppe" I think of the Canadian Army.

As for getting involved in both world wars late, well, they weren't "our" wars yet. In other words, it didn't concern us yet. But it did later, and we showed up and tended to business to the best of our ability.

If you are concerned about your country's history, and rightly you should, the problem would ultimately be with your educational system, not Uncle Sam or Hollywood. We have enough of our own problems....

 

Cracking program. Love it - Especially finding the matching section of the tank turret.

AsloTrench Detectives, Finding the fallen, Not Forgotten etc etc.

 

Excellent programme, I think this clears up what finally happened to Wittmann and his crew of 007. I think it would be correct to think that the nearest Sherman (Canadian) to the Tiger fired the fatal shot. Enjoyed the bit about the farmer and his Tiger parts!