Yes. July 10 1943 to May 5th 1945. At the end of the war, eleven million souls produced the third largest air force and the fourth largest navy. Historians on the British and American side will tell you that the Commonwealth countries were all rolled under the comforting wing of the British. Having just visited the Rhine crossings, one gets a better perspective of what the Canadians did to liberate Holland from the Germans. We could have used a few more Spielbergs along the way, though.
Randy you should see what they did to free the Italians - from anywhere in Italy or Sicily - before they went to Belgium - Holland and Germany Cheers
We know Monty pushed in the Jocks & Canucks for all the shit in NW Europe. From 'Spring' to Faliase to the Ports to Leopold to Breskens to Walcheren to the Island to Arnhem to Groningen. The Water Rats did all the crap for him, with little or no glory. Best Rob
Interesting answers. Thanks. Let's see...I've done Operation Berlin and Leer...so I guess that I could pick any of the above...hmmm...
JohnS You could start at the beaches of Sicily- Agira - Ortona - Liri Valley - Gothic Line and beyond- that will keep you busy Cheers
Tom, That is why I started with July 10, 1943. Correct me if I am wrong, but is that not the date that the Canuckians landed in Sicily.
Randy quite right - straight from the Uk - 1st Cdn div took the place of the British 3rd Division and lost their HQ officers when their plane went down on the way out to Cairo to study the plans of 3rd Div - that was when Symonds took over - think it was Salmond who was killed - lost a complete hospital on the way out but the nurses had a hospital going within three days of landing by scrounging all sorts of stuff- 1st Div were green as grass on landing but Monty thought they were great….we then joined them along with Gerry Chesters brigade after Ortona when they were made into an assault Division and replaced the exhausted KIWI's for the Liri valley battles - breaking the Hitler line in two days... cheers Cheers
Randy and I visited the river crossing site at Gorssel (Holland) & will post some photos of the site, as soon as Randy returns home - since I forgot to take my camera with me !!#@!! Another Canadian battle that is overlooked: 1945 battles of 1st Cdn Army to liberate of NE Holland; still could do with a good book in English. This was no walk-over and even involved an operation of SAS troops parachuted in northern Holland (Op "Amherst"). BTW JohnS - many thanks for your study on Leer. Your book was a great guide for our visit to Leer and enabled us to locate and visit all of the Canadian crossing sites around the town.
Stolpi, KLM has just landed the camera and me safe and sound on Canadian soil. JohnS We recce'd the area around where Cpl Goldberg perished. More to follow.
Op CHESTERFIELD, the attack on the Hitler Line on 23 May 44 in support of the VI (US) Corps breakout from Anzio. FdeP
Hong Kong. There's a lot of stuff lying around about it, but IMHO, not deep enough. The mere fact that there is no Mark Zuelkhe's volume covering it, warrants further digging into the "campaign".
[/quote] BTW JohnS - many thanks for your study on Leer. Your book was a great guide for our visit to Leer and enabled us to locate and visit all of the Canadian crossing sites around the town. [/quote] Thank you! I am glad to help.
I am looking forward to sitting down with you to discuss this further. And since the camera is safe and sound I am looking forward to seeing the pictures.
Hong Kong and what happened to them afterwards is a very sad story. I know one veteran who was put in the bottom of a ship with other POWs and shipped to Japan. They weren't given any food and the conditions were terrible. This would be emotionally a very difficult book to research and write and that is probably why nobody has really taken it on...yet.
My father, Edmund, always spoke very highly of his Canadian comrades/friends and especially remembered when the Trois Rivieres Regiment provided close support on 6th October 1943 at Temoli and also when 11th CAR helped out at Sanfatucchio on 21st June 1944. best