History / Topics & Posted Articles

teentitan- That is awesome. Well written, and describes what we went thru, felt. I served 77-01, as a Rad Op, and I can relate to all of that. I could feel it, smell and taste it all again. Now I am, like alot of you an old soldier, but we would do it all again, if we wern't all busted physically and mentally.
Tks
VVV...

Just seen this piece served with Tommy late 70's/80's in gagetown. A good man funny to, a transport hit a moose in front of us we were on a exercise in petersville he got out with a shovel and tried to remove a hind quarter funny as hell as tommy is almost as wide as he is tall but a real power house of a man a dull shovel against tough flexable moose hide he got his exercise but not his moose steaks.

for my Airborne brothers whoa

KINGSTON, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/03/13 -- Veterans of the famous Devil's Brigade, serving and retired members of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), all gathered this evening at Canadian Forces Base Kingston for a ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte (Mount) La Difensa.

The Devil's Brigade, also known as the First Special Service Force (FSSF), was a joint US/Canadian force formed during the Second World War in response to the need for a specially-trained unit capable of unique or "special" operations. Upon arrival in the Mediterranean Theatre, the FSSF was given the extremely difficult mission of taking the German-held, 963-metre mountain protecting the approaches to Rome, Italy.

Monte La Difensa, officially known as Hill 960, was the first major battle for the FSSF. The Forcemen, as members of the FSSF were known, battled rain, fog and snow during the night of December 2-3, 1943 to scale the treacherous northern side of the mountain as part of their surprise attack against the German positions. After an intense battle, despite sustaining severe casualties on the mountain, the members of the force were successful in taking their objectives.

"Canada is proud to recognize the devotion of the Forcemen of the First Special Service Force and their accomplishments seventy years ago during the Battle of Monte La Difensa," said the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of National Defence. "It is appropriate that we take the time to recognize these soldiers and the contributions they made during the Italian Campaign and the Second World War."

The FSSF was a unique combined US/Canadian military formation from the Second World War whose creation underscored the longstanding military, political and social cooperation that exists between our two countries. The FSSF was a truly "combined" military organization that witnessed Canadians and Americans serving side-by-side as a single formation with a unified internal chain-of-command. The organization was so closely knit that it was difficult to differentiate Canadian from American.

"The historic actions of the men of the First Special Service Force cannot be forgotten. As the first unit of its kind, and with a significant record of success, Canadians should be proud of the outstanding accomplishments of the FSSF," said Brigadier General Denis Thompson, Commander of CANSOFCOM. "Anniversaries such as this allow personnel both within CANSOFCOM, and the Canadian Armed Forces as a whole, to learn of their history from the men that actually fought the battles - it is imperative that we capture their stories and learn from their experiences."

Currently the FSSF legacy and battle honours are perpetuated by the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) and the United States Special Forces (USSF).

Notes to editor / news director:

A CANSOFCOM documentary video of the 70th Anniversary of the Battle for La Difensa will be posted in the Canadian Forces Imagery Gallery.

Contact information:

For more information or for interview requests with CANSOFCOM personnel and/or FSSF veterans on the topic of the 70th Anniversary of the battle of Monte La Difensa, please contact Major Steve Hawken, Senior CANSOFCOM Public Affairs Officer, at Office 1-613-945-2209, Cellular 613-797-6249 or steven.hawken@forces.gc.ca

http://www.einnews.com/pr_news/179216767/veterans-of-famous-devil-s-brigade-commemorate-the-70th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-monte-la-difensa

i honestly love a history lesson thanks Mr. Paivio. RIP por el pais

Last week, an important but often overlooked era in Canada’s history came to a close with the death of Jules Paivio, the last surviving Canadian veteran of the Spanish Civil War.

A member of the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, Paivio travelled with volunteers from all over the world to Spain in 1937 in an effort to help a beleaguered republic gripped in a brutal civil war.

Regarded by many as the opening salvo of the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War saw the fascist forces of Francisco Franco—aided by dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini—rise up against the democratically elected Popular Front government of Spain.

A broad coalition of left-wing interests, the Popular Front brought together socialists, trade unionists, communists, and anarchists in a brittle political alliance backed by theSoviet Union.

With foreign volunteer troops raised by the Moscow-based Comintern network and organized into the International Brigades, more than 30,000 international volunteers were recruited. In all, more than 1,500 Canadians made their way to fight in Spain.

One such volunteer was the then 19-year-old Paivio of Sudbury, Ontario. An ardent anti-fascist, Paivio shipped out to Le Havre, France and made his way over the snowy Pyrenees to Spain on foot, where he was eventually assigned to the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

In the spring of 1938, Paivio was part of what later became known as "The Great Retreats" after the Republican army lost their stronghold in Aragon with the fall of Teruel. Under withering and continuous assault, the International Brigades, as well as Spanish troops, fell back to the Mediterranean to regroup in Valencia and Catalonia.

On March 31, 1938, Paivio and members of his patrol were captured by Italian fascist troops near Gandesa and lined up against a wall to face a firing squad. Just as they were to be shot, an Italian officer drove up and dismissed the firing squad, realizing that his international prisoners could be exchanged for fascist prisoners-of-war.

After spending more than a year in a P.O.W. camp and surviving the Fascist victory in the civil war, Paivio was released and shipped to France, where he made his way back to Canada.

Upon his return, there were no parades, and no federal veterans benefits—in fact, there was no official recognition at all for the men who had first faced down fascism. Distrusting the political inclinations of the members of the Mackanzie-Papineau Battalion, the Canadian government kept them under close surveillance and often limited their activities.

When the Second World War broke out, Paivio joined the Canadian Army, but was not allowed to travel overseas due to his association with the Soviet-backed International Brigades. For the duration, he taught map-reading to troops during their training in Canada.

After the war, Paivo studied architecture and later went on to teach at Ryerso nUniversity. He remained active in social causes, recently telling a journalist that citizen involvement was something close to his heart.

Two years ago, at a ceremony at the Spanish Embassy in Ottawa, Paivio was honored by the Spanish government and given full Spanish citizenship in return for his military service.

“It is difficult to thank them with the intensity they deserve,” said Spanish ambassador Eudaldo Mirapeix, “through him we honour them all.”

At the time of his death, Paivio was 96 years old.

http://www.straight.com/blogra/423466/jules-paivio-last-surviving-canadian-veteran-spanish-civil-war-dies

Trying to stay cool in the muggy heat of France may have resulted in a Canadian soldier joining the enemy — and remaining there for the past 69 years.

The likely answer to a mystery dating back to the Second World War was exhumed in France last week, when forensic scientists pried open an old fibreglass box to reveal the bones inside — bones that were long assumed to be those of an unidentified German soldier.

Standing just metres away from the enigmatic remains, officially listed as a German killed on Aug. 13, 1944, was Medicine Hat lawyer Lawrence R. Gordon — and it’s his firm belief the nameless warrior is in fact his namesake uncle, Lawrence S. Gordon.

“It was a bit of an eerie feeling — the boxes aren’t very big, and each one holds an individual soldier. All of the bones are in there,” said Gordon.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind that we’ve got the right person — I’m satisfied that we’ve got Uncle Lawrence.”

DNA testing, now underway at the University of Wisconsin, will provide the final proof in about three month’s time — meanwhile, compelling physical evidence suggests the remains previously known as soldier ‘X-3’ are in fact Private First Class Gordon, a Saskatchewan farm kid who joined the U.S. Army while working in Wyoming.

PFC Gordon vanished on Aug. 13, 1944, after his armoured car — part of a U.S. Reconnaissance Company scouting in Normandy, France — came under attack, and its occupants were all killed.

But when it came to recovering the bodies, there was no Private Gordon, just a corpse without dog-tags, wearing a few items of German military clothing and equipment — hence, the assumption it was a dead German.

Gordon was gone, but the Canadian’s wallet, bloodstained and burned, somehow made it back to Saskatchewan with a letter explaining he was missing in action — how it arrived home remains a mystery, because there was no name or address in the billfold, just a photo of the family farm.

The lack of closure haunted the Gordon family, who spend six decades wondering what happened to their relative — the fate of his brother bothered Gordon’s dad so much the younger Lawrence made a promise to someday visit the graves in France where unknown Americans are buried.

Lawrence R. Gordon kept his promise, going to France in 2000 — but then in 2012, he received a call that suggested his visit was probably a few miles off the mark.

It was an American war historian named Jed Henry, whose grandfather had served beside the Canadian.

Henry had tracked all 44 causalities from the 32nd Armored Regiment of 3rd Armored Division, finding the resting places for all but one: PFC Gordon.

He wanted to find the missing soldier — and of course, Gordon wanted to find his uncle.

And so the sleuthing began. Poring over old records, they learned the unidentified remains from his uncle’s battle were sent to a temporary U.S. cemetery, and one soldier, because he had some German gear, had been transferred to a crypt for unidentified German soldiers.

German clothing on an allied soldier? Not impossible, given the oppressively heavy wool of their own gear.

That and a shortage of clothing may have convinced PFC Gordon to borrow from the enemy, never imagining it would lead to him joining the German army in death.

“The U.S. hadn’t issued their summer uniforms by August, so they may have scavenged what they could to stay cool,” said Gordon.

It seemed like a promising lead — and so, with the permission of French and German officials, they were allowed to conduct DNA testing on soldier X-3.

But Gordon, who attended the opening of the German ossuary with his brother Sam and Jed Henry, among others, doesn’t need DNA to convince him.

A unique feature recorded on his uncle’s war record was a lower jaw missing key teeth, in a very specific order.

After the crypt was opened and the fibreglass box brought out, Gordon says his first look at the jaw bone gave him the answer — it was an exact match.

“I look at that and think, that’s not going to happen very often, and to have two people with that exact tooth pattern killed at the same time and same place on the battlefield is really stretching it,” said Gordon.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/09/17/alberta-man-believes-unidentified-remains-found-in-french-cemetery-may-be-missing-canadian-second-world-war-soldier-lawrence-gordon

The following is an exerpt of my follow up letter to then Minister Blaney and the following was about the history lession I gave Blaney personally in Kingston last Novemeber. The link to his letter is at the end. The complete letter I sent is on the RCMP and Police Services Threat.

Mr. Blaney
We met at the Canadian Military & VETERAN Health Research seminar at the Ambassador Hotel and Conference center in Kingston on November 27, 2012 . You were sitting with three of your aides in the coffee shop prior to your speech at 0830 hours that morning. I was the RCMP veteran wearing the RCMP patrol jacket with my medals from my three UN tours that I gave to Canada i.e. Cyprus 1980/81 (Miltitary), Croatia 1992/93 (RCMP human rights monitor) and Kosovo 1999/ 2000 (RCMP to enforce law).


I asked you if you knew who the first British colonial Recipient of the Victoria Cross was and you did not have a clue. I stated that it was ;
Sgt. A.L. RICHARDSON , North West Mounted Police, regimental number 3058 who showed valour and courage at the battle of Wolve Spruit in 1900 during the Boer War. THE FIRST BRITISH COLONIAL SOLDIER TO RECEIVE THE VICTORIA WAS A NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICEMAN who served under the command of Lt/Col. Samual Beneford (Steele NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE) who created the Lord’s Strathcona Horse to fight as cavalry in the Boer War at the request of Lord Strathcona himself. Sgt. Richardson was with the RCMP from 1894 to 1907.

I ask you Mr. Blaney, when did the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and its predecessors the North West Mounted Police and Royal North West Mounted Police STOP being veterans???

Was it when Sgt. Richardson saved a comrade pined under a wounded horse during the Boer War? Was it during the First World War when the Royal North West Mounted Police served as a cavalry regiment in France and Flanders (A and D Squadrons)? Was it when the Royal North West Mounted Police 1917 were instrumental in creating the Canadian Provost Corps? Was it when the Royal North West Mounted Police served as Cavalry in Siberia ( B Squadron) with the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force during the Russian Revolution in 1919? Was it when King George V in 1921 bestowed upon the Royal Canadian Mounted police, the military distinction and honour of being a Military REGIMENT OF DRAGOONS in order to display a Dragoons Guidon (Military Battle Flag) displaying the previous and future BATTLE HONORS)? Was it was when the Number One Provost Corps RCMP served in World War Two in Italy ( some of these RCMP officers are still alive today)? Was it when Canadian Government asked for volunteers from the RCMP to serve overseas in Namibia in 1989 and numerous other United Nations Missions to date? Was it when the Canadian Government asked for RCMP officers to volunteer, train, and be equipped by the Canadian military with gear and weapons to serve in Afghanistan at the start of the combat mission in 2007 to the end of the combat mission in 2011 and are still there to date? Was it when an RCMP Sgt. was critically wounded by a suicide bomber in 2010 in Kabul Afghanistan?, Was it when two RCMP officers were killed during the earthquake in Haiti in 2011? Was it when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were bestowed the honor to replace the Queen’s Life Guard during the 2012 Olympics the second time in British and Canadian history, the first time during the coronation of King George Vl in 1937 as a Regiment of Dragoons?
Mr. Blaney when did the Paramilitary organization called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the officers who have served since the beginning of Canada, stop being veterans? To deny the Royal Canadian Mounted Police its status as veterans with the Canadian Military is to dishonor the memory and valor of Sgt. A.L. Richardson NWMP V.C. again the first Canadian and British Colonial recipient of the VICTORIA CROSS for Valor not to forget all those Mounted Policeman who gave their lives and sacrificed for Canada both here in Canada and abroad???




https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8SGiOlXB8-vUFBpakItczNFOVU/edit?usp=sharing

OTTAWA -- It took the Japanese army less than a week to defeat Canadian, British and Indian soldiers at Hong Kong in December, 1941.

But the war crimes committed by Japanese soldiers against Canadians started before the surrender.

Four Winnipeg Grenadiers were executed after surrending at Jardine's Point and another was shot on the forced march to the North Point POW camp. Two members of the Royal Rifles of Quebec and some Canadian medical staff were killed after surrendering an aid station housed in a Catholic mission. One Canadian, Capt. Overton Stark Hickey of the Royal Canadian Army Services Corp, was killed as he tried to prevent Japanese soldiers from raping Chinese nurses. The nurses were shot as well.

Ken Pifher was a 20-year-old rifleman with the Royal Rifles when he was captured by the Japanese, one of 1,689 Canadians made prisoners-of-war during that awful December who would then spend the rest of the war trying to survive the harsh and brutal regime in the Japanese camps. More than 260 Canadian POWs would not survive and perished in the camps.

"It was hell," Pifher told me when I met him last Remembrance Day at the cemetery in Hong Kong where nearly 300 Canadians who died defending Hong Kong are buried.

Pifher is now 92 and I thought of him and other Canadian veterans of Hong Kong as I learned of the shameful decision last week by two members of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet to visit a shrine that honours all Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. The visit was made on the 62nd anniversary of Japan's surrender.

That decision by those cabinet ministers to fail to note the difference between those who died serving their country in an honourable way and those who sanctioned, ordered and committed torture, mass killings, and rape enraged the governments of China and South Korea who promptly summoned Japanese ambassadors in Beijing and Seoul and gave them an earful.

Canadian diplomats weren't prepared to raise the same official stink with the Japanese the way the Chinese and the Koreans did. They would prefer, instead, to focus on that fact that, in 2011, the Japanese government formally apologized to those Canadians, like Pifher, who suffered terribly during their imprisonment by the Japanese during the Second World War.

Pifher, too, said he would prefer to focus on the apology when I spoke to him by phone this weekend. Though he lives in Grimsby, Ont. now he was in Winnipeg attending the bi-annual gathering of the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association.

"The apology should serve as the sure thing," he said.

Of course, Canadians were not the only victims of Japanese atrocities. There were Chinese, Australian, Dutch, British, Kiwi, Korean and many other nationalities who were victims of mass killings, officially sanctioned rapes of so-called "comfort women," human experimentation, and torture of POWs committed by or sanctioned by Japan's Imperial Army during the Second World War.

Pifher, to me, is being graceful and respectful when it comes to modern Japanese politics.

I worry, though, that the decision by Abe's ministers to visit the shrine where war criminals are treated just like any other soldier or sailor who died in the service of the Emperor of Japan will lead to perverse historical revisionism. Many members of Abe's nationalistic, right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party have long been on record as preferring to remember Japan's Second World War history differently or to forget certain aspects altogether.

And so, if we wish to remember and honour the sacrifice of Pifher and millions of others who fought against tyranny in the Pacific and in Europe against the Nazis, we must confront anything that hints of whitewashing Japan's imperial past.

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/18/japans-politicians-cant-shake-memory-of-war-criminals

It speaks volumes for the Canadian character that when our soldiers hear battlefield gunfire they run towards it — not the other way.

It is in their training — some might say their national DNA — to actively go into harm’s way wherever it presents itself.

So it was 71 years ago when Canada made its opening land-based foray into the European theatre of the Second World War.

Just after 5 a.m. on Aug. 19, 1942, an amphibious force composed almost entirely of Canadian infantry went ashore near the French town of Dieppe and suffered an horrendous toll in a fight that was as good as over by 10:50 a.m.

In those five hours and 50 minutes, a total of 3,623 of the 6,086 men (almost 60%) who made it ashore were killed, wounded or captured.

The figures include 913 deaths and 1,946 captives, some of who died in German prisoner-of-war camps, according to Veterans Affairs.

It was a massive price in blood for the men of the Canadian Second Division who lost more prisoners than in the whole 11 months of the later campaign in North-West Europe, or the 20 months during which Canadians fought in Italy.

Canadian strength had already been tested elsewhere, with close to 2,000 men and women involved in the fall of Hong Kong. They had fought for 18 days but were eventually overwhelmed by superior Japanese forces.

In a way what happened at Dieppe was a continuation of that desperate fight to hold that British colony as the world desperately worked to find a way to halt the forces of tyranny.

Canada’s losses on the pebble shorefront at Dieppe were not in vain.

Planners took away lessons on how to conduct an opposed amphibious landing and applied them with detail to D-Day.

Lord Louis Mountbatten, whose Combined Operations Command had planned and executed the raid, long maintained that the lives lost at Dieppe saved thousands more at Normandy.

“The battle of D-Day was won on the beaches of Dieppe,” he insisted, justifying it ultimately as “one of the most vital operations of the Second World War. It gave to the Allies the priceless secret of victory.”

Maybe.

What is more certain is Canada had asked for the Dieppe assignment and sought a purpose for the troops already stationed in Britain and anxious to play their part.

They knew the risks but as one of Canada’s last survivors of the raid told me last week, he was “excited” at the chance to take on the Nazis.

It was why Arthur Rossell had left the family farm and joined the Essex Scottish Regiment.

Rossell told me he “wanted to fight for freedom and fight for Canada.”

The fact Canadians went looking for action has subsequently been confirmed by Victoria Cross winner Lt.-Col. C.C.I. Merritt.

He said after the war: “We were very glad to go, we were delighted.” Taken prisoner during the assault, Merritt recalled, “We were up against a very difficult situation and we didn’t win; but to hell with this business of saying the generals did us dirt.”

Canadians have been involved in conflicts since Dieppe including D-Day and Korea, more recently in the mountains of Afghanistan. There has been peace to keep as well in places as far apart as the Balkans and East Timor.

All combatants have been heirs of that Canadian tradition of moving towards the fight and not away.

As for those who gave their lives at Dieppe, three simple words suffice.

Lest we forget.

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/16/remember-lessons-learned-at-dieppe

 WOV. true story for sure. It touches the heart of the soul. seen it many times and often wondered does anybody understand it. You brought it all back to life again thks. As for bigrex telling and reading what it was on the t-stone, well I'm still laughing my s-locker off. I always wondered where the two-bit ........... came from. LOL

thank you for those words widow like soldier said the picture is irrelevant just the meaning.

propat

Thank you all.

You guys are taking it better than I was. Thank you for making me take it in a different way.

I'll take the picture as a joke.......lol.

Widow of Veteran

life is about laughing off our little mishaps, so no big issue. I am just shocked that someone would put that info on a headstone. "Here lies Ellen, she was a whore!" lol

Hey WOV no your husband would be proud a pictures says a thousand words and IN the content of your photo has only made us remember of common practices back then, but may also add are still being done today, ex, arlington USA,France,UK with some modifications some of the larger cemetery have placed monuments at those sites where the general public can place coins for the sake of ease, a good exsample is here in CANADA where our public buy the poppy for a penny ,nickel,ext then they place the poppy on the grave, ex tomb of the unknown soldier Ottawa same concept so good job sister in reminding us all on traditions. RUCKSACK031