Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Canada's forces in WW 2

But very little dying and safe compared to Normandy!

KB

When I was stationed in Germany in the 1970s - then West Germany - there were a lot of Canadian veterans in their 50s and 60s visiting Europe. We had the chance to spend time with some, their German counterparts and veterans from other European countries. In my experience, most were ordinary men who shared some bad times. I lived in Hugelsheim which was on the Rhine River across from Alsace, France.

If you can imagine the war at your front door, the memories were still fresh in the minds of the people who lived there. It was barely 30 years after WWII. Unlike what you hear, the locals talked about the war and their memories, both good and bad. They did not keep it to themselves.

When I was posted to 4 Wing, Germany, there was a memorial marker and some graves located a short distance from the back gate that led to the village of Schiftung. I got there in 1979, shortly after a new memorial to these soldiers was erected near the road.
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This was on the memorial marker.

Gedenkstein für 31 deutsche Soldaten im Söllinger Wald zwischen Flughafen und dem Ort Schiftung nahe der Gemarkungsgrenze. Die Soldaten fielen bei Kampfhandlungen im Elsass am 19. Januar 1945 und wurden zunächst hier beigesetzt. Einzelne Tote wurden später in ihre Heimatorte umgebettet. 1976 errichteten überlebende Kameraden den Gedenkstein.

Translated - Memorial for 31 German soldiers in Sollingen Forest between the airport (Cdn Forces Base Baden - 4 Wing, Steve) and Schiftung (a nearby village, Steve). The soldiers were killed in combat in Alsace on 19 Jan, 1945. They were initially buried here. Later, several were reburied in their hometowns. In 1976, friends who survived put up this memorial.

Alsace was across the Rhine from the base.

Thank you for your service Mr. Redgwell, God bless!

KB

A good Canadian friend's dad was a German SS officer, when she showed me a picture of him in his uniform, in front of a German staff car with their Jewish's friends it put a entirely different light on things.

She said he surrendered to a black GI, and thought he was a goner when the GI reached in his pocket, then offered him a stick of gum.

The First Special Service Force:FSSF "Black Devils" was half US-half Canadian.
Highly decorated for service in Italy. At Anzio, German units moved
their lines back 1 KM to avoid nightly raids costly to the Wermacht.

Predecessor to US Army Special Forces.

What did, or do call the Canadian Navy's of the US Frogmen?

We call our frogmen 'divers' or PIDs - Port Inspection Divers. We used to call them clearance divers, but terms seem to change every 20 years or so.

In the spring of 1943, American and Canadian Forces attacked the Island of Attu to drive out the Japanese that had occupied the Island for a year.
Canada suppled recon and air support for the battle that became the second bloodiest battle of the Pacific Theater next to Iwo Jima yet many don't realize that the Allies fought a major battle on American soil.

I've often wanted to visit that area but Aleutian seas and I don't agree very well.

During a vacation in Florida (some time during the 70's I believe) I had car problems and had to wait in a G.M. dealership shop while waiting for a part to be delivered. The mechanic working on my car and I were chatting when the shop foreman came over and told the mechanic that he wanted him to work on a Japanese import. The mechanic told his boss flat out that he would quit before he would work on a Japanese car. An argument broke out while the foreman tried to save face in front of his customer but he eventually left and tried to find another mechanic who would do the work.

Turned out the mechanic who was working on my car had been in the Second War where he had fought the japs. He had such bitter memories he refused to have anything to do with any product that came out of Japan.

During my work career I met a German builder who worked in our city. During an evening get together one time he said he had been in the Luftwaffe during the second war. According to him he said many of the pilots were drunk or partially so when ever they flew. He thought the majority of them expected to be killed every time they went up. Eventually he became a multi millionaire and his name became a hallmark for quality buildings both here and in the U.S.

One of my uncles was in the reserves prior to the second war. He signed up and eventually became a captain by the end of hostilities.

By the end of the war I was only 9 years old so never had to serve.

Jim

Here is a link for more details, almost 2500 dead Japanese, only 28 survivors, 1,000 Americans lost,, on North American soil, and most have never heard of it.
This would be a good reason for the internment camps Canada had for the Japanese already living here, sadly, when at war what else are we going to do? we may be faced with a similar situation in the future.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-attu

I met a Canadian that served in the Alutas in WW2.

I met a Canadian that served in the Alutas in WW2.