Legion Magazine 2017-05-06

CANADIAN SPIES IN THE FAR EAST

MONTGOMERY VERSUS ROMMEL

U-BOATS IN THE GULF

BOERWAR MAY/JUNE 2017

THE

P LU S

CANADA’S FIRST FOREIGN WAR D-DAY

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Canada’s fighting spirit was first tested overseas from October 1899 to May 1902, when more than 7,000 soldiers and support personnel were sent to fight in South Africa’s Second Boer War. See page 20.

Well-armed members of the Royal Canadian Regiment, Canada’s first contingent in the South African War.

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Features 20 CANADA’S FIRST FOREIGN WAR

The South African War was the first test of Canada’s fighting spirit overseas

By Mark Zuehlke

32  A QUIET VICTORY IN THE GULF

How Canada shut down the U-boat assault in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

40 THE MAGNIFICENT ELEVEN

A self-invented war photographer’s 11 surviving photos immortalize D-Day By Stephen J. Thorne

46 HUSH-HUSH HEROES (PART 2)

Canada’s Second World War agents in Asia By Sharon Adams

By Marc Milner

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COLUMNS 12 MILITARY HEALTH MATTERS Halting the blood loss By Sharon Adams

14 FRONT LINES THIS PHOTO Squadrons in Lord Strathcona’s Horse and Foot were made up of troops recruited in their own districts. No. 3 Troop, photographed in March 1900, was comprised mainly of men from Moosomin, Sask.

Suspended vice-admiral’s surprising views By Stephen J. Thorne

18 EYE ON DEFENCE Hard spending decisions needed By David J. Bercuson

ON THE COVER For these well-armed fighters—like all Boer-republic males aged 16 to 60—service in commando groups was mandatory.

30 FACE TO FACE Was it right for Canada to send troops to the South African War? By J.L. Granatstein and Tim Cook

Canada Patent and Copyright Office/LAC/PA-028894; Public domain

88 CANADA AND THE COLD WAR Struggling to stay shipshape By J.L. Granatstein

90 HUMOUR HUNT Discovering Bartholomew Bandy By Terry Fallis

92 HEROES AND VILLAINS Montgomery and Rommel By Mark Zuehlke

94 ARTIFACTS GNATs versus CATs By Sharon Adams

96 O CANADA John McCrae’s baptism of fire By Don Gillmor

DEPARTMENTS 4 7 10 53 64 86 87 87 87 87

EDITORIAL LETTERS ON THIS DATE IN THE NEWS SNAPSHOTS UNIT REUNIONS LOST TRAILS REQUESTS MARKETPLACE CLASSIFIED

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EDITORIAL

The arbitrary age of 65

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ll and injured veterans are still waiting for clarity from the federal government on how it intends to provide them with lifelong financial security. The federal budget tabled on March 22 included some new spending for veterans and their families, but it left a big one—lifetime payments—unresolved. The budget promised $624 million in new funds over five years, including expanded benefits for education and career transition and increased financial support for caregivers. And it repeated the government’s commitment to offer qualifying veterans the option of disability award payments for life, but deferred to later this year the details on how this would work. Prior to 2006, a lifetime monthly pension was available to ill and injured veterans. Then the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and THE LEGION IS Compensation Act, ADVOCATING TO also known as the CONTINUE THE New Veterans Charter EARNINGS LOSS (NVC), replaced that lifetime pension BENEFIT FOR LIFE. with a disability award that provides Canadian Armed Forces members or veterans with a lumpsum tax-free payment for long-term injury or illness resulting from military service. The NVC also introduced other new financial and disability benefits, health and rehabilitation services, and education and job-placement assistance. The legislation was designed to be a “living charter,” open to periodic refinements as shortcomings became apparent. And there were shortcomings. Disgruntled veterans, supported by The Royal Canadian Legion and other

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veterans advocacy groups, have lobbied for improvements since the NVC came into force. By 2011, the government could no longer ignore their pleas. It passed Bill C-55, which enacted the charter’s first significant refinements. Others followed. In a review of the NVC in 2014, the allparty Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs recommended that eligibility for lifelong benefits be “clarified,” and that the earnings loss benefit (ELB) for veterans in rehabilitation be increased. The Legion itself has long advocated for lifelong financial security for the most seriously ill and injured veterans, which it says is the group that suffers most from the charter’s shortcomings. The ELB is a case in point. It is a taxable monthly payment provided to qualifying veterans taking part in rehab services. The ELB tops up their total income to at least 90 per cent of their gross pre-release military salary (this had been 75 per cent before October 2016). It is paid until their rehabilitation plan has been completed, or to age 65. The Legion is advocating to increase the ELB to 100 per cent of pre-release income and to continue this benefit for life. Which makes complete sense. It’s true that, like most Canadians, seriously ill and injured veterans will start to receive Canada Pension Plan payments starting at (or around) age 65. And most do have a CAF pension (indexed to length of service, which is often pretty short for young soldiers who become severely wounded, injured or ill as a result of their duty). But these are people whose medical condition has rendered them unable to work for long periods, which has a drastic impact on their ability to lead a financially secure life. They have missed out on—they have lost—untold earning opportunities. This is but one more of the many sacrifices they have made in service to the country. Injured and ill veterans deserve a better deal. The government has a sacred obligation to care for those who signed up despite the risk of injury or death. And that care should not be cut back at the arbitrary age of 65. L

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U.S. Postmasters’ Information United States: Legion Magazine, USPS 000-117, ISSN 1209-4331, published six times per year (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November/December). Published by Canvet Publications, 866 Humboldt Pkwy., Buffalo, NY 14211-1218. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, NY. The annual subscription rate is $9.49 Cdn. The single copy price is $5.95 Cdn. plus shipping and handling. Circulation records are maintained at Adrienne and Associates, 866 Humboldt Pkwy., Buffalo, NY 14211-1218. U.S. Postmasters send covers only and address changes to Legion Magazine, PO Box 55, Niagara Falls, NY 14304. Member of CCAB, a division of BPA International. Printed in Canada.

Subscribe now at legionmagazine.com/subscribe or call 613-591-0116 We acknowledge the financial support of the Govern­ment of Canada, through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF), for our publishing activities. On occasion, we make our direct subscriber list available to carefully screened companies whose product or services we feel would be of interest to our subscribers. If you would rather not receive such offers, please state this request, along with your full name and address, and e-mail [email protected] or write to Legion Magazine, 86 Aird Place, Kanata ON K2L 0A1 or phone 613-591-0116.

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LETTERS Comments can be sent to: Letters, Legion Magazine, 86 Aird Place, Kanata, ON K2L 0A1 or e-mailed to: magazine@ legion.ca

Eager to enlist

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found Tim Cook’s article “The Battle for the Ridge” (March/April) very interesting, especially when I turned the page to see the same cap badge that is in a photo I have of my great-grandfather, Private Alexander Green. He was in the 107th Overseas Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He signed up in Winnipeg on March 18, 1916. He lied about his age, saying he was born on Aug. 20, 1882,

when he was actually born on Aug. 20, 1871. I have heard that men tried to say they were older than they were to enlist but I cannot imagine a man well into his 40s lying about his age to sign up. Green never did see action on the front as he dislocated his right shoulder in England when he fell eight feet from a wagonload of logs. We are very proud that at his age he tried to make a difference in the war effort. Later in the war, his son served with the Fort Garry Horse.

DALE BAKER, BALMORAL, MAN.

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LETTERS

Have artifact from infamous Zeppelin We were excited to see the story of Wulstan Tempest and Zeppelin L31 in the “Artifacts” column (January/February). The Canadian Forces Museum of Aerospace Defence has an exhibit about the air defence of Britain during the First World War, and we actually have a flask that belonged to L31’s Heinrich Mathy. We display it as a highlight of a Canadian accomplishment and the risks taken by Zeppelin crew members. Thank you for your great articles. BETHANY AITCHISON, CURATORIAL ASSISTANT, CANADIAN FORCES MUSEUM OF AEROSPACE DEFENCE, NORTH BAY, ONT.

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Troubled by article I just finished reading “Veterans and suicide” in the January/February issue. I find the subject very disturbing and difficult for me to understand. When I came home after the Second World War, I never heard of suicide or post-traumatic stress disorder. Perhaps I was just too busy getting a new start on life. This I had to do on my own, other than a $450 re-establishment cheque that I received. No other help was offered, nor did I expect any. In spite of that I did OK. I tried to forget the war and all the bad things I saw as a front-line soldier doing reconnaissance in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. There are many studies going on as to why so many of today’s veterans are having difficulty adjusting to discharge. Could it be partly because of poor recruitment practices? I don’t believe everybody is fit to be a soldier, so if that can be determined, it would go a long way to eliminate problems. Certainly, it requires a good study.

Rescue story creates interest

I just want to say what an awesome job you did on the article about the Pollux and Truxtun (“Cold comfort,” January/February). It is getting great reviews from here and in the United States. Many are asking where to get copies. I have watched your Military Moments video (legionmagazine. com/coldcomfort) twice myself. Thanks again. MARGARET ISAACS, CO-CHAIR, LITTLE LAWN MEMORIAL TRAIL OF HEROES COMMITTEE, LAWN, N.L.

GEORGE ST. CYR, MILTON, ONT.

Correction A photo on page 40 of the March/April issue should have identified the woman operating a switchboard as a member of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC). L

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Technologies Canada, Canadian Safe Step Walk-In Tubs, Revera Inc., Arbor Memorial Services Inc., Medipac Travel Insurance, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Philips Lifeline Canada and MBNA Canada Bank. Look for their listing on page 6 of this issue and for more information and links to savings please check them out at legionmagazine.com/ en/member-benefits-package/

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SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending for Legion Magazine @VetsOmbudsman Thank you @Legion_Magazine for drawing attention to the findings. Tweeted out: Report studies pain and suffering/Veterans and Suicide

@biggsjames007 @Legion_Magazine Thank you for posting my mother’s photo in the Mar/April issue.

@SeamusORegan Beautifully written and wonderfully laid out. Worth a gander! Tweeted: Cold Comfort: Interactive web experience: www.legionmagazine.com/coldcomfort @wadenanewsed We are so fortunate to have those who serve. #Canada150 Retweeted @Legion_Magazine tweet: Thinking of all those who served and continue to serve on #CanadianFlagDay #Canada150

@bchamp69 @Legion_Magazine @TerryFallis Witty and self-deprecating start, wouldn’t expect anything less! Or is that more? Either way, I like! Tweeted out Humour Hunt: 57 is the new 40.

@mfisheroverseas Fine piece in @Legion_Magazine by my friend, Stephen Thorne, who spent so long in Afghanistan himself with the Canadian Press. Tweeted out Portrait of inspiration: Reclaiming his life The Honourable Mayann Francis, ONS Military Moments: Canada’s first black battalion. It was an honour to narrate the story of the No. 2 Construction Battalion. Thank you for the invitation to take part in this historic moment, such an important part of Canada’s history.

Follow Legion Magazine on social media to keep up-to-date with the latest Advertisement

Courtesy of Canadian Forces Museum of Aerospace Defence; DND/Legion Magazine archives

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ON THIS DATE

May 2017

1 May 1945 Cape Breton Highlanders attack German strongholds in Delfzijl, Netherlands. 2-3 May 1953 The Royal Canadian Regiment is hammered in the Battle of Hill 187 in Korea: 26 killed, 27 wounded, seven taken prisoner. 3 May 1917 Lieut. Robert Combe captures 80 prisoners near Acheville, France, and is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. 4 May 1945 HMCS Uganda sails to join the campaign to shell Japanese airfields in Okinawa. 5 May 1950 Eight dikes fail in Winnipeg; 100,000 evacuate the Red River valley. 6 May 1814 The British capture Fort Oswego, New York. 9 May 2014 A National Day of Honour marks the end of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan.

10 May 1940 7 May 1945 Germany unconditionally surrenders to the Allies in Europe. 8 May 1944 U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower decides on the date for D-Day.

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Winston Churchill becomes British prime minister as the blitzkrieg sweeps into France.

11 May 2012 The last of 17 new RCAF Super Hercules aircraft arrives at 8 Wing/CFB Trenton. 12 May 1885 The Battle of Batoche ends and, with it, the Northwest Rebellion. 13 May 1943 HMCS Drumheller helps destroy a U-boat in the North Atlantic. 14 May 1814 American raiders destroy Port Dover, Ont. 15 May 1917 Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden returns from an imperial war conference in England.

Courtesy of Franklyn Roy; Sharif Tarabay; DND; LAC; Legion Magazine archives

2017-03-31 10:54 AM

May

16 May 1943 Dams in Germany’s industrial Ruhr basin are destroyed by the bouncing bombs of No. 617 Squadron RAF, known as the “Dambusters,” at a cost of 53 lives, 13 of them Canadian. 17 May 1900 The Royal Canadian Field Artillery helps in relieving Mafeking, South Africa, from an eight-month Boer War siege. 18 May 1966 Terrorist Paul-Joseph Chartier is killed in the Parliament Buildings by a bomb he intended to throw into the House of Commons. 19 May 1918 Canadian nurse Katherine Maud MacDonald is killed during German bombings of Étaples, France. 20 May 1948 Canadian WWII flying ace George “Buzz” Beurling dies in Rome when his plane explodes, possibly from sabotage. 21 May 1941 German battleship Bismarck is spotted in Norwegian waters; the British find and sink her within a week. 22 May 1942 Canadian merchant ship Frank B. Baird is sunk by U-158 near Bermuda. 23 May 1944 Canadians break through the Hitler Line in the Liri Valley in Italy. 24 May 1963 Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King helicopters begin Royal Canadian Navy service.

31 May 1915 Fresh from the trenches at Festubert, France, the Canadians are assigned to the Givenchy sector.

25 May 1952 The Royal Canadian Regiment arrives on Koje-Do Island, South Korea, to take up guard duty over 3,200 fractious North Korean PoWs. 26 May 1944 Canadians join British and American forces concentrated on England’s south coast for the D-Day invasion. 27 May 1918 The German Army launches its fourth major offensive of the year against the French at the Chemin des Dames. 28 May 1916 The Canadian government is advised to abandon the Ross rifle, which jams in combat. 29 May 1982 The National War Memorial in Ottawa is rededicated to include dates of the Second World War and Korean War.

JUNE On This Date Events Visit legionmagazine.com. The items will appear June 1. Here’s a taste of what to expect.

10 June 1947 Dairy is removed from the ration list in Canada.

30 May 1951 The Royal Canadian Regiment is ordered to advance on the village of Chail-li and Hill 467 in Korea.

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2017-03-30 10:34 AM

MILITARY HEALTH MATTERS

By Sharon Adams

Halting the blood loss

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ombat soldiers who have suffered battlefield wounds have never had a better chance of survival than they have today. Due to improvements in battlefield medicine and evacuation, 92 per cent of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan made it home alive, compared to about 75 per cent in the Vietnam War. Former Canadian Armed Forces surgeon-general Hans Jung said in 2010 that if wounded troops could make it back to NATO’s Role 3 hospital at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, “they have a 97 per cent chance of making it all the way back to Canada alive.” Experience on 21st-century battlefields quickly resulted in advances that improved survivability, such as pressure dressings made with substances that cause blood to clot within seconds, a tourniquet that could be applied with one hand, and ways to ensure the supply of blood and blood products for transfusion despite disruptions of distance and climate. A study by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research found that nearly a quarter of the 4,596 U.S. combat-wound deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2011 were, as the report puts it, “potentially survivable.” About 90 per cent of those survivable deaths were due to uncontrolled blood loss. Those

findings started a quest to develop more tools to deal with massive blood loss from combat wounds. Those tools need to work fast. Most battlefield deaths occur within 10 minutes of injury. An adult can die in minutes from massive blood loss such as that which accompanies wounds from improvised explosive devices. Significant and sudden blood loss can send the body into shock; when blood volume drops too low, the heart stops pumping and organs shut down. Nerve cells in the brain can survive only minutes without adequate blood flow. About two thirds of blood-loss deaths in the U.S. study were from wounds to the trunk and underlying organs, where pressure could not be applied to stop bleeding. Two new types of tourniquet address the problem. Both can be applied in less than a minute on the battlefield. The Combat Ready Clamp can be used on areas of the body that standard tourniquets can’t reach. It roughly resembles the C clamp found in household tool boxes and is screwed tight in a similar way—very useful to stop bleeding from high leg amputations and pelvic injuries. The Abdominal Aortic Junction Tourniquet is an inflatable wedgeshaped bladder that squeezes closed blood vessels, thus stopping bleeding from wounds. Its large surface area is useful for pelvic injuries and severe wounds in places where limbs attach to the torso. The U.S. military has supported research into injectable and spray-on gels and foams that could plug wounds, stop bleeding and induce clotting. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, have developed a prototype device to stop up wounds. About the size of a highlighter pen, it contains two chemicals that mix when injected into a wound, creating a foam that hardens and applies pressure to stop bleeding while soldiers are transported from the battlefield to hospital care.

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> Join the conversation! Sign up NOW for our Military Health Matters e-report at www.legionmagazine.com/MHM and receive your FREE PDF COPY of the 2017 Veterans Benefits Guide!

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2017

Research continues to ensure it can produce enough foam to fill large wounds and harden quickly, and that the foam can be easily removed for surgery. Meanwhile, the XStat Rapid Homeostasis System was battletested a year ago, stopping severe bleeding from a gunshot wound to the thigh of a U.S. soldier. The device looks like a large test tube with a plunger at the top. The tube is filled with nearly 100 tablet-shaped sponges that are injected into the wound and rapidly absorb blood and expand, plugging the wound and allowing clotting to begin. A material that can be used to form an artificial blood clot has been developed by a research team from four high-powered U.S. research universities, supported in part by the U.S. Army Research Office. Called shear-thinning biomaterial, it is a gel that can be injected by needle or catheter into blood vessels, where it solidifies to form a tight barrier, or can be applied to larger wound surfaces to halt bleeding. It is made up of gelatin and silicate nanoplatelets which mimic the function of platelets, the cells in human blood that promote blood clotting. Research is progressing from animal to human trials, so it will be some time before it’s available for battlefield medicine. The U.S. military has also funded research at the Australian Institute of Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University on a drug touted as a “pharmacological tourniquet” that reduces internal blood loss by up to 60 per cent. Administered intravenously, a stabilizing fluid made of substances that regularize heart rhythm and blood pressure, among other things, “resuscitates the body from hemorrhagic shock,” said Dr. Geoffrey Dobson. “It…protects the body and stops the blood from thinning, allowing it to rapidly form a viable clot and reduce bleeding.” It provides medics “a new way to buy time on the battlefield,” he said. L

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FRONT LINES

By Stephen J.Thorne

Suspended vice-admiral’s surprising views

T

he man temporarily relieved of his duties as vice-chief of the defence staff in January is an outspoken advocate of his beloved navy whose first words after his appointment to the military’s second-highest post constituted a harsh critique of the government that put him there. Sources have told Legion Magazine and other media that the move came in the midst of an RCMP investigation into the alleged leak of top-secret defence information—the nature of which and to whom it was leaked remain a mystery.

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Neither the chief of the defence staff, General Jonathan Vance, nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his defence minister, Harjit Sajjan, have provided details, though Vance’s political masters have said he made the right decision. In a speech when he stepped down from his post as commander of the navy last June 23, before assuming the role as the military’s No. 2 in August, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman delivered a harsh critique of the perpetual indecision hobbling the highest levels of Canada’s government and bureaucracy. He cited depletion of the navy’s size and combat capabilities and the system’s inability

DND

2017-03-30 10:50 AM

to address the issues during his three years at its helm. Age and reliability issues had forced the navy to retire its two supply ships and two command destroyers while replacements are still in the planning stages. “It’s important to keep in mind that the situation we had to manage was completely avoidable,” Norman said. “It should act as a powerful reminder of what happens when we allow ourselves to continually manage risk by putting off tough decisions in the interest of short-term expediency.” Sajjan was in attendance at the changeof-command ceremony as Norman said the navy shrank on his watch. “There’s about a 20 per cent reduction in the float capacity of the fleet, with acute losses in war-fighting capabilities, in particular in area air defence and sustainment. As well, we’ve seen alarming reductions in both our establishment and effective strength.” Replacement ships are still years away. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper approved a plan to lease a converted cargo ship and Trudeau’s Liberals subsequently put off military capital spending for five years.

Expecting cyber attacks in Latvia

While most of the 450 Canadian troops deploying to Latvia will be conducting traditional operations and exercises asserting their presence and fostering good relations in the Russian border republic, a cadre of specialists will be engaged in all-out warfare—cyberwarfare, that is. Overseas and in operations rooms back in Canada, they will be combatting Moscow’s efforts to win the hearts and minds of Latvians, spread fake news and foster growing dissent among the republic’s Russian-speaking minority. The allied counter-efforts—including their own cyber operations, an open-door media policy and more traditional intelligence functions—will be keys to the ultimate success of the Canadian-led NATO mission. Russian propaganda efforts in Latvia are already underway, including efforts to make it appear that Latvia doesn’t want NATO troops on its soil, said General Jonathan Vance following an appearance at the Conference of Defence

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman talks with navy personnel in 2015.

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Associations symposium in February. “Planted stories will occur,” Vance predicted. “I think Russia will certainly see this [mission] as something to interfere with, so we will take all the precautions that we can. “I think it’s important that you hear this from me: There will be a desire to skew way out of proportion and potentially provide falsehoods about what’s actually happening in Latvia with Canadian troops. We have to take on a strategic communications role so that truth prevails.” The Canadians will be joined by at least 800 troops from Italy, Albania, Poland and Slovenia by September to form one of four NATO battle groups taking up residence in Russian satellite states. Those states include Lithuania, Estonia and Poland and, along with Latvia, are all NATO members. The 4,000 NATO troops have been described as a measured response to 330,000 Russian troops believed to be amassed west of Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the March 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for secessionist rebels in Ukraine’s east as protecting Russians who found themselves living in a foreign country after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. Latvia and Estonia have considerably larger proportions of Russians and Russianspeakers than Ukraine, where 24 per cent of the population is Russian-speaking.

Latvia, for example, is 38 per cent Russian-speaking and Russians comprise the vast majority of the republic’s 280,000 non-citizens. As foreigners, they can’t vote or work in senior government positions. Russia has been cultivating their discontent and touting its role as champion of the downtrodden in Latvia and elsewhere among the Baltic states. Moscow denies having designs on the region and characterizes the NATO deployments as provocations. Lithuania’s foreign minister described Russia’s strategy as “hybrid war” designed to destabilize the Baltic states through military movements, disinformation campaigns and cyber operations, including full-blown cyber attacks on companies, information websites and even military systems. “We expect Russia to respond to this [deployment] as they have responded to any sort of deliberate, determined stance,” said Vance. “They’ve actively conducted strategic communications against NATO exercises. “We’re aware of it. We’ll try to be as sophisticated as we can be. But, ultimately, what we do and what our allies do as part of that battle group in terms of its professionalism and what it provides in terms of a deterrent effect are the things that need to be measured.” L

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ARTHRITIS

2017-03-30 9:24 AM

EYE ON DEFENCE

By David J. Bercuson

Hard spending decisions needed

L

ee Berthiaume, writing for the Canadian Press last fall, referred to “internal Defence Department documents” in a story about the need to spend billions, beginning soon, to upgrade Canada’s submarines. He referred to those documents, obtained through the Access to Information Act, in estimating the cost of upgrading the submarines at $1.5 to $3 billion. In the hubbub surrounding the lead up to the government’s announcement to obtain a small interim fleet of Super Hornets and put off the final decision on a more substantial CF-18 replacement program, the submarine story was virtually buried. One way or another, the submarine saga will be disinterred shortly. The first submarine Canada obtained, HMCS Victoria, is scheduled to be retired in just five years. Five years is a lifetime when it comes to major Canadian procurement projects. The other three submarines will follow soon after. There’s no point here in going over the long saga of Canada and its four Upholder-class

submarines—“Upholder” to the British who built them and “Victoria-class” to the Royal Canadian Navy which acquired them. Suffice to say that a nation with the largest coastline in the world, depending heavily on seagoing commerce, with daily challenges, from fishing boats lost at sea to human smuggling, and a prolonged Russian buildup of its Arctic military forces, needs an adequate submarine fleet. There were many defence experts who questioned why Canada purchased these submarines in the first place in the 1990s and no doubt there will be many more who will complain about either putting billions of dollars more into the fleet or—heaven forbid—buying an adequate, modern, under-ice capable fleet to replace the Victoria-class submarines. Modern weapons, especially large ones— from armoured vehicles for the army to jets for the air force to the surface warships the navy will need in the next decade—don’t come cheap. And neither do submarines. But a people who claim sovereignty over the second largest country in the world, with a R130.685 CTP Eng Armed Forces Fridays - CTP 3cpl Window Legion Ad - 4.275” x 2.4375” (Drawn 100%) relatively small population, Advertisement will need to face the fact that defence isn’t cheap and it should certainly not be the last item In appreciation of your service on the spending agenda. Why is this the case, especially when it is hard to point to real military threats to the “peace, order and good per litre government” of Canada? In a word: deterrence. Take the case of the buildup of Russia’s Arctic military *Must show valid Canadian Forces ID or CF1 card to qualify. Offer valid Fridays, with presence. The National Post payment in kiosk at all Canadian Tire GAS+ locations. Promotion may be modified or discontinued at any time and cannot be combined with any other offer. Qualifying IDs called it the “biggest Arctic are: NDI-10, NDI-20, NDI-75, VA Health Benefit Card or the CF1 card with the following designations only: CF, FF, V or D. military push since the fall of the Soviet Union.”

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Should we expect Russian troops to ride Russian warships to our northern coast, backed by Russian air power? The chances are only slightly better than an invasion from Mars. But sovereignty, as we are currently seeing with the proliferation of Chinese advanced weaponry on the “islands” they have built from sandbars and protruding rocks in the South China Sea, can be a fuzzy concept. A small Russian push here, a slightly larger one there, and suddenly we will be sailing into what we consider our own waters at our peril. Can we expect the United States to pull our chestnuts out of the fire for us? Possibly, but with Donald Trump in the White House, nothing is certain except the very large invoice he will hand us. We do not have the military forces to defend every square centimetre of our sovereign claims on our east and west coasts, or in the Arctic. But as a self-respecting nation, we must make an effort to deter action against us, or we will slowly see bits and pieces of our home and native land lost to us. What, then, is the answer? It will take government leadership–especially from the

current government–to educate Canadians that the time we can keep WE MUST MAKE AN a low profile regarding EFFORT TO DETER our own defences and ACTION AGAINST hope to offset the shoddy US, OR WE WILL state of those defences by sending expeditionary SLOWLY SEE BITS forces abroad is over. AND PIECES OF OUR Hard spending deciHOME AND NATIVE sions need to be made, LAND LOST TO US. not only about the F-35 but about our navy, including the supply ships and submarines. We don’t need a “large” air force or a “large” navy. But we do need them to be adequate to deter any challenges to our sovereignty. The debt is increasing by the month and the deficit is rising. In the early 1990s, the Liberal government of the day met similar financial challenges by virtually choking the life out of the military. With the new U.S. president demanding that America’s allies pay their fair share for the common defence, that tactic won’t work this time. L Advertisement

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CANADA’S

FIRST FOREIGN WAR BY M A R K ZU E HL K E

WHILE IT WAS A POLITICAL BATTLE AT HOME, THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA WOULD PROVE TO BE THE FIRST TEST OF CANADA’S FIGHTING SPIRIT OVERSEAS

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Boer soldiers, including this commando group, were adept at guerilla warfare— something the British had difficulty countering.

The ill-fated Jameson Raid of 1895, led by British colonial politician Leander Starr Jameson, was one of many antagonizing events that led to the Second Boer War, from 1899 to 1902.

ON

FEB. 11, 1900, the 1,039-strong Canadian contingent recently deployed to South Africa joined a powerful British column at Graspan, on the Cape Colony’s eastern boundary with the Boer Orange Free State. The following day, under a blazing sun with temperatures peaking at 46°C, the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) marched through thick, choking red dust across the veldt for about 20 kilometres to Ramdam—a Dutch homestead reduced to a burned-out ruin by British advance scouts. Here, 30,000 soldiers, 7,000 non-combatants, 14,000 horses, and 22,000 mules and oxen hauling 600 wagons and several artillery batteries staggered to an exhausted halt. Between Ramdam and the objective of Bloemfontein lay 200 kilometres of parched and rugged countryside. Retreating south from where it had been

Public domain; Alamy/E1GG2T

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besieging Mafeking—the northernmost Cape Colony town—and now threatened by the advancing British was a Boer force of about 5,000 commandos, accompanied by several dozen women and children, more than 400 wagons and several thousand horses. Boer commander General Piet Cronjé hoped to slip past the British and establish a blocking force to protect Bloemfontein until he could be reinforced. Although the Boer retreat was stealthy, nothing could prevent the rising dust clouds. On Feb. 16, Cronjé’s Boers were detected by British scouts and skirmishing broke out. Several kilometres east of the Paardeberg (Horse Mountain) Drift—the Boer term for a ford—across the Modder River, Cronjé still believed escape was possible. Expecting to easily cross the river the next morning, then gain the road leading to Bloemfontein to continue an orderly withdrawal, Cronjé encamped his weary force. It was a fateful decision, one that spelled disaster for the Boers, enabled the British to win their first decisive victory in South Africa, and provided Canadian troops with their first major engagement in an overseas war.

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MANY CANADIANS JOINED THE CORNWALLS, BUT THE ATTACK WAS MET BY A WITHERING FUSILLADE AND COLLAPSED.

Canada’s first contingent in the Boer War, the Royal Canadian Regiment boarded HMS Sardinian in Quebec City on Oct. 30, 1899. Key players in the conflict included South African General Piet Cronjé (right) and (opposite, from top) Paul Kruger, Transvaal president from 1883 to 1900; British Major-General E.T.H. Hutton, who leaked plans for a Canadian force; and Governor General Lord Minto, who pressured Prime Minister Laurier to act.

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THE ROOTS of this war traced back to 1835. Rejecting British attempts to extend their authority over the Dutch colonists and considering themselves increasingly politically marginalized, about 15,000 Voortrekkers crossed the Orange River to leave Cape Colony and establish independent republics. Transvaal and the Orange Free State were recognized respectfully and reluctantly by Great Britain in the 1852 Sand River and 1854 Bloemfontein conventions. Both republics constituted attempts to continue the agrarian life that the Dutch colonists had maintained since their forebears had settled in South Africa in the 17th century, which they saw as being threatened after the British seized the Cape settlement in 1795. In 1814, the British takeover of the Cape from the Dutch was formalized by the Congress of Vienna. The Voortrekker movement was a repudiation of spreading British influence. Most Boers were deeply religious, adhering to a strict Calvinism that was intolerant of other faiths. After almost 200 years of warfare with African tribes, they were tough and uniquely adept at guerilla fighting that relied on riding skills, deadly marksmanship and superb tactical use of ground. Every adult male belonged to a “commando” military formation. The Boers hoped their flight would free them of British influence and encroachment on their new lands, but the 1867 diamond

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discovery quickly led to the British annexing Transvaal in 1871. By December 1880, efforts to get the annexation reversed had failed and the Boers resorted to armed resistance. At Majuba Hill on Feb. 27, 1881, they dealt a large contingent of British regulars a stunning defeat that led to the Pretoria Convention a few months later. Although the convention did not reinstate full independence, it did grant the Boers significant control over their affairs and land. In 1886, Anglo-Boer relations were again shredded by the discovery in Transvaal of the largest gold reserves on Earth. Seeking to limit the threat from the influx of gold seekers to the national identity of “God’s people,” as Transvaal’s President Paul Kruger called the Boers, he enacted legislation restricting the franchise to men who had been resident at least 14 years. This effectively limited it to Boers. To protect Transvaal’s railroad link to Johannesburg from being undercut by encroaching Cape railways, he also imposed what the British considered exploitive tariffs. On the opposing side stood Cape Colony Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes, who sought to not only expand his personal gold interests but also to unite all of South Africa under the British crown. In 1895, with full knowledge of British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain, he attempted a coup that failed miserably. Rhodes was forced to resign, but the new Cape Colony governor and high commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner,

Frederick S. Lee/LAC/e002505778; Wikimedia Commons; Alamy/EF98FJ; Topley Studio/LAC/PA-028142

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continued to demand that the enfranchisement qualification be lowered to five years. During negotiations in May 1899 at Bloemfontein, Kruger offered a seven-year compromise that Milner rejected. While hurriedly preparing for war, Britain set about drafting an ultimatum that Kruger pre-empted with one of his own issued on Oct. 9, 1899; he demanded the withdrawal of all British troops from the border. Two days later, the Boers launched a spoiling attack against British troops mustering on the border of Natal and the Second Boer War began. SUPPORT FOR CRUSHING this Boer uprising was strong throughout the British Empire. The Boers were demonized as roughshod peasants oppressing English-speaking settlers and prospectors. Such oppression, claimed an editorial in the Vancouver Province, “by a horde of ignorant Dutch farmers” was an insult to the empire. The Boers were viewed with contempt and a quick, decisive victory was expected. After all, how could a bunch of Dutch farmers stand against the world’s mightiest power? This was the height of New Imperialism, with European powers vying to expand their grip across the globe, and Britain led the pack. The rewards were captive markets, resource wealth and blocking the growth of rival nations. Africa was at the centre of this struggle, with France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Britain all competing for colonies.

In Canada, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier wanted nothing to do with war or the jingoistic imperialism driving it. In power for three years, Laurier believed an imperial war could fracture the delicate union between English and French Canada. But pro-war sentiment was at a fever pitch. In 1897, the dominion had lavishly celebrated Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and most English Canadians considered themselves duty-bound to help the mother country. With action being demanded everywhere outside Quebec, Laurier’s cabinet was divided. But the intense pressure continued, aided by Canada’s General Officer Commanding, the British Major-General E.T.H. Hutton, Governor General Lord Minto, and the British Colonial Office. At the Colonial Office request, Hutton drafted plans to raise a 1,200-strong Canadian force and leaked its details to newspapers across the country. Many powerful militia officers were also apprised of the plan even as Laurier was kept in the dark. By the time he learned of it, the press and public calls for action could not be denied. A last gasp argument that the Militia Act prohibited Canadian troops serving overseas foundered on the Oct. 11 news of war’s outbreak. Conceding defeat, Laurier authorized $600,000 to raise, equip and transport a contingent to South Africa. Thereafter, Britain would be responsible for its maintenance costs.

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from Quebec and the Maritimes (including the francophone conglomerate). Seventy per cent of those selected were Canadianborn and most others were from Britain. Their commander was Lieutenant-Colonel William Otter, who had distinguished himself during the Northwest Rebellion. The 2nd RCR was inducted into the Permanent Force and sailed on Oct. 30, 1899, from Quebec City aboard the HMS Sardinian. More than 50,000 people crowded the docks to send them off.

The force was to number 1,000 with each recruit agreeing to a year’s service. There were so many volunteers that a selection process based on health, marksmanship and prior military service was instituted. Despite the war’s unpopularity within French Canada, F Company’s soldiers were all francophones from Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario, with half its non-commissioned officers and officers also French-speaking. The battalion was organized into eight 125-man regionally based companies with one from Western Canada, three from Ontario, and two each

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BEFORE THE CONTINGENT lay an 11,000-kilometre, 30-day voyage. A converted cattle ship, Sardinian was so small people were immediately “falling over each other at every turn.” With only enough bunks for half the contingent, the rest slept in hammocks. Otter, who knew his men were woefully untrained for war and lacked any inherent cohesion, had hoped to use the time at sea for some rudimentary training. The cramped quarters, bad weather and an outbreak of dysentery scotched that idea. On Nov. 30, 1899, Sardinian docked in Cape Town. News from the front was gloomy. The Boers had seized the initiative and were besieging Ladysmith in Natal and Kimberley and Mafeking in Cape Colony. Many of the Boers were armed with the German Mauser 7-millimetre rifle, which had a range of 1,800 metres, fired smokeless powder that hid the shooter’s position,

LAC/C-000171; Notman Studio of Halifax/LAC/PA-028434

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BLOODY SUNDAY MARKED THE WORST FIGHTING CANADIANS SAW DURING THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA—21 RCR MEN KILLED AND 60 WOUNDED. and used a five-round clip. While the new British Lee-Enfield had a 10-cartridge magazine, each round had to be loaded singly. The rapidity of Boer rifle fire, their unexpected artillery and bold tactics utterly perplexed the British high command. On Dec. 16, London accepted an earlier Canadian offer to provide a second contingent, consisting of mounted infantry and mounted field artillery. The first unit left Canada as the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles, but in August 1900 would be re-designated the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD). This contingent was soon followed by the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR), and the Royal Canadian Field Artillery (RCFA). In all, the second contingent numbered 1,289 men— 750 mounted infantry and 539 artillerymen. Even as these units readied to ship out of Halifax, support for another Canadian contingent appeared, in the form of Donald Smith, The Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal. This well-known and accomplished benefactor, co-founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1896 to 1914, ponied up $500,000 to raise another regiment of mounted riflemen. The Strathcona’s Horse was comprised of three squadrons raised in Manitoba with a strong cadre of Mounties providing discipline to the western cowboys who flocked to its ranks (many bringing their own horses). Its commander was the legendary NWMP superintendent Sam Steele. On March 16, 1900, it embarked with 28 officers and 512 other ranks, 599 horses, 3 Maxim machine guns, 500 rounds per rifle and 50,000 rounds for each Maxim. “A more munificent offer has seldom been made by a subject to his country,” one report noted. The need for such munificence had been painfully underscored just weeks earlier; the Boers inflicted major defeats at Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso between Dec. 10 and 15 (dubbed Black Week). These defeats were compounded by the disastrous Jan. 23-24 Spion Kop battle, where 8,000

Boers cut apart a 20,000-strong British force and forced its retreat. At a cost of only 67 dead and 267 wounded, the Boers killed 243 and wounded 1,250 British troops. In Britain, Black Week caused consternation. The government decided that overwhelming force was required to defeat the Boers and a massive military buildup began that would eventually see 500,000 empire troops deployed to defeat about 88,000 Boers. THE RCR ARRIVED two weeks before Black Week and were spared action. Instead, they spent December engaged in training and learning new fire-and-manoeuvre tactics to overcome the Boer marksmen and machine guns. The days of orderly lines battering each other with volley fire were gone forever. On Jan. 12, the RCR marched toward Paardeberg, where General Piet Cronjé would make his fateful decision to camp east of the Modder River. The morning of Feb. 17 found Cronjé’s Boers entrenched in a crook in the river east of the drift, having had British cavalry cut off his avenue of retreat. Although the Boer line stretched about eight kilometres, the heart of the position was a wall of wagons on three sides and the river on the other. The women, children, horses and oxen were sheltered within. The British Major-General Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, had 15,000 troops to confront approximately 5,000 Boers. Feb. 18 was a Sunday, and it became known as Bloody Sunday. The battle began inauspiciously when Kitchener decided to storm the Boer trenches with infantry attacking from the west, south and east under covering artillery fire. In the jumbled landscape, cohesion was quickly lost and the attack went in piecemeal. Murderous Boer fire left 1,300 men killed or wounded in exchange for about 300 Boer casualties. For the British, this marked their highest single-day loss of the war. Serving as part of Brigadier Horace Smith-Dorrien’s 19th Brigade, the RCR had rout-marched 37 kilometres to reach the battlefield. Its ranks stood at 872 due to

Samuel Steele’s Strathcona’s Horse contingent—540 men and 599 horses—sailed to South Africa aboard SS Monterey. A battalion of mounted infantry and artillery, the Royal Canadian Dragoons were part of Canada’s second contingent.

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Canada’s first contingent fought its first battle (top) at Paardeberg Drift on Feb. 18, 1900. Sir Horace SmithDorrien (above) commanded the 19th Brigade, which included the Canadians.

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losses to disease and exhaustion. Kitchener ordered 19th Brigade to cross the Modder River and occupy a height of ground called Gun Hill, northeast of the Boers. The river was about 80 metres wide and by mid-morning Royal Engineers had strung a rope across. After wolfing down coffee, a biscuit and a rum ration, the Canadians went into chest-deep water, and by 10:15, all had gained the opposite shore. Somehow they managed to float across one machine gun on its carriage. Joining British troops on Gun Hill, they directed machine-gun fire at the Boers along the riverbank. Now the RCR led a 19th Brigade advance against the Boer line. About 1,650 metres of open, coverless ground separated the Canadians from the Boer trenches. After 200 metres, intense fire drove the men to ground. For the next hour, soldiers advanced in small groups or alone in 20- to 30-metre dashes or by crawling. The left flank got within about 800 metres of the Boers, while the right flank closed to 400 metres before stopping dead in the face of gunfire. In the centre, the advance barely progressed. The men lay for hours under a burning sun, the slightest movement drawing fire, until mid-afternoon when a brief, drenching rainstorm added to their misery.

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Soon three Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry companies, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Aldworth, arrived. Telling Otter he had been sent to “finish the business” with a bayonet charge if necessary, Aldworth ordered a charge at 5:15 p.m. Many Canadians joined the Cornwalls, but the attack was met by a withering fusillade and collapsed. With darkness, the survivors withdrew to the drift, while the Boers slipped back to their main encampment. Bloody Sunday marked the worst fighting Canadians saw during the war in South Africa—21 RCR men killed and 60 wounded. Three-quarters of the casualties occurred during the charge. For their part, the Cornwalls lost 56 men, almost all killed in the charge. The failed frontal charges convinced the British to resort to a siege, which lasted until Feb. 26. Believing the Boers low on supplies and morale, the Canadians were ordered to conduct a night attack. Under a starlit sky at 2 a.m. on Feb. 27, with bayonets fixed, the RCR crept silently forward in two lines separated by 4.5 metres. Not a sign of life was detected in the Boer trenches until the battalion was about 100 metres away. Suddenly the Canadians were caught on open ground by murderous fire. In seconds, six men were killed and 21 wounded. Throwing themselves to the ground, the leading line steadily returned fire while those in the second line dug in. After a

Arthur H. Hider/LAC/Acc. No. 1983-38-2; Public domain; Reinhold Thiele/LAC/C-014923

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15-minute gunfire exchange, a Boer shouted for the force to retire. Four of the six companies fell for the ruse and withdrew. Two companies of men from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island weren’t duped and held firm until dawn. At 5:15, a white flag appeared over the Boer trenches. The two companies kept firing until a Boer emissary emerged at 6 o’clock and offered unconditional surrender. About 4,000 Boers, including Cronjé, marched into captivity. The RCR had lost 13 dead and 21 wounded in the attack. But the road to Bloemfontein was open.

First assigned to “rebel chasing” was the RCD and the RCFA’s D and E batteries. From March 4 to April 14, sections of these two units trekked alongside hundreds of British soldiers over more than 1,100 kilometres of harsh terrain, from Victoria West to Upington, without engaging any Boers. On April 10, the Strathconas landed at Cape Town. En route, 27 per cent of its horses had died from disease, mostly pneumonia. Those that lived were in poor condition. The men were scarcely better off, with 63 reporting sick within the first two weeks of deployment.

AFTER THE PAARDEBERG DEFEAT, the Boer command avoided set-piece battles where British superiority in manpower and firepower all but ensured defeat. Instead, they formed roving commando units ranging from a few men to several thousand. Drawing on an extensive network of resupply depots and sympathetic Boer inhabitants, the commandos travelled light, hit hard and fast against static British communication networks, and melted away before the British could respond. This guerrilla warfare frustrated British efforts to capture and secure Afrikaner territory. It also required thousands of men to protect vital road and rail networks on which the British depended for supplies and reinforcement. As mounted troops, the second contingent was ideally suited to counter the new strategy. But it meant the unit seldom served all together. This was particularly true for the RCFA, where even individual artillery batteries were broken up among various British columns chasing Boer commandos.

MEANWHILE, on March 7, the RCR had joined the major British advance on Bloemfontein. On March 15, after a gruelling, sweltering march during which the men averaged 25 kilometres a day, the column entered the Orange Free State capital unopposed. A typhoid epidemic broke out shortly thereafter, killing six men. On April 20, when the regiment left Bloemfontein to clear a Boer commando unit to the city’s east, it left four officers and 150 men in hospital. On April 25, the Canadians advanced across an open plain under protection of British artillery fire to seize the village of Thaba ’Nchu and two adjacent kopjes (small hills on flat land). Drenching Boer rifle fire killed one man, wounded two others, and stopped the line cold. While trying to organize his men, Otter suffered a bullet wound to the chin and neck that took him out of action for a month. The Battle of Israel’s Poort—as it became known—raged for three hours until the Boers withdrew. There were no further Canadian casualties.

Fording the Modder River on Feb. 18, 1900, the Royal Canadian Regiment and the 1st Gordon Highlanders arrived in time to join the battle that saw Britain’s highest single-day loss of the war. Despite this, when the offensive ended on Feb. 27, it was Britain’s first decisive victory against the Boers.

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ON MAY 31, 1902, THE BOERS ACCEPTED THE LOSS OF THEIR INDEPENDENCE IN A PEACE AGREEMENT WITH BRITAIN.

Throngs descended on Toronto’s King Street to celebrate the return of Canadian troops on June 5, 1901.

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The next day, another attack was mounted against the Boers, who had reoccupied the village to block the road to Pretoria. A confused four-day battle culminated in the Canadians and Gordon Highlanders scaling the steep face of the table-topped mountain of Thaba ’Nchu itself and clearing the Boers from this vital stronghold. Despite the ferocity of the Boer rifle and artillery fire, the Canadians lost only one man. This victory opened the way to Pretoria. Just before the renewed advance, the illnessreduced RCR received a welcome draft of 103 volunteers. There was, however, no time to train or integrate them into the unit. On May 10, the RCR reached the Zand River, where a battle for the ford was underway. Four Canadian companies tried to seize a rise on the extreme right of the British line overlooking the river, while the remaining companies supported a brigade engaged on the left. As soon as the companies reached the rise, they came under heavy fire from about 800 Boers. Due to the small hill’s confined space, only one company could form a firing line, while a second moved into reserve, and the other two were returned to the main brigade to minimize

exposure to enemy fire. Eventually an artillery section came up and broke the stalemate, scattering the Boers. Two Canadians were killed and two wounded. On May 26, Otter resumed command and the RCR, now numbering only 443 men, crossed the Vaal River—the first British infantry battalion to enter Transvaal. Three days later, they reached Klip River and discovered Boers entrenched on Doornkop Hill. At 1:45 p.m., the RCR and other 19th Brigade battalions advanced, with the Canadians and Gordon Highlanders leading. The facing Boers set fire to the veldt and the clothes and hair of some troopers were singed as they skirted the flames. When the front line was 1,800 metres from the defensive line, inaccurate Boer artillery fire started falling. As the Canadians entered a fire-blackened stretch fronting the hill, the Boers, entrenched 1,000 metres uphill, caught them in crossfire. The Canadians took cover, but the Gordons pressed on. Just before nightfall, they charged the Boer position with bayonets. Twenty Gordons were killed and 70 wounded, but they cleared the hill, supported by the Canadians. Canadian casualties were seven wounded and no dead. On June 5, the remaining 437 RCR men entered Pretoria to find it undefended. After Pretoria, the RCR took up garrison duty at various railroad stations until the regiment’s tour ended. On Oct. 1, 11 months after arriving in Cape Town, the RCR departed for Canada. THE RCR WASN’T the only Canadian regiment to participate in the march to Pretoria. In a separate column, three CMR squadrons and the RCD rode in the 1st Mounted Infantry Brigade. Their 33-day march took a different route from that of the RCR column. They fought several sharp actions, particularly at Coetzee’s Drift on May 5, participated in the Zand River and Doornkop battles, and entered Pretoria on June 6. Remarkably, during these engagements only two Canadians were wounded.

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While the RCR and mounted infantry regiments marched to Pretoria, RCFA batteries joined in the relief of Mafeking. The British plan was to advance on Mafeking from both north and south. To the north, only one British regiment existed, the 800-strong Rhodesian Regiment, which was too weak to challenge the Boers. Therefore C Battery RCFA sailed as reinforcement, along with the 5,000-strong Rhodesian Field Force, to Beira in Portuguese East Africa. From there, an arduous 1,600-kilometre journey, partially by train and the rest at the march, brought the column to Mafeking from the north. On May 15, the Field Force married with a column approaching from the south at Jan Massibi and encountered the Boer siege force at about noon on May 16. The Canadian battery engaged in a threehour artillery duel with Boer gunners at Sanie Station. The fire succeeded in clearing the road and at 4 a.m. on May 17, forward elements entered Mafeking to a warm welcome from the weary defenders. C Battery remained in northwestern Transvaal until returning to Cape Town on Nov. 20 for a Dec. 13 sailing to Canada. During this time, it slogged from one small engagement to another, chasing elusive Boer commandos that occupied towns and destroyed rail tracks with near impunity. In other parts of South Africa and the Afrikaner states, the same unrewarding task fell to the other Canadian artillery units. EVENTUALLY, both Canadian mounted regiments moved to northeastern Transvaal and were dragooned into Kitchener’s scorched-earth strategy, intended to deny the commandos succour and support by burning farms and imprisoning the civilian Boer populace. On Nov. 6, a column commanded by Smith-Dorrien set out to break up Boer commando units in the Carolina area. The CMR, RCD and D Battery participated. After a series of skirmishes that failed to quell the Boers, Smith-Dorrien decided at Leliefontein to withdraw and return to Belfast. The rearguard fell to the RCD. As the withdrawal began, two commando units, numbering about 200 men, attacked on Nov. 7. The RCD, supported by D Battery’s two guns, held off the Boers while conducting an orderly withdrawal. As the Boers pressed harder, it seemed likely the guns would be captured. Only a hasty ambush sprung by Lieutenant Richard Turner and 12 men

Public domain; Alamy/BGCY99

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prevented Boer success. The entire action cost the RCD three dead and 11 wounded. Turner and two other men—Lieutenant Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn and Sergeant Edward James Gibson Holland—were awarded Victoria Crosses. Leliefontein was the second contingent’s last major action. Most of its soldiers returned to Halifax on Jan. 8, 1901. The Strathconas were also assigned to Kitchener’s scorchedearth policy as part of the Natal Field Force. On Sept. 1, 1900, the Strathconas marched with Buller toward Lydenburg in pursuit of a 2,000-strong commando unit. A sporadic running battle ensued, with the Boers withdrawing and the Natal Field Force trying to block the retreat. After a month, the chase was abandoned and in mid-October, the Natal Field Force was broken up. The Strathconas prepared to return to Canada. However, a sudden rekindling of Boer action under General Christiaan de Wet surprised the British, and Kitchener redrafted the Strathconas on Oct. 24. Three days later, Steele and his tired, increasingly dispirited force returned to action. The Strathconas marched and counter-marched across the Orange Free State and Transvaal districts. Although several battles were fought, de Wet eluded capture and the pursuit was abandoned on Jan. 9, 1901. By month’s end, the Strathconas sailed home. Twenty-three had died in South Africa.

Boer rebel leader, general and politician Christiaan de Wet evaded British capture right to the end of the war.

THIS CONCLUDED the Canadian military contribution to the Second Boer War. In all, approximately 280 of the 7,368 Canadians who served in South Africa died there. More died from disease and injuries than combat wounds. On May 31, 1902, the Boers accepted the loss of their independence in a peace agreement with Britain. For Canada, the South African contingents established an important precedent because most remained distinct units commanded by Canadian officers. But for many of the Canadians, the war had been a bitter experience. Even Otter described it as “blood and sand and everything that is disagreeable all for a bit of riband [ribbon] and a piece of silver.” L

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FACE TO FACE

Was it right for Canada to send troops to the South African War? J.L. Granatstein says

NO

I

n 1899, the press in English Canada had a cause that filled the front pages. Britain was preparing to fight a war in South Africa against the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, ostensibly to protect the rights of uitlanders. These mainly British migrant workers were men who had come to the Transvaal to work the rich gold mines and they were, the British claimed, being denied their rights by the Dutchspeaking Boers. In fact, it was the gold that was up for grabs, and British imperial and commercial interests were at stake.

CANADIAN NATIONAL INTERESTS WERE IN NO WAY THREATENED BY THE TWO BOER REPUBLICS. But why should this concern Canada? Jingoism, extreme British imperial patriotism, was wildly popular in the late 1890s among English Canadians, and there was strong public support for Canada to send troops well before the war began in October 1899. The British general officer commanding the Dominion militia, General Sir Edward Hutton, had already drawn up a plan for a contingent and leaked it to the press. London was in favour of having Canada send troops. What else mattered? Much did. First, Canadian national interests were in no way threatened by the two Boer republics. Second, the “Britain right or wrong” attitudes of English Canadians were vehemently opposed by French Canadians who saw in the Boers a small people, much

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like themselves, being oppressed by powerful British interests. They were not wrong. And third, a British general was improperly trying to orchestrate ministerial and public opinion—and succeeding. The Liberal cabinet of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, facing an election in 1900, was divided on linguistic lines, with the prime minister instinctively resisting the demand to send troops abroad for Canada’s first foreign war. However, under extreme pressure from the big city newspapers and facing a serious rift in his cabinet, Laurier soon caved in to the majority’s demands. Without consulting Parliament, the government decided that Canada would send a battalion of infantry, quickly raised and equipped. Laurier’s protégé, Henri Bourassa, the 31-year-old Liberal member for Labelle, Que., broke with his leader on the war issue and resigned his seat in protest. Canada was acting like a colony, he cried. Sending soldiers to fight in South Africa was not a precedent, Laurier retorted. “A precedent is a precedent,” Bourassa replied, correctly, to acclaim in French Canada, calling Laurier a “vendu,” a sell-out, for yielding to pressure. Bourassa was promptly re-elected to Parliament as an independent, and Quebec nationalists had found their leader. He would play a major role in Canadian politics for decades, bedevilling Laurier and Sir Robert Borden in the Great War to come. To Bourassa and to those who thought like him in Quebec and English Canada, Canada’s national interests, not Great Britain’s, must come first. And the Canadian nation ought not fight wars for others’ interests. Defend Canada, yes; put Canadian interests first. Act as a nation, not a colony. Good advice that Canadians have only rarely heeded. L

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J.L. GRANATSTEIN, a former director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum, has written dozens of books, including Who Killed Canadian Military History? and Canada’s Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace. TIM COOK is a historian at the Canadian War Museum. He is the author of 10 books about the military history of Canada; his latest is Vimy: The Battle and the Legend.

Tim Cook says

B

ritain’s declaration of war against two Boer republics in South Africa on Oct. 11, 1899, was driven by revenge for past defeats, muckraking colonial administrators on the ground stirring up trouble, and the discovery of gold and diamonds. All of these reasons and more were clothed in the call of a just war to enforce the rule of law for British workers in South Africa who had their civil rights curtailed by the ultra-religious Boers. The months leading up to Britain’s declaration of war created a furor in Canada. There were heady calls to support Queen and country. Britain’s honour was threatened and Canada, a young dominion, had to stand by her side. British politicians and soldiers and patriotic Canadians expected a rapid war, and few could imagine the world’s superpower having trouble dispatching the Boers in battle. Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier did not want to pay for a war, even though he believed in the righteousness of the empire. He also worried about unity in the dominion. English Canada was panting for a fight, but French Canada was decidedly unimpressed. They saw reflected back to them in the Boer farmers some of their own history stretching back to the conquest of the Seven Years War. Throughout September and early October, the newspapers of the day, led by Hugh Graham’s Montreal Star, worked themselves into a jingoistic lather, accusing Laurier of slinking into the shadows when duty called. Laurier was hemorrhaging support. After Britain went to war, the prime minister came to the conclusion in a desperate two-day cabinet meeting on Oct. 12 and 13, 1899, that his government’s political survival was at stake. He cajoled his split cabinet to accept a voluntary contingent of 1,000

Illustrations by Greg Stevenson/i2iart.com

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YES

men paid for by the British. But it would have a Canadian commander, Canadian uniforms and the Maple Leaf badge. With Canada deeply proud of its imperial link to Britain, there was no way for the Laurier government to refuse to allow a voluntary contingent to fight, especially with the Australian colonies sending their own units. For Canada, it was more of a political decision to go to war than a military one. With hindsight, as the passions of empire and war have faded and the reality of the dirty tactics were revealed, one might argue that Canada should have stayed out of

BRITAIN’S HONOUR WAS THREATENED AND CANADA, A YOUNG DOMINION, HAD TO STAND BY HER SIDE. the conflict. But that denies the unyielding demands of vocal Canadians of the day and Canada’s intertwined history with Britain. Those who objected to the war in 1899 were largely muted, save for a few political martyrs. Laurier swept the 1900 federal election. The decision to go to war in 1899 might resonate today: the call of empire or alliances; the demand to bring justice, right of law and civilization to an oppressed people; the media’s tremendous pressure to force the government’s hand; a widely seen opportunity to play a role in events bigger than Canada; and the chance to serve for ideals that many Canadians believe in. These were some of the reasons why Canada went to war in 1899. And they were similar in 1914, 1939, 1950, 1990, 1999 and 2001. Laurier made the right decision. L

> To voice your opinion on this question, go to www.legion magazine.com/ FaceToFace.

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A QUIET V A depth charge explodes off the stern of a Fairmile motor launch on patrol in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. German U-boats sank 20 ships in the gulf in 1942, prompting an outcry over Canada’s unpreparedness.

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T VICTORY IN THE GULF W

HOW CANADA SHUT DOWN THE U-BOAT ASSAULT IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE IN 1942 By Marc Milner

hen Canada declared war on Germany in September 1939, the most immediate threat to the country was an attack on its shipping. That fear was so palpable that when periscopes were soon “sighted” in the St. Lawrence River, no one was surprised. A “submarine diviner” with a plumb-bob and a chart of the river was consulted to locate the U-boats. Then a mob of soldiers went down the river on a fire tug and a lighthouse tender to attack them. Apparently, the Germans got away. When the U-boats came for real in 1942, they also got clean away. But not before sinking more than 20 ships, forcing the government to close the river to ocean shipping, and inflicting the most embarrassing defeat of the war on Canada. At least that’s the way the story has been told for the past 75 years. Recent scholarship suggests quite a different tale.

Kenneth G. Fosbery/DND/LAC/PA-190572

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The context for the 1942 campaign in the St. Lawrence was a global war spiralling out of control, and a gap in Allied special intelligence. The Japanese seemed unstoppable in the Pacific and Indian oceans, U-boats were exacting a toll on Allied shipping in the Atlantic, and German armies were at the gates of Cairo and driving into the Caucasus. The Axis was in full cry and Allied resources were scarce. In February, the Germans changed British officer cypher, and for nearly their U-boat Lt.-Gen. Sir Julian a year the Allies were unable to read Byng theircommanded tasking signals. As a result, the onlyCanadian air patrols were active over Corps Vimy. the St.atLawrence on May 12 when U-553 sank the steamers Nicoya and Leto south of Anticosti Island. The navy issued a terse statement saying that the war in the Gulf of St. Lawrence had begun and that nothing more would be said. They

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were wrong about the second point. The sinking of Nicoya and Leto shocked Canadians and ignited a media frenzy and a firestorm in Parliament about unpreparedness and incompetence. Prime Minister Mackenzie King and the Englishlanguage media fed the fire in order to admonish Quebecers about their failure to support conscription and their less-than-enthusiastic support of Canada’s war effort. By the time U-132 arrived in the St. Lawrence in July, convoys were running between Quebec City and Sydney, N.S. In the early hours of July 6, Kapitänleutnant Ernst Vogelsang torpedoed three ships of convoy QS-15, then crash-dived to escape the escort. At 60 metres, U-132 slammed into the cold seawater that lay under the warmer river water of the St. Lawrence. The dive stalled just as HMCS Drummondville bracketed the U-boat with depth charges, inflicting serious damage. When Vogelsang flooded his forward torpedo tubes

to punch through the layer, the U-boat turned into a stone, plunging to 184 metres before Vogelsang could stop it. If Drummondville had destroyed U-132, 1942 might have gone much differently. Vogelsang retreated to the northern gulf to effect repairs and to report on traffic in the Strait of Belle Isle; apparently, few ships were using the strait and operational conditions were “unfavourable.” By July 19, U-132 was back in the river off Cap-dela-Madeleine, and sighted convoy QS-19 through the periscope the next day. None of the escort—the corvette HMCS Weyburn, the Bangor-class minesweeper HMCS Chedabucto and three Fairmile motor launches—saw the tiny attack periscope. Vogelsang hit the 4,367-ton freighter Frederika Lensen, breaking the ship’s back. The escort never found him, although air coverage kept U-132 submerged and prevented further attacks. Weyburn towed the Frederika Lensen to the bay at Grande-Vallée, Que., where it was beached and declared a loss. U-132 then turned for home.

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If Drummondville had destroyed U-132, 1942 might have gone much differently. Survivors from USS Chatham, torpedoed in the Strait of Belle Isle on Aug. 27, 1942, were rescued by HMCS Trail. All but 14 of the 562 passengers and crew were saved.

A 1943 poster promotes war savings stamps to pay for depth charges.

The quiet—in the gulf, if not in Parliament and the press—lasted for about a month. Meanwhile, based on Vogelsang’s reports, the Germans sent three U-boats to the St. Lawrence. The first to arrive, U-517 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Paul Hartwig, reached the Strait of Belle Isle on Aug. 27. It’s likely that U-165 under Korvettenkapitän Eberhard Hoffmann arrived about the same time, and U-513 a little later. It soon became apparent that Vogelsang’s shipping intelligence was wrong. When Hartwig submerged at daylight on Aug. 27 to patrol the northern entrance to the strait, three small convoys converged on him. The first was the “fast group” of convoy SG-6 (U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mojave and troop transport Chatham with 562 passengers and crew aboard) on its way to Greenland. The main body of SG-6 (consisting of three merchant vessels, plus the oiler USS Laramie and an aging auxiliary ship, the USS Harjurand, escorted by the USCG cutters Algonquin and Mohawk) was a few hours behind. Wedged between the two sections of SG-6 was a small Canadian convoy, NL-6 (two merchant ships escorted by the corvette HMCS Trail) en route to Goose Bay in Labrador. A lone Douglas Digby medium

bomber from No. 10 Squadron RCAF, patrolled over NL-6. At 8:48 a.m. local time, Hartwig hit Chatham with a single torpedo, after which cold seawater detonated her boilers. Hartwig saw none of this. The act of firing the torpedoes sent U-517 into an uncontrolled descent, and it was 40 minutes before Hartwig surfaced. By then, Chatham was gone (although virtually everyone got off) and the U.S. Coast Guard vessels were searching frantically for the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Trail prudently escorted her little convoy into Forteau Bay on the Labrador coast before joining the hunt. Hartwig feared—needlessly— that he would be discovered by the escorts’ ASDICs, the British term for the underwater sonar-detection devices. “ASDIC conditions were bad,” reported Lieutenant G.S. Hall, RCNR, the captain of Trail. “Nonsub contacts could be obtained all around the ship on the riptides and water temperature gradients, and it was obvious that the effectiveness of an A/S screen would be greatly affected in this part of the Strait.” In fact, local currents were strong enough to push U-517 clear of the area by late afternoon, with little use of her motors. Meanwhile, a major mix-up in proper reporting of the incident allowed the slow section of SG-6 to steam straight into the clutches of U-165. At 9:30 p.m. local time, Hoffmann’s torpedoes struck the SS Alyn, laden with dynamite and high-test fuel, and the oiler Laramie, filled with volatile aviation gas. Most of Alyn’s crew (except the stalwart Coast Guard gunners) abandoned ship quickly. Hartwig sank the derelict hours later. Miraculously,

Laramie survived. Despite the prospect of imminent immolation, and at times ankle deep in gasoline, the USN crew got her back to Sydney. The first contact the Allies had with Hartwig came on the night of Sept. 1, when he entered Forteau Bay on the coast of Labrador on the surface, and approached to within 20 metres of the wharf. As Hartwig withdrew, Weyburn passed U-517 in the dark, close enough for the deck watches to see one another. The corvette spun around as U-517 crash dived, but Weyburn’s ASDIC never found the sub. Weyburn got another chance the next day while escorting the return passage of NL-6 off the north shore of the St. Lawrence. Hartwig had just fired torpedoes as Weyburn turned to attack him and opened fire. Hartwig was again forced into a crash dive, and again simply disappeared. “Weyburn didn’t get a sniff of him

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U-517’s bow came out of the water and then the sub settled by the stern. It was reported sunk—again.

on ASDIC,” Tony German, a junior officer on Weyburn, later recalled, “although we’d seen him twice, large as life.” Hartwig’s attack sent the little 1,500-ton Canadian steamer Donald Stewart to the bottom. Constant air patrols eventually encouraged both Hartwig and Hoffmann to move south into the choke point of trade along the Gaspé coast. (U-513 moved east along the north coast of Newfoundland and eventually attacked the anchorage at Wabana in Newfoundland’s Conception Bay.) The worst of the Battle of the St. Lawrence was yet to come. By the time Hartwig and Hoffmann arrived off Gaspé, the navy and the government had decided to close the gulf to oceanic shipping. This had little to do with lost ships. In fact, since May only six ships had been sunk by U-boats in the southern gulf and St. Lawrence River. The primary reason was the commitment of 17 corvettes to the

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looming Allied assault on North Africa, Operation Torch. “Letting corvettes go means routing freight by the river will have to stop for this season,” Mackenzie King stated. The British were also anxious to shut down the 1,600-kilometre convoy route to Canada’s inland ports. Allied shipping losses in 1942 were staggering, and carrying capacity could be saved by routing Canadian trade by rail to East Coast ports. The RCN also knew that the complex hydrography of the river and the gulf could not be solved by the technology of the era, while the canalizing effect of the geography forced convoys into predictable and easily intercepted tracks. As things turned out, the heaviest and most dramatic losses in the St. Lawrence therefore occurred after the decision was made to close it to oceanic shipping. In the meantime, the solution to U-boats in the St. Lawrence was airpower. By early September 1942, the RCAF had reinforced its forces in the St. Lawrence. Six Hudson bombers were now operating from Mont-Joli, Que., and a special “striking force” of three Hudsons were deployed to Chatham, N.B. The latter were among the first Canadian-based maritime patrol aircraft to be painted all white and to use a higher patrol altitude—which made them significantly harder to see. This combination allowed Pilot Officer R.S. Keetley to surprise

Hoffmann on the surface south of Anticosti Island on Sept. 9. Keetley’s patrol had been initiated after the disappearance of the little auxiliary escort vessel HMCS Raccoon (shattered by torpedoes from U-165). Hoffmann escaped, in part because Canadian-based aircraft still lacked depth-charge pistols suitable for attacking a surfaced U-boat. Then on Sept. 11, Hartwig also announced his presence by sinking an escort, HMCS Charlottetown, in broad daylight just off the Gaspé coast. Then Hartwig and Hoffmann launched a tag-team attack on convoy SQ-36. By Sept. 14, Hartwig was off Cap-des-Rosiers, Que., ready to intercept SQ-36, the largest St. Lawrence convoy of the season with 22 ships headed for Quebec. It also had the largest escort yet: the British destroyer HMS Salisbury and the Canadian corvette HMCS Arrowhead, both with modern radar, as well as the Bangor-class HMCS Vegreville and several motor launches. On the afternoon of Sept. 15, Hartwig used the river current to drift down—submerged and silent, with no telltale feather of spray from his periscope—unseen and unheard onto the convoy. Salisbury passed within 150 metres of U-517 just minutes before Hartwig coolly fired four torpedoes. Two ships were struck and both soon sank. Searches and counterattacks were fruitless. The British captain of Salisbury

CWM/19730174-002_b; Thomas H. Beament/CWM/19710261-1049

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Navigation handbooks used by German submarine crews included this map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence locating lighthouses, gun emplacements and airfields.

later complained about how poor the sonar conditions were in the river; this was not news to his Canadian colleagues. Hoffmann, alerted by Hartwig of SQ-36’s progress, was ready when the convoy reached Cap-Chat, Que., in the early hours of Sept. 16. He launched a daylight submerged attack, although the ships in the convoy saw his periscope and fired on it as Hoffmann completed his firing sequence. Two ships were hit: the British SS Essex Lance was salvaged, but the Greek merchant ship Joannis sank in 10 minutes. Undeterred by the escort, Hoffmann hung on to hit the American merchant ship Pan York, which was also

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“St. Lawrence Convoy” by Thomas Beament, an official war artist who served with the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve during the battle in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A merchant ship, a motor launch and a minesweeper are shown.

salvaged. With all his torpedoes expended, Hoffmann headed home. He never made it; U-165 was sunk as it reached the Bay of Biscay. Hartwig, however, wasn’t done. After a few days off Newfoundland shifting torpedoes stored outside his hull into his forward torpedo room, he returned to the Gaspé. By midday on Sept. 21, he was tracking SQ-38 off Cap-des-Rosiers. Hartwig thought he was safely submerged, but the fickle water conditions left a portion of his conning tower exposed. Hartwig later admitted trouble maintaining a steady depth: “Those water layers!” he recalled. HMCS Georgian was about to ram U-517 when it crashed dived. Georgian then conducted a deliberate depth charge attack, and was turning to regain

contact when U-517 suddenly breeched the surface, rolled onto its side, and then submerged. Acting Lieutenant-Commander A.G. Stanley, RCNR, kept Georgian at it for the rest of the day, until all his depth charges were expended. The staff in Halifax agreed with Stanley’s assessment: U-boat sunk. But Hartwig got away— again. He moved north to clear the area and repair damage, then plunged again into the traffic at the entrance to the river. By the time Hartwig returned in late September, the RCAF had finally shifted whole squadrons from Nova Scotia to the St. Lawrence, adding an additional 15 Hudsons and 20 Cansos to the area. Most were radar-equipped and provided air cover at night. From now on, it was the U-boats who were the hunted. In one 24-hour

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Survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship arrive at St. John’s aboard convoy escort HMCS Arvida on Sept. 15, 1942.

period on Sept. 25-26, Hudsons caught Hartwig on the surface seven times—including at night—and attacked him three times. In the first attack, three of the four depth charges failed to release, while the one that did shook U-517 badly; had all four fallen that close, U-517 would have been sunk. After another attack, U-517 resurfaced to find a depth charge lodged in its deck; had Hartwig gone deeper, his U-boat would have been destroyed. His luck held again several days later when a Hudson flown by Flying Officer M.J. Belanger, bracketed U-517 with four depth charges. Belanger reported, “One large explosion occurred

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around the hull.” U-517’s motion stopped, her bow came out of the water and then the sub settled by the stern. It was reported sunk—again. Hartwig’s radio transmissions soon indicated otherwise. He headed home on Oct. 6, ending one of the most remarkable U-boat cruises of the Second World War. The navy and the RCAF had nearly killed him several times. But after midSeptember, the RCAF effectively suppressed him. This was a portent. It was always assumed that the quiet fall that followed Hartwig’s departure was a combination of the closure of the gulf and a resulting lack of German interest. But the gulf never closed and the Germans kept coming. Historians have long known that the formal closure of the gulf to oceanic shipping announced in September meant little in reality: the SQ-QS convoys ran until the end of the shipping season. The gulf remained a busy place in the fall of 1942. In fact, recent research reveals that the Germans were so convinced

of the importance and vulnerability of the St. Lawrence that they ordered another wave of U-boats into the area in mid-September. The scale of this final German assault was lost in undecrypted signal traffic until the new RCN official history, No Higher Purpose, was published in 2002. A decade later, Roger Sarty laid it out in even greater detail in his book War in the St. Lawrence. It is not a tale of great drama, but rather of a quiet victory by intelligence and operational staffs, routine and targeted patrols, growing skill on the part of the defenders and new technologies. No one noticed at the time but the Germans. The first of the final wave to arrive, U-69 commanded by Oberleutnant Ulrich Graf, reached Cabot Strait on the night of Sept. 29-30. U-69 carried the new Metox radar warning system. It was effective at detecting radar waves of the type then carried by most aircraft and in common use by the RCN. Metox was non-directional and gave no sense of the distance to the transmitting radar set; all it did was alert submariners to the presence of radar transmissions so they could dive. Metox induced paranoia in U-boat captains in the

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The gulf never closed and the Germans kept coming. gulf in the fall of 1942; it seemed the air was filled with radar waves. U-69 achieved initial success in the St. Lawrence River on Oct. 9, when Metox alerted Graf to the presence of convoy NL-9. Graf stalked the convoy in the dark for several hours amid the continuing alarms from his Metox. The Canadian radar operators “must be asleep!” he commented. They weren’t, of course. But the radar of the corvettes HMCS Hepatica and HMCS Arrowhead could not easily detect so small a target as a surfaced sub, while Graf could use the transitions to find their convoy. Graf escaped detection and after several hours fired two torpedoes from the long range of 2,000 metres. One sank the tiny steamer Carolus. That was all U-69 accomplished and Graf quickly confirmed what Hartwig knew already—the Gulf of St. Lawrence was now an unhealthy place for U-boats. Air patrols were guided by increasingly effective naval intelligence derived from high-frequency radio direction finding. Harried by radar-equipped aircraft and suffering compressor problems, U-69 retreated—submerged—to Cabot Strait. Like Hartwig, Graf was driven out, and he would not be the last. As U-69 abandoned the gulf, U-106 under Kapitänleutnant Hermann Rasch crossed her path heading west. The sub had entered Cabot Strait on Oct. 10 and the next day sank the 2,140-ton steamer Waterton from the Corner Brookto-Sydney convoy BS-31 near St. Paul Island, N.S. BS-31’s escorts, the armed yacht HMCS Vision and a Canso bomber, delivered frighteningly quick and accurate depth charge attacks on U-106. By the time U-106 reached the St. Lawrence River, Rasch’s crew was totally spooked by constant Metox warnings and air patrols.

“Strong defenses since 16.10,” U-106’s log noted, “Search units using ASDIC.… Air surveillance co-operating with surface search forces and also operating everywhere without surface forces.” U-106 soon abandoned the gulf. U-43 followed Rasch by a few days into the entrance to the river and encountered the same oppressive patrolling. But Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Joachim Schwantke decided to stay on and see what luck he might have. It was all bad. U-43’s failed attack on SQ-43 off Gaspé on Oct. 21 resulted in what Sarty described as “one of the most effective counterattacks during the St. Lawrence battle.” Six depth charges from the Bangor-class HMCS Gananoque knocked out lights, blew the battery circuit breaker and activated a torpedo in one of U-43’s stern tubes. Schwantke pushed his sub down to 130 metres to avoid what he thought was a co-ordinated attack. When Gananoque failed to regain contact after the initial attack, her crew believed U-43 was just another non-sub contact, a “shoal of fish or a rip tide.” According to Sarty, Ganaoque’s action nonetheless “reflected the improved readiness on the part of escorts” by late 1942, and saved both SQ-43 and QS-40 (in the area the next day) from attack. Schwantke fared no better when he tried to attack LN-12 three days later, and U-43, too, abandoned the gulf at the end of the month. Meanwhile, German Admiral Karl Donitz ordered two more type IX U-boats into the gulf in October. U-183 and U-518 both arrived in Cabot Strait on Oct. 18, where they were to wait until the new moon before venturing into the gulf. In

the end, U-183 simply refused to chance it. Opining to headquarters that traffic was “completely dead” and air patrols oppressive, U-183 moved south of Nova Scotia instead. Only U-518 braved the angst of near-continuous Metox alerts to push deep into the gulf in November, but it had a special mission—to land a spy on the Gaspé coast. Once that was accomplished, U-518 didn’t linger. Instead it headed for Conception Bay to attack the iron ore ships at Wabana. The departure of U-518 from the gulf in mid-November ended the final phase of the 1942 campaign, and it was a clear Canadian victory. Six U-boats were ordered into the gulf in October and November, four made the effort. They sank three ships, a dismal reward for the effort. Sarty concludes emphatically that “Canadian forces shut down the U-boat assault in the St. Lawrence.” Historians have long known that the loss rate of convoys in the Canadian coastal zone in 1942 was negligible—only 1.2 per cent. Moreover, of the 100 SQ-QS convoys that plied the St. Lawrence in 1942, only 12 were intercepted by U-boats. However, because of the gap in intelligence in 1942, Canadian authorities had no notion that a final wave of six U-boats was ordered to the St. Lawrence in the fall of 1942, nor that they were either hounded out by Canadian defences or simply declined to try their luck. It seems that Canadians won a quiet but decisive victory in the St. Lawrence in late 1942. L

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Preparing for D-Day, Capa bought a Burberry raincoat and a silver flask. “I was the most elegant invader of them all,” he wrote.

Robert Capa at Weymouth, England, before delivering his D-Day film to a courier for transport to Life’s London office.

David Scherman/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

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The

Magnificent11 By Stephen J. Thorne

A RENOWNED, SELF-INVENTED WAR PHOTOGRAPHER’S 11 SURVIVING PHOTOS IMMORTALIZE THE CHAOS AND COURAGE OF D-DAY

They are among the most iconic images of the Second World War—blurred, grainy and, the best of them, as stirring and in-the-moment as any battlefield photographs ever taken. There are only 11 pictures—and nine surviving negatives—from that early morning of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, on Omaha Beach, the bloodiest of the D-Day landings, the one depicted in the movie Saving Private Ryan. But two of Hungarian photojournalist Robert Capa’s images, taken for the weekly Life magazine, stand out.

The most reproduced is that of an American soldier wading neck-deep through the surf, his face resolute, the familiar GI helmet strapped to his head, a pack hanging from his back. German hedgehog obstacles loom around him. The water is icy grey. The image detail is obscured by motion, lack of focus, poor exposure, fog, mist and smoke. The negative, lost in time, is believed to have borne the number 37, the second-last image in the series. The other picture is the first or second, taken some 30 or 40 minutes previous from the ramp of a Higgins boat, known in military parlance as a “landing craft, vehicle, personnel,” or LCVP. It shows heavily laden troops, just disembarked, wading toward a distant, murky shore, weapons and gear in hand, their collective fate in the balance.

Through the same obscure atmospherics can be seen the small, faint outlines of others who went before them, along with the hulks of disabled tanks. At least one man is down in the water. The other frames are wider shots that, on first glance, lack visual impact. But there is far more going on in what became known as “The Magnificent Eleven” than meets the eye. Indeed, the story—or, more accurately, stories—behind Capa’s D-Day pictures, like his outsized life, resonate and reverberate, expand and contract, obscure and illuminate to this day. More than any others he snapped over a colourful and accomplished career, these few frames propelled Capa to immortality. Following epic adventures shooting Spain’s civil war and other battlefronts, he became

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Huston S. Riley moves through the surf toward Omaha Beach minutes before he was wounded.

forever known as the greatest combat photographer, famously saying that “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Since 1955, the Robert Capa Gold Medal has been awarded annually by the Overseas Press Club of America for the “best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise.” He was born Endre (Andrei) Friedmann, a Jew in Budapest, a flamboyant, adventurous, womanizing, card-player whose talent for self-promotion was legendary. The author John Hersey wrote that the name Robert Capa was the 1935 invention of a man bent on success and his equally ambitious lover, Gerda Taro. Based in Paris at the time, Friedmann and Taro “decided to form an association of three people,” Hersey wrote in a 1947 essay on Capa’s autobiography, Slightly Out of Focus, which itself was slightly fictionalized. “Gerda, who worked in a picture agency, was to serve as secretary

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and sales representative; Andrei was to be a darkroom hired hand; and these two were to be employed by a rich, famous and talented (and imaginary) American photographer named Robert Capa. “The ‘three’ went to work,” Hersey wrote. “Friedmann took the pictures, Gerda sold them, and credit was given to the non-existent Capa. “Money poured in. The association was happy, for Capa loved Gerda, Gerda loved Andrei, Andrei loved Capa, and Capa loved Capa.” The genesis of the name Capa is, like most things Capa, uncertain. It’s been written that it was drawn from the American film director Frank Capra. Others said it was derived from Friedmann’s childhood nickname, “Cápa,” or “Shark” in Hungarian. Whatever its origin, the ruse was finally discovered by a French magazine editor, who then hauled off Capa and Taro—a German whose real name was Gerta Pohorylle—to cover the Spanish Civil War. There, a decidedly partisan Capa (he always took sides) made what

was probably his most famous, and controversial, picture—the death of a Spanish soldier—and Taro, who’d become a photographer in her own right, was crushed by a tank. A heartbroken Capa went to China, then returned to Spain, remaining there until the civil war ended. Back in Europe in 1939, the Hungarian Friedmann discovered that, with Hitler on the rise, he’d been born on the wrong side. The French declared him an enemy alien and seized his cameras. “He went to America and bought new cameras,” wrote Hersey. “America got into the war and took the new cameras away from him. “But still he managed, by various means, to be sent out as a war correspondent with the American forces.” Friedmann formally changed his name, and Robert Capa became a living, breathing human being whose life, and death, would ultimately be bound to the myth he’d made. The helmet he wore through the Italian Campaign was inscribed “Property of Robert Capa, great war correspondent and lover.”

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Preparing for D-Day, Capa bought a Burberry raincoat and a silver flask. “I was the most elegant invader of them all,” he wrote in Slightly Out of Focus, the title of which was based on a cutline in Life’s D-Day spread. He packed two Contax II 35mm rangefinder cameras with Carl Zeiss high-speed lenses. He also carried Rolleiflex and Speed Graphic cameras, both using larger 120 film capable of only 12 exposures per roll. He had a telephoto lens, too. He packed it all in oilskin bags. Capa boarded the USS Samuel Chase in Weymouth on England’s southeast coast, where 5,000 ships of every size and shape awaited departure for the Normandy beaches. Barrage balloons hovered on cables overhead. He was handed an envelope of invasion francs, a package of condoms and a French phrasebook that suggested he address Frenchmen by saying: “Bonjour, monsieur, nous sommes les amis americains.” The same book advised him to address local girls with the words: “Bonjour, mademoiselle, voulez-vous faire une promenade avec moi?” “The first one meant, ‘Mister, don’t shoot me,’” Capa wrote, “and the other could mean anything.” A pool of only four press photographers was supposed to land with the first wave of American infantry on D-Day, Life picture editor John G. Morris wrote in his book, Get the Picture. Life, the preeminent news-picture magazine of its day, got two of the spots. Bob Landry and Capa filled them. Handed over to a conducting officer to take back to England, Landry’s film, along with several newsreels, would somehow end up at the bottom of the English Channel. “Late on Tuesday night Bert Brandt of Acme Newspictures, having scarcely gotten his feet wet,

“I think there were three rolls that had nothing. Thank God we had one roll that had something.”

returned to London with a first picture, but not a terribly exciting one, of a momentarily unopposed landing on the French coast, shot from the bow of his landing craft,” wrote Morris, who was waiting impatiently at Life’s London office. “Landry’s film—and his shoes— somehow got lost. A disaster. I had been told that AP would have the fourth first-wave spot, but not one of their six photographers landed that day. So, it was entirely up to Capa to capture the action.” A storm had forced postponement of the invasion by 24 hours. On June 6, the weather was still not ideal but it ultimately proved to be the best opportunity the Allies would have for weeks. Thick clouds impeded navigation. Allied bombs and paratroopers alike landed way off their targets. Rough seas induced seasickness, capsized landing craft and pushed others off course, including Capa’s, which some say more likely ended up on Fox Green sector of Omaha Beach instead of Easy Red.

“The coast of Normandy was still miles away when the first unmistakable popping reached our listening ears,” Capa wrote. “We ducked down in the pukey water in the bottom of the barge and ceased to watch the approaching coastline.” He had used his medium-format cameras to shoot the preparations and lead-up to the landings. Now he took out his smaller, more agile, Contax. The advent of 35mm film was still revolutionizing photojournalism, and Capa was in the vanguard. “The flat bottom of our barge hit the earth of France. The boatswain lowered the…front, and there, between the grotesque designs of steel obstacles sticking out of the water, was a thin line of land covered with smoke—our Europe, the ‘Easy Red’ beach.” It would likely have been between 7:10 and 7:20 a.m., according to historians’ calculations. “My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting,” Capa recalled, “and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return.” His boatmates waded into the frigid water, waist-deep, rifles at the ready. Capa paused at the ramp and shot a few images. Unlike the machine-gun staccato of modern-day digital cameras, which can fire up to 14 frames a second, the Contax required users to manually advance the film and cock the shutter. This was done by turning a knob on the top of the camera body, usually requiring a thumb and forefinger. There was no lever for quick advance. Finally, his impatient boatswain gave Capa a swift kick in the rear and he was on his way. The beach was still more than 100 yards ahead of him and in the clearest of his first images at least 18 American soldiers, who had landed about 6:30 a.m., can already be seen taking shelter at a steep incline of sand nicknamed The Shingle.

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His camera held high over his head, Capa headed for the cover of the nearest obstacle. He took more pictures, then moved to the hulk of an amphibious tank 50 yards ahead. Here is where the fog of war kicks in. A small group of soldiers can be seen around a hedgehog. While Capa wrote detailed captions for his pre-invasion images, he wrote nothing describing the landing itself. In its D-Day spread featuring Capa’s pictures the following week, Life described the men as “taking cover” until all their boats came in. In fact, the men they spoke of were combat engineers, their insignias unmistakable on the fronts of their helmets, and, contrary to taking cover, they were exposing themselves to machine-gun fire as they ran Primacord detonating cord—visible in the pictures— between cast-iron obstacles and planted explosives to clear a route into the beach before the incoming tide submerged them. (U.S. army veteran, consultant and amateur historian Charles Herrick made a convincing case for the heroes of Combined Demolitions Team 10 on the Nearby Café website in 2015, complete with comparative photographs of the engineers’ helmets and digital modelling showing the orientation of the pictured troops to known angles of fire.) Soon after this, Capa shot his famous image of the man now believed to have been Huston S. Riley. The tide was rising and Riley, a veteran of invasions in Sicily and North Africa, was struggling through the surf. “The tide was way in by the time I got in,” Riley recalled in an oral history interview conducted by Larry Cappetto on Omaha Beach in 2004. “I got in pretty close . . . and this photographer and the sergeant from E Company drug me up to the bank.”

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Heavily laden troops, just disembarked, wade toward a distant, murky shore, weapons and gear in hand, their collective fate in the balance.

Riley got up to run forward and was hit twice by gunfire. His D-Day assault ended right then and there. So, too, did the photographer’s. Cameras in hand, he left, heading back out to the boats. The photographer could only have been Capa and, judging by portraits of the time, the soldier in his picture was very likely Riley, who was shipped off to England and, miraculously, returned to the fight but two weeks later. He would be severely wounded in October outside Aachen, sent stateside, and discharged a year later. With one camera jammed and his hands too wet and cold to reload, Capa waded away from the fight, stepping back out among the bodies rolling in the surf and climbing aboard a boat that had just dispatched medics. He was frightened and, ultimately, angry with himself for leaving the beach. “It was a new kind of fear shaking my body from toe to hair, and twisting my face,” he wrote. “I did not think and I did not decide it. I just stood up and ran toward the boat.”

He ended up back in England, where he dispatched his films by courier—a half-dozen rolls of 120 and four rolls of 35mm. Along with cutline information for the 120 was a scrawled note stating that all the action was on the 35mm. Capa soon boarded another ship and headed back to France, and immortality. Back in London, editor John Morris was growing increasingly anxious as deadline approached. It was Wednesday evening. The film had to be souped, edited, printed and cleared by censors a mile away in time to make a U.S.-bound flight. “Our only hope to meet the deadline was to send original prints and negatives, as many as possible, in a pouch that would leave Grosvenor Square by motorcycle courier at precisely 9:00 a.m. London time on Thursday,” Morris recalled. “The courier would take it to a twin-engine plane standing by at an airdrome near London. At Prestwick, Scotland, the base for transatlantic flights, the pouch would be transferred to a larger plane. After one or two fuel stops, it would arrive in Washington, D.C., and our pictures would be handcarried to New York on Saturday.” The call came at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 7: Capa’s film was on its way. It arrived around 9 o’clock. The lab chief handed it to a young darkroom tech, Dennis Banks, to develop. Photographer Hans Wild looked at the wet negatives and said, though grainy, they looked “fabulous.” Morris said he needed contact sheets—“rush, rush, rush!” “A few minutes later Dennis came bounding up the stairs and into my office, sobbing. ‘They’re ruined! Ruined! Capa’s films are all ruined!’

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U.S. troops wade ashore at Omaha Beach. Survivors from earlier boats can be seen in the distance.

“Incredulous, I rushed down to the darkroom with him, where he explained that he had hung the films, as usual, in the wooden locker that served as a drying cabinet, heated by a coil on the floor. Because of my order to rush, he had closed the doors. Without ventilation, the emulsion had melted.” Morris held the negatives up to the light, one roll at a time. “Three were hopeless; nothing to see. But on the fourth roll there were 11 frames with distinct images.” All of them were underexposed by an estimated 1.5-2 f/stops. They were shot in the 7 o’clock hour on a heavily overcast morning, estimated by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and professor J. Ross Baughman at between 1/50th and 1/125th of a second—slow shutter speeds for moving subjects and numb, shaking hands. Cynthia Young, curator of the Robert Capa Archive at the International Center of Photography in New York, described his D-Day negatives as “very thin,” a hallmark of underexposure.

Morris ordered everything printed. It was 3:30 a.m. before he headed out to the Ministry of Information. But he made it—just—and two days later, with the magazine gone to bed, Life’s editors cabled: “Today was one of the great picture days in Life’s office, when Capa’s beach landing and other shots arrived.” Now, some 70 years later, Morris has changed his mind about what happened to those three-plus rolls of film. In a 2014 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the editor said he didn’t think there was a darkroom accident at all. “It now seems that maybe there was nothing on the other three rolls to begin with,” he said, citing the investigative work of experts who found that melting emulsion as described is not possible. Furthermore, beyond their shakiness, graininess and thinness, the surviving negatives show no sign of damage. “So I now believe that it’s quite possible that Bob just bundled all his

Robert Capa/International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos

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35 together and just shipped it off back to London knowing that on one of those rolls there would be the pictures he actually shot that morning.” In December, in an interview marking his 100th birthday, Morris suggested another scenario—that his good friend Capa simply blew it by either totally underexposing the bulk of his negatives or not exposing them at all due to technical malfunction. Capa, who was rewarded with a long-term Life contract, may have been rattled in the heat of battle, Morris told The New York Times. “I don’t think he himself knew how many pictures he had shot. I think there were three rolls that had nothing. Thank God we had one roll that had something.” The photographer would make many more great photographs in the drive to Berlin, then have a fling with Ingrid Bergman, co-found the Magnum picture agency, and go on to photograph the French war in Indochina. Capa died in Thai Bunh, Vietnam, after stepping on a landmine on May 25, 1954. He was 40. L

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PART 2

HUSH-HUSH

HEROES CANADA’S SECOND WORLD WAR AGENTS IN ASIA By Sharon Adams

The feats of our secret agents in Europe during the Second World War were daring and the consequences of capture were torture and death (“Hush-hush heroes,” March/April). The story was very different in Asia, where the tropics were as formidable an enemy as the Japanese. And help was very, very far away.

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gents in the Far East and the Pacific knew they had to rely on their own ingenuity to survive, ingenuity that saved Bill Chong, who was arrested with a companion by a Japanese patrol. They were asked whether they would rather be shot or beheaded—and forced to begin digging their graves. But the patrol leader ran out of patience. “Bullets cost money,” he said, ordering them to kneel and drawing his sword. In desperation, Chong’s companion told the soldier to read the card in his pocket, a note written by his teacher at the Japanese school in Macau, a Japanese officer turned spy who used former pupils to gather information. Their captor read the note and let them go. But Chong wasn’t working for the Japanese spy. He was working for the British. Chong, from Vancouver, was in Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded in December 1941. In an interview with the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, he recalled the Battle of Hong Kong and reported seeing a wounded Canadian ask a Japanese soldier for water.

Photos courtesy of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum

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“I thought he would take the water bottle out. Instead, he took a pistol and shot him right there. I said, ‘How could people do that?’” There were more atrocities. “Finally I thought, ‘When is it going to be my turn?’ So, I decided to escape and went to free China and joined up with the British Army.” Chong, code named Agent 50, spent more than three years behind enemy lines, dressed as a peasant, avoiding bandits and Japanese troops. He established a network that ran Red Cross supplies. “Our organization was called the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) but we were doing intelligence actually.” BAAG, a unit of MI9 (the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9), sent agents to gather military intelligence in southern China and Hong Kong and helped escaped PoWs and downed aircrew get to Allied Command headquarters in Chongqing, China. “Bill Chong was one of its most outstanding members,” Marjorie Wong wrote in The Dragon and the Maple Leaf: Chinese Canadians in World War II.

Operation Oblivion volunteers (front, from left) Hank Wong and Norman Low, and (rear) Eddie Chow, John Ko Bong and Ray Chan.

Code named Agent 50, Bill Chong risked his life behind Japanese lines.

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“I NEVER TELL THEM WHO I AM OR WHAT I AM DOING. ALL THEY KNOW ABOUT ME IS TO CALL ME BILL.”

In addition to passing on information to BAAG, “they told me that I’m to rescue any person if they are British subjects,” Chong said. Altogether, BAAG is credited with helping PoWs, U.S. aircrew, Chinese and British armed services and more than 1,400 civilians escape. “I brought out people from England, Australia, France, India…a lot of places,” he said. Chong is credited with hundreds of rescues, but “I never ask them for their last name. I never tell them who I am or what I am doing. All they know about me is to call me Bill.” After the war, Chong was invited to observe one of the Hong Kong war crimes trials—and recognized the prosecutor and judge. “It was my job, I brought them home free.” The prosecutor Marcus da Silva had been arrested by the Japanese in May 1943. He had smuggled funds into a PoW camp so prisoners could buy extra food, and was suspected of spying. “They gave me everything they had in the way of tortures and beatings,” da Silva said after the war. He was whipped, burnt with a hot poker, beaten and starved. Trading on information about a corrupt guard, Da Silva’s wife managed to get him released.

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In November 1943, Chong helped them escape to Macau—just ahead of a manhunt. Although Chong had been born in Canada, like the hundreds of other ChineseCanadians who served in all branches of the armed forces as volunteers and conscripts, he did not have the right to vote. Canadianborn Chinese as well as immigrants faced bigotry and economic discrimination. A head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act blocked new immigrants and prevented Chinese-Canadians from bringing their families to Canada. In some provinces, they were barred from public pools, kept out of the professions, and given a fraction of the benefits granted to other Canadians. Many saw military service not only as a patriotic duty but “also an affirmation of equality,” wrote Roy MacLaren in Canadians Behind Enemy Lines 1939-1945. After decades of treatment as second-class citizens, “they were ready, even eager, to fill all the obligations of citizenship so that in return they might receive all those rights which other Canadians took for granted.” Hundreds of ChineseCanadians volunteered, many applying several times and to a variety of services after initial rejections. But in 1944, the need for manpower overcame prejudice and Chinese-Canadians began receiving conscription orders. Once it entered the war, Japan quickly occupied British, French and Dutch colonies in

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Southeast Asia and was on the doorstep of India, Australia and China, which had been at war with Japan since 1937. Caucasians in occupied Asia were quickly rounded up and imprisoned or killed. Britain’s MI9 and Special Operations Executive (SOE) both faced obstacles in Asia. Few Europeans spoke languages of the Far East, and their physical features instantly gave them away. Many local populations mistrusted Europeans as much as the occupying force. Thus was born the plan to plant ChineseCanadian agents in Southeast Asia to work with guerrillas during the war. “SOE recruited in waves, originally unsure that Chinese-Canadians could pass muster as commandos,” said Catherine Clement, curator of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum (CCMM) in Vancouver. “The first recruits were an experiment—13 handpicked men, most of whom did not even know how to swim.” They were assigned to Operation Oblivion. They were told they had a 50-50 chance of survival, and were sworn to secrecy. Army Captain Roger Cheng, the first Chinese-Canadian officer in Canada, was among the initial group for Operation Oblivion whose training began at a secret camp on Lake Okanagan in British Columbia. He became the leader. After commando and demolition training, they were schooled in jungle warfare. “We learned to

Photos courtesy of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum

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climb and swing from tree to tree,” said Ed Lee, featured in Rumble in the Jungle, a recent exhibit on Force 136 at the CCMM. They also learned how to find food in the wild, to treat wounds and deal with jungle sickness, he said in a Memory Project interview. On April 25, 1945, Operation Oblivion was scrubbed. The United States supported long-range air operations, the nationalist Chinese mistrusted British intentions, and many of the Allies were leery of working with communist guerrillas. Only a few of the original recruits ended up assigned to Force 136 operations behind Japanese lines. Force 136 operatives worked in Sarawak in Malaysia, elsewhere on the island of Borneo, in British Malaya and in Burma, though only a dozen or so ChineseCanadians saw combat service. Instead they trained and sometimes led local guerrilla groups in sabotage, reported on Japanese military activity, and helped downed aircrew and escaped PoWs to safety. Ten of the 17 Canadians who survived undercover operations in France volunteered for SOE operations in French Indo-China, as did many ChineseCanadians. Teams parachuted into Burma in the spring of 1945 to work with local tribes, destroying railways and wireless installations and escape routes to Thailand, bottling up Japanese troops fleeing in advance of the British army. (Force 136 exploits are “somewhat loosely portrayed,” in the film Bridge on the River Kwaii and formed the basis of Farewell to the King, Sean M. Maloney reported in the Canadian Military Journal).

Agents with the Operation Oblivion team await action in Australia.

The first ChineseCanadian officer in Canada, Captain Roger Cheng was hand-picked for Operation Oblivion by Britain’s Special Operations Executive. Force 136 was the code name used for the Asian sections of the SOE. This is its badge.

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Vancouver’s Neill Chan volunteered for a Burma assignment. “I wasn’t nervous at the start of that trip,” he recently told the Vancouver Sun, “but by the end, I was very scared. The locals thought I was a spy. I was told they would shoot me.” He was unnerved by seeing bodies in a ditch. “They had been decapitated.” Burma claimed the only Canadian Force 136 fatality—Jean-Paul Archambault of Montreal, who had also served for seven months in occupied France. Preparing to sabotage a railway bridge, he accidentally detonated explosives he had been drying out. Wounded, with no hope of medical treatment or rescue, he died two days later. More than 150 Force 136 agents, including some Canadians, were sent into British Malaya and Borneo to work with the Malayan People’s AntiJapanese Army and local tribes. Ernie Louie, one of the few Oblivion recruits deployed on another mission, parachuted into Johore, north of Singapore,

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on Aug. 5, 1945, as part of an all-Canadian Force 136 team to train and support local guerrillas, sabotage transportation routes and report on Japanese movements. Two team members, Joseph Henri Adélard Benoit and Roger Caza, had also served with SOE in France. The guerrilla camp was located about 120 kilometres away, normally a three-day march. “But it lasted seven nightmarish days,” said Louie. “For three full days, it poured rain and our boots disintegrated.” They arrived covered in leech bites and jungle sores. Five of Operation Oblivion’s original recruits—Cheng and Jim Shiu, Norman Low, Roy Chan and Louey King—were sent to Sarawak, which had been seized by the Japanese in January 1942. Accounts of their experiences can be found at Veterans Stories on the CCMM website. The tribes were bitter after four years of occupation during which the Japanese had commandeered their crops and forced them to hunt to feed the occupiers. The Canadians’ mission was to work with Dayak headhunters to force a surrender. The Dayaks were thrilled to co-operate— it meant the ban on headhunting was lifted—at least for Japanese targets. The Canadians were prepared for anything. “One thing I promised myself—not to be taken alive,” said Roy Chan. “If I am captured alive, I know I die a thousand deaths. So, I put myself out of misery by having two extra bullets in one pocket for myself.” The team arrived on Aug. 6, 1945, the day all SOE and MI9 missions in Southeast Asia changed. The day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Photos courtesy of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum; DND/LAC/PA-206260

2017-03-31 2:46 PM

From that date, SOE and MI9 were more concerned with the welfare of the 300,000 PoWs and maintaining order until government could be re-established. It was still a hardship assignment. “We lived on crocodile meat, monkeys and wild pig,” recalled King. It was incredibly hot and steamy there, often over 45°C.” They had to deal with Japanese who stubbornly held out after the surrender, Japanese guards they feared would massacre whole camps, and local tribes bent on taking retribution on surrendered Japanese. As in Europe, the contribution to the war effort of SOE and MI9 operatives in Asia belies their small number. “SOE-led guerrilla groups killed more Japanese forces than the regular army,” Colonel Bernd Horn wrote in A Most Ungentlemanly Way of War: The SOE and the Canadian Connection. “One guerrilla force alone is credited with killing an estimated 10,694 Japanese soldiers.” But perhaps the greatest contribution was in keeping the lid on a volatile situation that could have become a bloodbath after the formal war stopped. In late August 1945, MI9’s Arthur Stewart, a Vancouverite who had worked with guerrillas in the jungle in Burma, was sent to Singapore to lead a hard-working team of E Group and Force 136 operatives to ensure the safety of prisoners of war. (Vancouver’s Bill Lee, who had the only radio link in the area, worked 20 hours a day encoding, transmitting and decoding messages). Stewart visited all the camps around Singapore, collected prisoners’ names, and arranged for drops of food and medicine. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire, credited not only for bravery and meeting the urgent requirements of thousands of PoWs, but keeping “the conduct of the Japanese forces in Singapore…well under control.” After the war, some of the Canadian SOE and MI9 operatives went on to public lives. Allyre Sirois became a lawyer and judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatchewan; Douglas Jung was the first member of a visible minority elected to Parliament and served as a delegate to the United Nations. And many Force 136 recruits fought for citizenship and voting rights for Chinese-Canadians.

TEAMS PARACHUTED INTO BURMA… DESTROYING RAILWAYS AND WIRELESS INSTALLATIONS AND ESCAPE ROUTES TO THAILAND, BOTTLING UP JAPANESE TROOPS.

But most returned to their everyday lives. Bill Chong was awarded the British Empire Medal for meritorious civil or military service in 1947 and continued working for British intelligence for a decade after the war. After returning to Canada, he opened a cafe in Chemainus on Vancouver Island. Ernie Louie and his brothers founded drug store and grocery store chains. Guy d’Artois continued his military career, went on to serve in Korea, and married his British sweetheart Sonia Butt, herself a heroine of the SOE, who took on the role of wife and mother. Sworn to secrecy, SOE and MI9 veterans did not even tell their families of their exploits during the war. “They said, ‘Your job is finished. You forget where you’ve been.’” Roy Chan said in postwar interviews. “So when we went back home, we never tell them where we’ve been. My mother and brother they thought all the time I’m in Australia, I was training all the time.” The historical record is sparse, too. “Unless a secret service remains secret, it cannot do its work,” wrote M.R.D. Foot in his history of the SOE in France. To minimize security risks, field notes were not kept, headquarters paperwork was kept to a minimum and after the war, records were often trashed, he said. And by the time historians started telling their stories, a number of the veterans had already died. Now there are very few left to tell a new generation the tales of Canada’s hush-hush heroes who so bravely operated behind enemy lines in Asia and Europe in a now-distant war. L

Clockwise from top left: Neill Chan was unnerved by seeing beheaded bodies in a ditch in Burma; Norman Low, Doug Mar and Louey King arrived home with souvenirs. Ernie Louie served as a Cantonese interpreter for the all-Canadian Tideway Green group dropped near Johore, Malaysia. Capt. Guy d’Artois and fellow spy Sonia Butt married.

Paratroop members of Force 136 in Burma wore a parachute wings insignia.

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IN THE

NEWS IN THE NEWS

53  CARRYING ON TRADITION OF EDMONTON EX-SERVICEWOMEN By Tom MacGregor

54  CAF NEEDS TO BE MORE DIVERSE, SAYS GENERAL By Stephen J. Thorne

56 M  INISTER DISCUSSES PEACEKEEPING, NATO By Stephen J. Thorne

58 I NJURED CADETS SHOULD BE PROPERLY COMPENSATED, SAYS MILITARY OMBUDSMAN By Sharon Adams

59 C  OMPENSATION ANNOUNCED FOR 1974 CADET ACCIDENT 59 SERVING YOU 60 ARTIFACTS HELP TELL THE STORY OF VIMY By Stephen J. Thorne

61 V  IRTUAL REALITY TAKES VIEWERS INTO VIMY BATTLE By Tom MacGregor

62 D  ON’T MAKE NOV. 11 A HOLIDAY, SAYS LEGION 62 O  BITUARY JEAN MARIE DEVEAUX

Members of Edmonton Ex-Servicewomen’s Branch’s executive include (front, from left) Anne Bennett, President Trudy Ressler, Marian Young, (rear) Carol Rhodes, Joan Stachiw, Marie Moorehead, Faye Elliott and Rose Henry.

Gwen Beasley

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Carrying on tradition of Edmonton Ex-Servicewomen

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By Tom MacGregor

t is a small branch, but Edmonton Ex-Servicewomen’s Branch is still going strong, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. While most women’s branches of The Royal Canadian Legion have disappeared, Edmonton Ex-Servicewomen’s Branch is showing its independence by establishing its own premises. “We’ve been located in four different branches in Edmonton,” said President Trudy Ressler. “Recently we were located at Jasper Place Branch, but the members found the bus service was not good.” About two years ago, the branch began leasing office space in the Parkdale-Cromdale Community League Hall, near the Commonwealth Stadium. “We lease a room that is about 20 square feet, which we use for an office,” said Ressler. “When we want to have a full meeting, we have access to the banquet room in the hall.” Ressler said the branch has more than 80 members. “The average age is about 78 and we get 20 members out for a general meeting,” she said. The women who formed the branch were Second World War veterans, who originally intended to join the now-defunct Montgomery Branch in Edmonton. At that time, women could only join the ladies

auxiliary. So the veterans formed their own women’s division and received a branch charter in January 1947. By the end of the year, the branch had 298 members. Four or five of the original members still come out to meetings. As times changed, the branch began to accept family members as associates. Ressler’s mother was one of the original veterans. “We do all the things that are expected of a branch,” said Ressler. During the poppy campaign, the branch is responsible for distributing poppies in three different malls in the city. Among the programs supported by the branch is a school lunch program for underprivileged children. “We have fundraisers such as a casino night or our bake-less bake sales,” said Ressler. “We don’t actually bake for it but everyone pays what they would have spent if there were baked goods.” The branch also helps veterans with their claims. Susie Shaw, a former service officer with AlbertaNorthwest Territories Command, acts as the branch service officer. A 70th anniversary tea and reception at the community centre with local dignitaries is planned for June. L

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CAF needs to be more diverse, says general

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erhaps the best moment of February’s annual Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDA) symposium in Ottawa came on the second day when an officer cadet named Melissa Sanfacon of Kingston’s Royal Military College took the microphone and confronted the chief of the defence staff before a room full of brass, former brass, bureaucrats, diplomats and academics. The CDA is an umbrella group of military and veteran associations. The principal subject matter for the two-day conference seemed heady enough: Great Powers, World Order—and Canada’s Defence Policy Review. Norad’s commander, U.S. General Lori Robinson, had addressed morphing threats and opaque intent among enemies old and new. Political studies professor Kim Nossal of Queen’s University had described an “insurgent” U.S. administration that is “intent on dismantling the global order.” A panel had

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By Stephen J. Thorne

talked of the potential “unravelling” of the 68-year-old North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But Officer Cadet Sanfacon had more fundamental things in mind and she wasn’t about to let General Jonathan Vance walk away unscathed. Vance had just delivered a 40-minute treatise on the state of the Canadian Armed Forces, replete with promises to boost the enrolment of women over the next decade and curb the preponderance of sexual misconduct in the ranks. Sanfacon wanted to know just what boosting women’s enrolment would entail. “When you speak about getting more women into the force, I’m wondering if at the same time there’s been any thought put to kit that can be actually useful and more suited to women in operations,” Sanfacon said. She cited body armour and rucksacks, in particular, pointing to the fact the U.S. military has started issuing kit specifically designed for women while the Canadian Forces have not. The frame of her

rucksack, she noted, was issued in 1982 for what was then the average soldier: a five-foot, 11-inch, 175-pound male. Sanfacon is fourfoot, 11-inches and 100 pounds. “It’s not quite functional or practical,” she said, to spontaneous applause from the audience. “Listen,” Vance replied, “I hear you. I’m five-seven; I’ve been chaffing against this stuff my whole career, too. “My body armour rides up to here,” he added, laying his hand under his upturned chin. Then the head of the Canadian military paused a moment before adding, to the delight of all: “Look, you’re right. Next question.” He then repeated his endorsement of the cadet’s perspective. Vance confirmed that he had asked Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk, the commander of the army, to follow up with the cadet. Vance has vowed to boost the proportion of women in the military by one percentage point a year until it reaches 25 per cent from the current 14.

Stephen J. Thorne

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U.S. General Lori Robinson, the commander of Norad, talks to reporters after her address at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute.

“Diversity and increasing the number of women in the Canadian Armed Forces is not just the right thing to do, it’s a matter of institutional survival,” Vance told the conference. “We have to become more diverse.” Reaching overall recruiting targets depends heavily on increasing female recruitment, Auditor General Michael Ferguson reported in November. But he noted the CAF had not implemented special employment-equity measures to help it along. About half the women in the Canadian military are pigeonholed into six of the Forces’ 100-plus occupations: resource management support clerks, supply technicians, logistics officers, medical technicians, nursing officers and cooks. Vance told the conference the military has to change the way it attracts, retains and parts with people. “If we want to change the diverse nature of the armed forces, if we want to become more diverse and inclusive of more and more women, we’re going to have to change,” he said. “There was a time when we could just sit back and say ‘come and join us.’ That doesn’t work anymore.” The military is facing multiple human resources issues that can’t help his case. More than 300 soldiers in Kuwait to assist in the fight against ISIS learned in December they were to lose a tax break, a form of danger pay, worth at least $1,500 a month. A resolution was reached after a defence department review, with some soldiers receiving the benefit and others not. But the affair was just short of a public-relations disaster. This came as many departing soldiers faced crippling delays in the transition between their military paycheques and their veterans’ pensions. CBC reported that the pension backlog peaked at some 13,000 files last year. Post-traumatic stress injury remained at critical levels in the years after Afghanistan, and

military-related suicides continued introduce “as immediately as we to mount—an “enormous chalcan” a new military organization, lenge,” Vance described the issue, a “transition unit” commanded adding that half those who killed by a general officer who will themselves were not in treatment, institute a “professionalized and they should have been. process” to guide and care for Meanwhile, a Statistics Canada outgoing members, ensuring survey of 43,000 CAF members they leave the Armed Forces as found that the rate of sexual well and prepared as possible. assault in Canada’s military “We want to make certain that during the previous 12 months veterans have every chance at was almost double that of workers thriving,” Vance told a scrum with in the general population, 1.7 per reporters. “A successful transicent compared to 0.9 per cent. tion, a successful, professional While Vance has made Operation administrative departure from the Honour, his strategy aimed at Armed Forces, is just as important eliminating sexual impropriety, as the successful administrative a priority of his tenure, he told arrival into the Armed Forces. the conference that broader “Too many people were on their human-resources issues require own—on their own to read the rega comprehensive long-range ulations; on their own to figure out approach focused on what he what it is that they had to do. And called “the journey—from the point we attract you, through your service and beyond. “IF WE WANT TO “Our conditions of CHANGE THE DIVERSE service are largely built NATURE OF THE ARMED for one type of person—a FORCES, IF WE WANT TO person who’s fully fit and [ready] to deploy, is a genBECOME MORE DIVERSE eralist in most cases and AND INCLUSIVE OF a specialist when we need MORE AND MORE them to be a specialist,” he WOMEN, WE’RE GOING continued. “That may not work in the future. Our TO HAVE TO CHANGE.” conditions of service may very well need to change.” He said members need more freedom to move back and that is compounded by a lateness of forth between regular service and a pension cheque or something that the reserves, between part-time they should have known but didn’t and full-time, between restricted because they didn’t happen to read and unrestricted employment. that particular paragraph of that So the military is considerparticular volume that’s that thick. ing “all manner of conditions of People need support coming into service, to provide a more flexible the Armed Forces and they need career path” and modernize its support going out. And they need personnel-management policies. it even more if they’re wounded.” “The ultimate objective must be, Already almost a year into his and always will be, to produce the three-year tenure, the CDS would armed forces necessary for Canada not, however, be pinned down to conduct the operations that the on a time frame, acknowledging government wants us to do now that a rollout could be as long as and in the future,” said Vance. two years away. “I want to start Specifically, Vance promised to it as soon as I can,” he said. L

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Minister discusses peacekeeping, NATO

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sk veteran soldiers their feelings about peacekeeping missions and chances are you’ll get a negative response. Acting as referee and policeman in areas of hostility is like doing the job with one hand tied behind your back, they’ll say. Strict rules of engagement—preventing peacekeepers from firing unless fired upon, for example— endangered blue-helmeted troops and limited their effectiveness. Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan, a decorated military veteran who was wounded on duty in Bosnia and did three tours in Afghanistan, doesn’t dispute the impressions of his former colleagues. “You’ve got to look at how

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By Stephen J. Thorne

peacekeeping started,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with Legion Magazine. “It was designed for a particular set of security challenges where peace agreements were signed by both parties and you have this intervening force coming in between to enforce that peace. “Over time, as conflicts changed, they weren’t evaluated as thoroughly as they could have been, which created [new] challenges. The right rules of engagement weren’t there; the chain of command function in terms of authority was not there.” Last year, the federal government announced it would commit up to 600 troops to UN peace-support operations, but a decision was delayed following the election of Donald Trump to the White House. Trump’s ambassador to the United

Nations, Nikki Haley, has made peacekeeping reform a top priority. The Americans spend nearly US$8 billion annually on peacekeeping missions and Haley has said she wants to look at all 16 U.S. missions to see which are succeeding in maintaining peace and which aren’t. Trump has said Washington spends far too much on other countries’ security. Sajjan, meanwhile, held his first face-to-face with his U.S. counterpart, retired marine general James Mattis, on Feb. 6. The minister and the secretary of defence discussed continental defence as well as multilateral issues, including pledges to lead NATO battle groups in Eastern Europe and conduct UN operations. But the question of where and when those UN commitments

M.Cpl. Jennifer Kusche, Canadian Forces Combat Camera

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Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan shakes hands with United States Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon on Feb. 6.

would be fulfilled remained unanswered immediately following the discussion. Canada was considering sending troops to Mali. Wherever it ends up, rest assured the mission will be conducted differently than many of its predecessors. Gone in many cases are the days of two sides, a line and the formalities of diplomacy. The factors involved are ever more complex and it’s not fair to the troops to send them into situations that haven’t been thoroughly assessed, said Sajjan. Times have indeed changed, he said, and there is no one-sizefits-all solution to peacekeeping challenges. Canada’s diversity and world view are ideally suited to the demands of modern-day peacesupport operations, he argued. “It’s about understanding the conflict first,” he said. “When you understand the conflict, then you create the mechanism required to accomplish your objectives. When you look at the reality of today, it is not the peacekeeping of the past.” Robust rules of engagement, yes, but also flexibility for commanders on the ground and the ability to make quick decisions for the safety and security of civilians. Canada’s innovative approach to peacekeeping is not limited to military options either, he added. Several government departments are involved and assessments are based on where Canadians can make the most impact with finite resources. In Africa, for example, poverty and a preponderance of vulnerable youth who don’t see hopeful futures are major factors in the recruitment and development of extremists. “If we don’t give them a future, they’re going to find some other things to do and, regrettably, they’re going to be sucked into the extremist propaganda.” The military gets most of the attention but it actually plays a supporting role in many peace-support operations, said Sajjan. “We want

to bring innovative solutions that are going to move the yardstick forward and help improve the efficiency and solve some of the problems that have marred the United Nations in the past.”

sixth largest financial contributor and hits well above its weight in terms of participation. “It’s kind of an overall, general metric that if you spend money on defence, you’re going to be doing more,” the minister said. Sajjan also dispelled any sugges“At the end of the day, you can tion the survival of the North Atlantic spend all the money you want on Treaty Organization was in question. your military, if your output is not “I’m confident that the importhere for supporting NATO roles tance of NATO involves all of the well, guess what, you’re really not member states,” Sajjan said. “I providing any legitimate support.” think the focus of the discussion Among other contributions, will be: how do we make NATO Canada is leading a NATO miseven better? That’s something that sion in Latvia, where it has we’ve always been striving for.” committed 450 troops along After his inauguration, Trump with light-armoured vehicles told the German daily Bild and and other military equipment as The London Times that the part of an effort to deter Russian 28-member alliance is “obsolete” aggression in Eastern Europe. and unfair to the United States. “We believe in multilateralism,” Only five NATO members met said Sajjan. “We were one of the the group’s co-founders of defence-spending NATO and we standard of two will be playing a per cent of GDP significant role. last year—Greece, “NATO plays “CANADA’S Estonia, Poland, a critical role in DIVERSITY AND the U.K. and the the wider peace WORLD VIEW U.S. Canada’s and security, not spending ARE IDEALLY just for Europe increased slightly but in the rest of SUITED TO THE in 2016, to 1.02 the world, from DEMANDS OF per cent of GDP capacity-building MODERN-DAY from 0.98. to deterrence.” PEACE-SUPPORT That moved Mattis, who Canada to 20th served as NATO’s OPERATIONS.” from 23rd in supreme allied military spending commander for as a percentage transformation, of GDP among phoned NATO NATO’s 28 allies. It’s in a threeSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg way tie with Hungary and after talking to Sajjan and reinforced Slovenia. Only Belgium, the Czech “the key role NATO plays in transatRepublic, Iceland, Luxembourg lantic security,” said the Pentagon. and Spain spent less. Canada Sajjan said future Canadian defence currently spends about $20 spending will be “directly linked billion annually on defence. to the output that we’re doing.” Sajjan confirmed Canada would “This will not be a laundry list increase its military spending of equipment. This will be an following a defence review, but he actual, real defence policy based added that alone is not a reliable on capabilities that allow us to then indicator of the contributions figure out what do we need—the members make to the organizasize, the structure and the new tion. Canada, he said, is NATO’s capabilities that we need to get.” L

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Injured cadets should be properly compensated, says military ombudsman

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By Sharon Adams

adets killed or decades following the incident seriously injured sparked the ombudsman’s review while participating of the cadet program in 2015. in approved activities Cadet activities differ from those should have the same care and of other youth programs in that compensation that is extended the cadet organizations are under to adults supervising them, the the control and supervision of the military ombudsman recommends. Canadian Armed Forces, though “More needs to be done to support they are not part of the CAF. More our most vulnerable participants of than 20,000 youth, generally aged the cadet program,” said Canadian 12 through 18, attend summer Armed Forces Ombudsman training camps at 21 army, sea and Gary Walbourne in a report to air cadet training centres across Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. the country. They are housed, fed He noted not much has changed and provided training activities at in knowledge of, and access to, longthe expense and under supervision term care and compensation for of the CAF. The care and safety of cadets and their families since 1974, youth entrusted by their families to when six cadets were killed and the CAF is a “sacred responsibility,” dozens injured Lieutenant-General in a grenade Guy Thibault, demonstration then vice-chief of at a summer the defence staff, THE CARE cadet camp in said in media Valcartier, Que. interviews. And, AND SAFETY The cadets, inelthe ombudsman OF YOUTH igible for benefits found, cadets are ENTRUSTED BY or compensation well supported THEIR FAMILIES available to Forces by the CAF for TO THE CAF IS members and short-term healthdefence employcare access. A “SACRED ees, had to rely on Yet, should RESPONSIBILITY.” provincial health something go plans. Families seriously wrong, had to pay out of the report pocket for medical says, “today’s assistance not covered by provincial cadets are still excluded from a health plans, and if they couldn’t, the prescribed suite of compensation cadets went without. Few families and benefits,” including disability knew where to go for help, or that payments, available to their [CAF] they could file a claim against the instructors, defence employees and Crown for additional compensation. some comparable groups. Cadets’ Complaints about unfair final recourse is still a legal claim compensation for cadets in the against the Crown, just as in 1974.

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An examination of insurance coverage revealed the maximum lump sum a Canadian cadet could receive through cadet league accident insurance for a life-changing or permanent impairment is $20,000, contrasted to $100,000 for severe injury for adult civil volunteers covered by the same policies; and the CAF Service Income Security Insurance Plan (SISIP) pays a maximum of $250,000 for CAF cadet instructor officers, who may also claim workers’ compensation. The report’s major recommendation is that in event of illness or injury arising from an approved cadet activity, the Department of National Defence and CAF ensure cadets are compensated and supported in a manner commensurate with support and compensation available to CAF members. Recognizing it may take time to change the necessary regulations and policies, the report recommends that prior to 2017 summer training, information be distributed so cadets, their families, instructors and supervisors all are well informed about what benefits cadets are entitled to now, and how to access them. As part of the next annual review of cadet organization insurance policies, DND and CAF should ensure the benefits are identical for all cadet leagues. “It is not fair to offer compensation and benefits to cadet instructors who become ill or injured as a result of a cadet activity, and not offer similar support to ill or injured cadets,” said the report. L

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Compensation announced for 1974 cadet accident The federal government is providing compensation and health-care support for cadet victims of a grenade accident 43 years ago. “This is a good day for the survivors,” said Gerry Fostaty, who worked for years for compensation for the accident, in which a cadet pulled the pin on a live grenade at CFB Valcartier cadet camp in Quebec. Six cadets died and 65 were injured. A military ombudsman’s investigation concluded they had been treated callously during the investigation and unfairly afterward. About 155 individuals are eligible for a $42,000 benevolent payment. In addition, those with physical

SERVING

SERVING YOU is written by Legion command service officers. To reach a service officer, call toll-free 1-877-534-4666, or consult a command website. For years of archives, visit www.legionmagazine.com

YOU

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and mental injuries are eligible for up to $310,000. Estates of the six cadets killed are eligible for an additional $58,000. As well, the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces will pay related health-care costs not funded by provincial health-care systems. “These former cadets were under our care…and some have struggled—and continue to struggle to this day—with the long-term effects of the trauma they experienced and the actions taken by the military,” said Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan. Further information is available online at [email protected] or by calling 844-800-8566. L

Seniors: be wary of financial abuse

inancial abuse is the most common form of elder abuse in Canada. Financial abuse can happen at any time, but it will often start after a health crisis or after the death of a spouse, partner or close friend. People who are alone, lonely or in poor health are more vulnerable. They may find it harder to protect themselves from demands for money or other forms of financial abuse, or from physical and emotional abuse, which may occur at the same time. Financial abuse can be difficult to identify or recognize. It is often a pattern rather than a single event, happening over a long period of time. The important thing about protecting yourself from financial abuse is to remember that your money and property

belong to you. They are not your family’s or anyone else’s. What is financial abuse? Financial abuse is the illegal or unauthorized use of someone else’s money or property. It includes pressuring someone for money or property. Some types of financial abuse are very clearly theft or fraud. For example, if someone cashes your pension cheque and keeps all or part of the money without your permission, or if they misuse a power of attorney to take money from your bank account for themselves, they are stealing from you. Other examples of financial abuse are harder to name. These can include pressuring, forcing or tricking you into lending or giving away money, property or possessions, making or

changing your will or power of attorney, and forcing you to sign legal or financial documents that you don’t understand. Abusers are usually people who have a close connection to you. They use their connection to take advantage of you and force you to do what they want. If you think you are experiencing financial abuse, ask for help. If you don’t have a family member or close friend who can help you, there are community resources you can use to stop the abuse. Ask your bank or credit union, or even your doctor, where you can go for advice and help. You could also contact your local police. More information on financial abuse can be found on the Government of Canada website www.seniors.gc.ca. L

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Goggles (top left) worn by Lieutenant Harold Arthur Sydney Molyneux when he crashed at Vimy Ridge. Private William Milne’s medals (left), including the posthumous Victoria Cross he earned at Vimy. The helmet (above) worn by Captain Thain MacDowell when he earned his VC, the only one of Vimy’s four VC winners to have survived the battle. All artifacts, along with a pilot’s cold-weather gear (below), are part of the Canadian War Museum’s revamped permanent exhibition on the battle.

Artifacts help tell the story of Vimy Photos and text by Stephen J. Thorne

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he Canadian War Museum in Ottawa is marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge by refurbishing its Vimy gallery and launching a new exhibition, Vimy—Beyond the Battle. New artifacts, audio and video have been added to the Battle of Vimy Ridge section of Canadian Experience Gallery 2 to help visitors better understand the battle and its legacy. Vimy—Beyond the Battle runs until Nov. 12 and explores how and why Canadians commemorate through private and collective memories of Vimy, the First World War and more recent conflicts. Pictured are some of the artifacts included in the two exhibitions. L

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Dedications on a cross erected in July 1917 by members of the 13th Canadian Battalion at Nine Elms Military Cemetery in Thelus, France, are part of the Canadian War Museum exhibition Vimy—Beyond the Battle.

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Virtual reality takes viewers into Vimy battle

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By Tom MacGregor

tudents visiting Vimy Ridge for the 100th anniversary got a chance to see what the battlefield looked like 100 years ago, thanks to virtual reality technology. Students travelling with EF Educational Tours in April were immersed in the technology used by Simwave Consulting of Kanata, Ont., to create an experience which takes the viewer into the tunnels at Vimy, just before Zero Hour on April 9, 1917. “It is all part of their preparation for when they are actually there during the [centennial] commemorations,” explained Matt Thomas, the company’s head of business development. “We have been collaborating with the Canadian War Museum to make sure that we have everything right, from uniforms to the type of rifles the men used,” he said. The final product is a short virtual reality scenario that the

viewer can experience by going into the specially built booth and donning a set of goggles and headphones. The 2.5-metre high booth offers a 360-degree experience. The ground rumbles underneath the viewer and he or she sees the images, hears the sounds and breathes the smell of battle. Hot and cold fans create weather effects. “The technology is mostly being used for educational purposes. It is more interesting than looking through a book and it can be fun,” said Thomas. In the scenario for Vimy Ridge, the viewer starts in the tunnels under the ridge on the morning of the attack. The viewer goes through the tunnels. If he or she brushes the side of the tunnel, dirt falls from the wall. Once outside the tunnel, the viewer crouches in a trench in a row of soldiers waiting for the creeping barrage to begin. An officer or sergeant comes along

Virtual Canadian soldiers advance on Vimy Ridge.

Victor Chui, Nathan Elliott

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Viewers sit in a 2.5-metre high booth to get the virtual reality experience.

the line and tells the viewer to fix his bayonet on the rifle in his hands. Then the barrage begins. The ground shakes. A moment later, the viewer is on the move, charging toward the enemy as bullets fly past and explosions happen at an uncomfortably close range. The experience ends with a view of Vimy today, with its parkland and the enormous monument. “We are also working on an app that students can use on their phones so they will be able to see artifacts, such as the LeeEnfield rifle,” said Thomas. As well as being exhibited at Vimy, the booth will be loaned to the war museum in the future. A variation of the Vimy scenario, concentrating on the role of the Royal Canadian Regiment, is being installed in the RCR Museum in London, Ont. Simwave is also using its technology to build an exhibit for the Canada Science and Technology Museum, which is set to reopen this year once renovations to its building are complete. The exhibit will accompany a steam locomotive. The viewer will be an engineer for the experience, twisting and turning knobs in the right sequence to get the locomotive operating properly. L

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Don’t make Nov. 11 a holiday, says Legion

emembrance Day should remain a special day for Canadians but not be given status as a legal holiday, The Royal Canadian Legion told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on Feb. 21. The committee, which is studying a private members bill introduced by Nova Scotia Liberal MP Colin Fraser, heard from Dominion Secretary Brad White. Bill C-311 would amend the Holidays Act to include Nov. 11 as a legal holiday in Canada. “The holiday status of Remembrance Day has been debated at numerous dominion conventions throughout the Legion’s history. In fact, 15 times since 1970 and most recently at our 2016 dominion convention,” said White. “We remain concerned that Canadians, if given the time off as a legal holiday, may not take the time to remember; that it

may simply become a mid-week break or just part of another long weekend,” he said. Instead, the Legion prefers that an education strategy be put in place. “It is paramount that the significance of Remembrance Day is instilled in our youth and for the general population to show their respect for the sacrifices of our fallen. To honour this day, many schools hold assemblies where they organize their own commemoration. Some teachers take their students to collectively participate with their peers in ceremonies at local cenotaphs,” said White. He noted that the Legion publishes its own Teaching Guide which stresses the importance of Remembrance Day activities. The guide has been viewed or downloaded from the Legion’s website more than one million times. The Ontario Federation of Home and School Associations (OFHSA) has supported the Legion

position, noting that in the 1960s Remembrance Day was a holiday in Ontario. “Children remained at home to play, watch television and enjoy a day of rest. Few were involved in events recognizing the significance of the day. At the time, veterans groups, school boards and other organization such as the OFHSA petitioned to have school remain open on Remembrance Day, so that suitable Remembrance Day services can be held in schools to provide students with a better understanding of the purpose and tribute paid,” said the association in a letter to the Legion. “As an example, take Victoria Day, a legal holiday, and question what observances are held across the country to honour Queen Victoria, who until last year, was Canada’s longest serving monarch,” said White. “For most, it simply provides a long weekend in May. We must not let Remembrance Day suffer this same fate.” L

OBITUARY

Jean Marie Deveaux Former Nova Scotia/ Nunavut president Jean Marie Deveaux of Port Hawkesbury, N.S., died Feb. 19. She was 66. Deveaux, known for her quick wit, was tireless in her campaign to stop the closure of the Veterans Affairs Canada district office in Sydney, N.S. It was finally closed in January 2014 but was reopened in November 2016. Deveaux joined Port Hawkesbury Branch in 1986 as an associate member. She rose through the ranks at both the branch and provincial command levels. In 2011, she was elected the first female

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president of Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command. For many years, including while she served as president, Deveaux served as the command correspondent for Legion Magazine and wrote regularly for the provincial command newspaper, The Torch. She was also a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal and the Palm Leaf. Apart from her Legion involvement, she was a founding member of the theatre company, Under the Map. She was also involved in local politics, campaigning for long-time mayor of Port Hawkesbury, Billy Joe MacLean. “Jean Marie was a little lady but she was six feet tall when it came to standing up for somebody’s rights,” said MacLean. Deveaux leaves her husband Gerard, daughter Lori-Ann and son Tony, as well as her mother Agnes Burns of Halifax. L

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2017-03-30 3:28 PM

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Correspondents’ Addresses

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IN THIS

ISSUE Legion branches donate more than

$216,000 to their communities

Trail, B.C., Branch poppy chair Neil Jarvie congratulates students from two families who placed first or second in their respective categories of the poster and literary contests at the branch and zone levels. Front, from left: Carly and Naomi Issel, Charlie, Alexander and Jill O’Hearn Stone and (rear) Daniel, Kelly and Benjamin Issel.

Maura Fitzpatrick (centre), of the Children of the Street Society, accepts $1,000 from South Burnaby, B.C., L.A. President Dianne Barnes (left) and Past President Merilyn Smith. The L.A. also donated $1,000 to the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund.

Bulkley Valley Branch in Smithers, B.C., dedicated a refurbished mural honouring veterans of the two world wars and Korean War. Funding for the mural, refreshed by original artist Hans Saefkow, was donated by member Brian Atherton, whose father is depicted, and his wife Carla, as well as local businesses.

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Past President Jim Harrold (left) and poppy chair Neil Jarvie of Trail, B.C., Branch present $6,000 for the elder care campaign to Lisa Pasin, director of Kootenay Boundary Regional Health Foundation. The funds will go toward a new bed lift.

Ella Freethy of Maquinna Elementary School is congratulated by Sandi Paterson of Alberni Valley Branch in Port Alberni, B.C., on placing third in the junior colour poster contest.

At the presentation of a donation for improvements to Brookhaven Care Centre from Westbank, B.C., Branch are (front, from left) Joan Steeves, Janice Perrier, Ken Carpenter, Barb Johnson, (rear) Maggie Lauinger, George Steeves, Gladys Carlisle, Liz Dickson and Dennis Bell.

Bill Mitchell, cadet liaison officer for Kamloops, B.C., Branch, presents $2,000 to MS Rosie Doherty, volunteer instructor for the Prince Robert navy league cadets.

Veteran Ed Antonovitch receives slippers from Summerland, B.C., Branch member John Dorn as part of the branch’s program to give veterans comfort gifts at Christmas.

Poppy chair Sam Esopenko of Mount Arrowsmith Branch in Parksville, B.C., presents $2,500 to (from left) Navy League representatives Shannon Pennington and Barb Robinson and sea cadets CO Brittany Thurber.

CPO2 Clayton Bailey of the Kamloops sea cadet corps accepts $2,000 from Kamloops, B.C., Branch cadet liaison officer Bill Mitchell.

Poppy chair Sam Esopenko of Mount Arrowsmith Branch in Parksville, B.C., presents $2,500 to Capt. Elizabeth Reid of the Beaufort air cadet squadron. legionmagazine.com > MAY/JUNE 2017

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

Poppy chair John Paulin of Comox, B.C., Branch and Principal Sherry Laffling congratulate second-place winners of the poster and literary contests from Miracle Beach School (from left) Ava Jorgensen, Tessa Ennes and Casey Kennedy.

Chase, B.C., Branch President Paul Lamoureux (left) and donations director Paul Osadchuk present $1,000 to Brandi Nakazawa of Chase and District Victim Services.

Sandi Paterson of Alberni Valley Branch in Port Alberni, B.C., congratulates Jackie-Lynn Croft of Maquinna Elementary School for placing third in the junior poetry contest.

Sgt-at-Arms Harry Caton receives his 50 Years Long Service Medal from President Don Silvester (left) and treasurer Rose Foulds of Powell River, B.C., Branch.

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Sun Kim, who placed first in the provincial-level black-and-white poster contest, is congratulated by Chase, B.C., Branch President Paul Lamoureux (left) and poppy chair John Angus.

Vancouver TVS Branch First Vice Barb Walter Venne presents $2,000 to Brian Archer of Citadel Canine Society for training support dogs for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

President Gary Laing (left) of Carbonear, N.L., Branch, along with command First Vice Berkley Lawrence, presents a plaque and water cooler to Suzanne Dohey, director of palliative care at the Carbonear General Hospital. The branch will also pay the cooler’s monthly rental fee and supply the water.

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Bay D’Espoir Branch in St. Alban’s, N.L., presents senior branch-level awards to poster and essay contest winners from St. Anne’s School in Conne River.

John Skinner of Mulhurst Branch in Mulhurst Bay, Alta., presents a $1,000 bursary to Kyra Skinner, a student at Red Deer College.

At the presentation of awards in the command-level poster and literary contests at Carbonear, N.L., Branch are (front, from left) Emily Button, Brooklyn Noonan, Isabel Harris, Bryanna Hogan, Cassandra Hogan, Alishia Mahaney, (rear) command First Vice Berkley Lawrence, Brandon Younge, Matthew Butt and schools committee chair Sarah Lawrence.

President Wally Coes (left) of Joe Wynne Branch in Edson, Alta., and District 8 Deputy Commander Dave Velichko present $1,000 to Cindy Hardy of the Edson Seniors Transportation Society.

Three Hills, Alta., Branch President Doug Lorraine prepares to place a wreath at the rededication ceremony of the cenotaph, refurbished with a donation from the town and $3,000 from the poppy fund.

President Janice Allen (right) and treasurer Lorraine Rathwell of Robertson Memorial L.A. in Medicine Hat, Alta., present $2,500 to Pot of Gold Contest winner Neil Schattle.

At the presentation of donations from High River, Alta., Branch are (from left) 2nd Lieut. Patti Kjinserdahl of the Foothills army cadet corps, poppy co-chair Tim Whitford, Lieut. Karen Murfin of the Cmdr. W. H. Evelyn navy league cadets, Sgt.-at-Arms Bob Collins, Capt. Paula Groewold of Foothills air cadet squadron and poppy co-chair Louise Hughes. legionmagazine.com > MAY/JUNE 2017

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

Enjoying a ride in a troop carrier during the annual agricultural fair parade are (clockwise from bottom left) Second World War veteran Olaf Hegland, Beaverlodge, Alta., Branch members service officer Jim Frissell, Past President Andy Meggit, Sgt.-at-Arms Len Mainville and President Cordelia Gault.

Alberta Health Minister Sara Hoffman (centre) is presented with $10,000 for the Sylvan Lake Urgent Care Facility fund by Sylvan Lake L.A. members Thelma Paquette (left) and Dot Bloomer.

Alberta-Northwest Territories Command seniors mixed darts winners (from left) Doug and Linda Smith of Pincher Creek Branch and Rod Peake and Bernice Carrier of Gen. Stewart Branch in Lethbridge, receive a plaque at Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., Branch, the host branch.

Edgerton, Alta., Branch President Jim Fraser presents $900 to Edgerton Fire Chief John Koroluk, accompanied by Dick Tippler (left) and Deputy Chief Deb Waddell.

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Afghanistan veterans Robert Kuhn (left) and Richard McNevin, of Airdrie, Alta., Branch, at the unveiling of the LAV III Monument at the Nose Creek Valley Museum.

Past President Andy Meggit (left) and service officer Jim Frissell of Beaverlodge, Alta., Branch congratulate literary contest winner Kaitlyn Busson.

Okotoks, Alta., Branch President Bob McLeod presents a donation to Lieut. Patti Kjindersahl for the Oilfields army cadet corps as Sgt.-at-Arms John MacCormack (left) and First Vice Paul Fegan look on.

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Edgerton, Alta., Branch President Jim Fraser presents $500 to Capt. Crystal Bugg of the Battle River army cadet corps.

Fredericton L.A. President Fran Duncan presents a bursary to Nikita Spenser.

Members of Hartland, N.B., L.A. pack treat bags for veterans and shut-in members.

Student Brandon Case accepts a bursary from Fredericton L.A. President Fran Duncan.

At the presentation of prizes in the poster and literary contests at Gladstone Branch in Fredericton Junction, N.B., are (from left) secretary-treasurer Juanita Nason, Maggie Phillips, Zachery Egerter, Owen Jones, Jacqueline Fowler and President Gill Briggs.

At the presentation of $2,500 from Chatham Branch in Miramichi, N.B., to the Miramichi Regional Hospital for upgrades to the oncology department are (from left) President Ted Quann, foundation manager Joanne Sellers and poppy chair Marianne Harris.

Miramichi Senior Citizens Home board chair Pat Diotte (left) accepts $2,500 from poppy chair Marianne Harris of Chatham Branch in Miramichi, N.B. Looking on is veteran Colin Fleirger.

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

L.A. President Valerie Cairns and President Larry Lynch of Lancaster Branch in Saint John, N.B., present senior philanthropy specialist Darren McLeod with $5,000 toward the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation’s purchase of a endobronchial ultrasound. The machine will help detect early lung cancer.

Showing their prizes in the poster and literary contests at Salem Elementary school in Sackville, N.B., are (front, from left) Avery Campbell, Clare McCully, Laine Acton, Aaron Alder, Juline Meagher, Zoe Post, Ella Hart, Joshua TerBeek, Delilah Paquin and Ellie McCortmick. Looking on are (rear) service officer Reg Hanson, treasurer Deborah Sears, President Doreen Richards and poppy chair Victor Sears.

Herman Good VC Branch in Bathurst, N.B., makes donations to the local cadet corps. At the presentation are (from left) President Eugene Godin, Lieut. (N) Derna Henry of the Chaleur sea cadet corps, Capt. Karen Theriault of the Chaleur air cadet squadron and Sgt.-at-Arms Haines Scott.

At the presentation of $3,000 from Stevenson Building Branch in Richibucto, N.B., to the Kent County Food Bank are (from left) District Commander Mavis Cooper, President Al Corcoran, Kent County food bank representative Ronda Rovichaud, and First Vice Rona Cormier.

At the presentation of bursaries at Florenceville, N.B., Branch are (from left) treasurer Chris O’Donnell, President Stuart MacElwain, Kaitlyn Hutchison, Rebecca Tompkins, District Commander Joseph White and vice-president Dwayne Hatfield.

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President Phil Otis of Charleswood Branch in Winnipeg presents $2,000 to A.J. Sukhan, commanding officer of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry army cadet corps.

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The winners of the Manitoba-Northwestern Ontario golf championship held in Fort Francis, Ont., are (from left) Dave Johnson, Clair Edmunds, Bob Balbar and Norm Davis of Souris, Man., Branch.

Celebrating the 90th anniversary of Port Arthur Branch in Thunder Bay, Ont., are District 8 Commander Rob Cutbush (left) and President Dell Babcock.

Lieut. Nicole Day (centre) of the XII Manitoba Dragoons army cadet corps accepts $10,000 from Virden, Man., L.A. President Chris Dunning and Virden Branch President Curtis Smith. LUKE KNOLL

At the donation of $10,000 from Perdue, Sask,. Branch toward rebuilding of the Perdue Arena are (from left) Sgt. Colin Sawrenko, Vivian Eaton, Trent McMahon, Dawson Manti, Bill Sandford, Bob Mason and Const. Andrew Park.

At the 90th-anniversary celebration of Maple Creek, Sask., Branch are (from left) Rosemary Forsyth, Alex Forsyth, Barb Trayhorne, Les Trayhorne, Saskatchewan Command Past President Dick Wells, Judy Wells, branch President Walter Arnold, Debra Arnold, Cecile Andrews, Saskatchewan Command Vice-President Keith Andrews, Grace Carleton, Mayor Barry Rudd and Keith Carleton.

With a donation of $12,659 from Humboldt, Sask., Branch to Paws for Veterans are (from left) member Andy McAnally, President Niki Sokolan, Sherry Hogemann and Donald Hogemann. DON AND SHERRY HOGEMANN

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

President Darrell Webster of Robert Combe VC Branch in Melville, Sask. congratulates winners of the poster and literary contests from Grayson School in Grayson, Sask., (from left) Kelsey Lang, Kayla Dietrich, Parnet Brar and Trinity Alexson.

At the presentation of a donation to Jeffrey Chen and Andrew Potter (second and third left) of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization International Vaccine Centre are Saskatoon poppy trustees (from left) Diane Robinson and chair John Peters of Nutana Branch; Harold Martinson of Saskatoon Branch; and Margaret Wolfe and Brent Wignes of Dr. Harold Anderson Memorial TVS Branch. VIDO

Standing in front of the LAV III to be displayed in front of the cenotaph at Wellington, P.E.I., Branch are (front, from left) Paul Gallant, Theresa Gallant, President David Gallant, Herman Marche, David Redmond, (rear) Linda Redmond, Gilles Painchaud, Austin Poirier and Albert Hashie.

Lt.-Col. E.W. Johnstone Branch in Kensington, P.E.I., receives funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to assist with renovations to their recently acquired building. At the presentation are (from left) P.E.I. Command President John Yeo, Malpeque MP Wayne Easter and Dennis Hopping.

Cobden, Ont., Branch President Gene Phillion (rear centre) and judges congratulate public speaking participants following awards presentations.

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Joel Chandler is Legionnaire of the Year at Peterborough, Ont., Branch.

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In Napanee, Ont., President Chris Ingersoll (left) of Lt.-Col. Harry Babcock Branch, accompanied by honours and awards chair Tim Smith (right), presents the Legionnaire of the Year award to Nick Green.

Bells Corners, Ont., Branch in Nepean, Ont., presents branch-level awards for the poster and literary contests to winning students from five area schools.

In Sudbury, Ont., Dr. Fred Starr Branch President James Young (left) and youth education chair Judy Robitaille (right) congratulate winners of the branch public speaking competition.

At John McMartin Memorial Branch in Cornwall, Ont., First Vice Bernadette Heagle (left) and President Linda Fischer present $3,000 to Hospice Cornwall representative Sandy Collette.

Richmond Hill, Ont., Branch First Vice Mary West (left) and President Julian West present $3,000 to Mackenzie Health long-term care representative Michael Griffin.

At the Tony Stacy Centre for Veterans in Toronto, Highland Creek Branch presents $6,975 on behalf of the Ontario Command, Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation. At the presentation are (from left) vice-chair Dave Adamson, Neala Taylor of Tony Stacy Centre, branch President Richard Viles, L.A. President Brenda Butt and former District D commander Jay Burford.

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

President John Kollen of Hanover, Ont., Branch presents $500 to Sheila Ross, victim services co-ordinator.

David Hughes of Oakville, Ont., Branch receives the Legionnaire of the Year award from Chris Ferguson, First Vice Joan Skins and Second Vice Nestor Yakimik.

President Brent Craig (left) and First Vice Phil Whitehead (right) of Westboro Branch in Ottawa present $1,000 each to Ottawa Mission representative Bianca Oran, the Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation’s Leah Myers, and executive director Cindy Smith of the Christmas Exchange of Ottawa-Carleton.

President Jim Young of Dr. Fred Starr Branch in Sudbury, Ont., along with L.A. President Emma Goedhuis, Zone H-3 Commander Art Buisson and District H Commander Peter Miller celebrate the branch’s 90th anniversary.

At West Lincoln Branch in Grimsby, Ont., Second Vice Bill MacManus presents $5,000 to Judie Herbert (left), Sue Shipley and Cora Vandenbogert of McNally House Hospice Care in Grimsby.

Norwich, Ont., Branch youth education chairman Patty Klatecki (right) along with principal John Heikoop (left) congratulate branch-level winners of the Legion poster and literary contests from Rehoboth Christian School.

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In Cornwall, Ont., club secretary Myrna Murray of John McMartin Memorial Branch Seniors (left) along with President Jackie Merpaw and seniors treasurer Bernadette Heagle present $500 to Hospice Cornwall representative Sandy Collette.

Poppy chair Theresa Lemieux (left) and President Ron Henderson of Bells Corners Branch in Nepean, Ont., present $5,000 to Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre Foundation development officer Delphine Haslé and board member Doug Brousseau.

Kanata, Ont., Branch presents $2,500 to Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre. At the presentation are (from left) foundation development officer Delphine Haslé, support services director Lorie Stuckless, President Lorraine Lapensée, foundation board chair Charles Lemieux, poppy trust fund committee chairman Doug Rowland and Perley Rideau Veterans Residents Council President, Gib McElroy.

Past President Wayne Scheifele of Hanover, Ont., Branch (left), poppy chair Ken Schaak and public relations chair Nancy McLellan present $500 to Blue Water Radio representative Andrew McBride.

District G youth sports chair Ralph McMullen (left) of Almonte, Ont., Branch, Deputy G Commander Dave Cormier and President Rob Madore drop the puck at a girls peewee hockey tournament.

Second Vice Beverly Taylor of Milton Wesley Branch in Newmarket, Ont. (right) and zone bursary chair Donna Twig present $500 bursaries to students Emma Cook, Stephen Owens, Erin O’Boyle and Lisa Jolly. legionmagazine.com > MAY/JUNE 2017

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

President Wayne Hooey of Milton Wesley Branch in Newmarket, Ont., presents $500 to President Mary Ann Price of the the local high school’s Food for Thought Bowmanville, Ont., L.A. presents lunch program. Accepting the donation are $500 to navy league president student Rose Callum, teacher Dorothy Ron Cooke for the Bowmanville Thompson and student Erica Yiu. sea cadet corps.

In Ridgeway, Ont., Sgt.-at-Arms Dennis Gibbons of Bertie Township Branch congratulates local students following presentation of branch-level awards for the poster and literary contests.

On behalf of the Ontario Command, Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation, Cobourg, Ont., Branch presents $6,500 to Northumberland Hills Hospital Foundation. At the presentation are (from left) poppy chair Iris Milne, L.A. President Linda Bevan, Dr. Andrew Stratford, President John Aitken and executive director of the hospital foundation Rhonda Cunningham.

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Accepting their trophies in the public-speaking contest at Port Elgin, Ont., Branch are (from left) Collette Barrett, Rishab Rowchowdary and Madi McNeill.

President Ben Kelly and service officer John Greenfield of Bowmanville, Ont., Branch present $800 to President Ron Cooke of the Bowmanville navy league.

At Port Dalhousie Branch in St. Catharines, Ont., new members Dave Morris (left), Ted Olexy and Ian Brown are initiated by President John Orchard (front right) and First Vice John Garvie.

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At Onaping Falls, Ont., Branch, Martha Cunningham Closs (left), Zone H-3 Commander Art Buisson and President John Getchell present awards to students for the zone-level public-speaking competition.

Poppy chair Bill Borden (left) of Merritton Branch in St. Catharines, Ont., and charitable foundations chair Mike Gander (right) present $5,000 to Mary Sergenese, the One Foundation Niagara Community Outreach director, and foundation CEO Roger Ali.

RSM Rowan McCafferty (left), and Capt. Dan Brisson accept $1,200 from Capreol, Ont., Branch vice-president Mark John Slaughter for the Irish Regiment army cadet corps.

President June Hayes (left) of Centennial L.A. in Scarborough, Ont., presents flowers to the guest speaker, Ontario Command First Vice Sharon McKeown, at the L.A.’s 50th anniversary dinner.

At Acton, Ont., Branch, Ivan Kilby (second left) and James Feensta (second right) receive the 50 Years Long Service Medal and congratulations from Pat Graham (left), President Peggy Graham, Third Vice Sharon Graham and Second Vice Dave Maloney.

Winning students of the branch-level poster and literary contests at Burlington, Ont., Branch receive congratulations from committee members. legionmagazine.com > MAY/JUNE 2017

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

Surrounded by VON staff, Patti and Charlie Dalgarno of Woodstock, Ont., Branch present $5,000 to the Meals on Wheels program.

At Merritton Branch in St. Catharines, Ont., Sgt.-at-Arms Michael Gander (left) and poppy chair Bill Borden (right) present $2,000 to Capt. Karen Baschuk and cadet support chair Sherrie Gonta of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment army cadet corps.

In Welland, Ont., Rose City Branch poppy chairman Cliff Driscoll and President Gloria Armbrust present $3,000 to WO1 Bradley Maurice of the Eagle air cadet squadron.

Fergus, Ont., Branch President Fred Hiller congratulates branch winners of the poster and literary contests.

78

At the presentation of $2,000 from Gen. Nelles Branch in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., to Chartwell Niagara Seniors Home are (from left) Sgt.-at-Arms Doug Garrett, Stan Harrington, administrator Lorraine Koop and Nick Marino.

President Nellie Stevens (second from left) of Victory Branch in London, Ont., and L.A. representative Barb McIsaac present $7,000 on behalf of the Ontario Command, Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation to Julie Johnston (left) and Wendy Boyle of St. Joseph Hospice.

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At the presentation of $15,000 from Dunnville, Ont., Branch to the emergency department at the Dunnville Hospital and Healthcare Foundation are (from left) First Vice John Woods, President Garry Frost, hospital executive director Shelley Rollo, secretary-treasurer Vel LeVatte and hospital executive director Doug Madill.

At George Duff Memorial Branch in New Lowell, Ont., liaison officer David Lawrence (second left) and Ontario Command cadet league liaison officer Jennifer Lawrence present $1,000 for the Creemore army cadet corps to MWO Ian Jones and Lieut. (N) Amy Lawrence.

Burlington, Ont., Branch Second Vice Ron Simpson (left) and cadet liaison Shawn Fowler (right) present $5,000 to sponsoring committee chair Karryn Shilliday and Lieut. Adrian Taylor of the Mohawk air cadet squadron.

Ed Setford (left), along with President Lloyd Cull of H.T. Church Branch in St. Catharines, Ont., present $3,000 to (from left) WO2 Bowen Tang, WO2 Andrew Hulls-Marone and Capt. John Derousie of the Optimist air cadet squadron.

At Renfrew, Ont., Branch, L.A. honours and awards chair Cheryl Babcock (second left) and President Greg Walbeck present the Legionnaire of the Year award to the ladies auxiliary, represented by Marilyn LaFont.

North Bay, Ont., Branch youth education chair Eileen Viau congratulates branch-level winners of the poster and literary contests. legionmagazine.com > MAY/JUNE 2017

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

Cody Cacciotti, operations manager at the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum and Heritage Centre in Capreol, Ont., receives $1,500 from Capreol Branch vice-president Mark John Slaughter.

Jim Wilson (left) of West Carleton Branch in Woodlawn, Ont., along with Sgt.-at-Arms William Berry and President Kathryn Scott, presents $8,000 to Daniel Clapin, executive director of Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre Foundation.

In Oakville, Ont., Crime Stoppers Halton chairman Doug Maybee and director Wally Trapler (centre) receive $1,000 from General Chris Vokes-Bronte Branch President Fred Norman and Second Vice Mary Nieuwpoort.

Santa Claus assists while branch liaison Bill Redmond (right) of Eastview Branch in Vanier, Ont., presents $10,000 to development officer Delphine Haslé and executive director Daniel Clapin of the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre Foundation. The money will purchase five new adjustable tables for refurbished veterans’ dining rooms and two new tilt-recline wheelchairs.

Greely, Ont., Branch presents $4,000 to community groups. At the presentation are (front, from left) Courtney Rock of Rural Ottawa South Support Services, Greely Branch President Linda Wyman, First Vice Arlene Preston, service officer Bruce Sherritt, (rear) Chantel Jolicoeur of Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre, Daniel Clapin of Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre Foundation, Tom Dawson of Winchester District Memorial Hospital Foundation and Past-President Ivan Wyman.

80

Lt.-Col. Harry Babcock Branch in Napanee, Ont., presents $6,500 on behalf of the Ontario Command, Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation to the John M. Parrott Centre. With the cheque are (from left) President Chris Ingersoll, First Vice Kathy Gardner, Parrott Centre director Angela Malcolm and nursing manager Carol Corcoran.

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In Toronto, Canoe Financial staff surround District D poppy chair Wayne Powell and Ontario Command President Brian Weaver as company CEO Darcy Hulston (centre) presents $1,280 raised for the Joe Sweeney Veterans Fund for homeless veterans.

Sgt.-at-Arms Doug Garret (left) and Nick Marino of Gen. Nelles Branch in Niagaraon-the-Lake, Ont., present $2,000 to Margaret Lambert, long-term care administrator at Upper Canada Lodge.

Trenton, Ont., President Manny Raspberry (left), ways and means chair Norma Henn and poppy chair Simon Black present $500 to the Arthritis Society’s director of programs and services, Philip Ambury.

Chatsworth, Ont., Branch youth education chair Murray Stahlbaum (left rear), Shirley Burgess and President Jim Wallace present awards to local students following the branch-level public speaking competition.

Winners in the branch-level public speaking competition receive certificates from committee members of Onaping Falls, Ont., Branch.

Honours and awards chairman Bill Fraser (left) and President Paul Hopper of Forest, Ont., Branch present the Legionnaire of the Year award to Shirley Mann.

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SNAPSHOTS

Volunteering in the community

At Trenton, Ont., Branch, Trenton Care and Share food bank representative Charlene Plume (left) accepts $1,000 from First Vice Diane King.

Cobden, Ont., Branch President Gene Phillion presents $500 to Bonnie Helferty, organizer of the Cobden Food Bank.

St. Peter’s, N.S., Branch President Donnie Pottie (left) presents $7,500 to Strait Richmond Hospital site leader Kathy Chisholm and fundraising co-ordinator Aurine Richard. Also attending are secretary-treasurer George McPhee and Sgt.-at-Arms Charlie Williamson. J. O’BRIEN

Gathered around one of nine maple trees donated by Superstore in Truro, N.S., to commemorate the Second World War are (from left) Truro Branch President Gerry Tucker, Emily Oosterom of Superstore, Francis Lamont, Julie Miller, Grant O’Laney, Reene Roode, Gerry Hale, Glenn Langille, Ross Moore, Jamie Vantassel, Peter Grant and Terry Farrell. GREG DILL

Public Relations chairman Cyril Hatcher and Second Vice Terry Parsons of Breton Branch in Sydney Mines, N.S., prepare to distribute Christmas gifts to veterans at Harbour View veterans unit, courtesy of the Cape Breton Comfort Fund. BETTY SIMPSON

82

Owen Atkinson of Wedgeport, N.S., is presented with the 50 Years Long Service Medal.

President Marcel Pellerin of Arthabaska Branch in Victoriaville, Que., and director Nathalie Provencher (centre) of Maison Marie-Pagé palliative care facility receive $4,000 from poppy committee members (from left) Serge Pépin, Serge Dupuis, Gisèle Phaneuf and poppy chair Pierre Deschambault. ALAIN FOURNIER

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CORRESPONDENTS’ ADDRESSES Send your photos and news of The Royal Canadian Legion in action in your community to your Command Correspondent. Each branch and ladies auxiliary is entitled to two photos in an issue. Any additional items will be published as news only. Material should be sent as soon as possible after an event. We do not accept material that will be more than a year old when published, or photos that are out of focus or lack contrast. The Command Correspondents are:

President Alain Boisvert of Lt.-Col. Robert Grondin Branch in Shawinigan, Que., presents $200 for breakfasts for underprivileged children to Louise Viboux (left) and Marie Claude Samson of des Chutes high school. ALAIN BOISVERT

BRITISH COLUMBIA/YUKON: Graham Fox, 4199 Steede Ave., Port Alberni, BC V9Y 8B6, [email protected] ALBERTA–NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: Bobbi Foulds, Box 5162, Stn Main, Edson AB T7E 1T4, [email protected] SASKATCHEWAN: Jessica McFadden, 3079–5th Ave., Regina, SK S4T 0L6, a­ [email protected] MANITOBA: Vanessa Burokas, 563 St. Mary’s Rd., Winnipeg, MB R2M 3L6, [email protected] NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO: Janice Pampu, 44 Penfold St., Thunder Bay, ON P7A 3J7, [email protected] ONTARIO: Mary Ann Goheen, Box 308, Gravenhurst, ON P1P 1T7, [email protected] QUEBEC: Len Pelletier, 389 Malette, Gatineau, QC J8L 2Y7, [email protected] ­ arianne Harris, NEW BRUNSWICK: M 115 McGrath Cres., Miramichi, NB E1V 3Y1, [email protected] NOVA SCOTIA/NUNAVUT: Rita Connors, 30 Annex Dr., Lower Sackville, NS B4C 3B2, [email protected]

Hudson, Que., Branch poppy representative Cody Gilmore (centre) presents $2,000 each to Jean Hurtubise (left) and John Dalgarno of Ste. Anne’s Hospital volunteer services and patient committees, respectively. ROD HODGSON

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: Dianne Kennedy, Box 81, Borden-Carleton, PE C0B 1X0, [email protected] NEW­FOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR: Brenda Slaney, Box 5745, St. John’s, NL A1C 5X3, [email protected] DOMINION COMMAND ZONES: EASTERN U.S. ZONE, Gord Bennett, 12840 Seminole Blvd., Lot #7, Largo, FL 33778, [email protected]; WESTERN U.S. ZONE, Douglas Lock, 1531 11th St., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, [email protected]. Submissions for the Honours and Awards page (Palm Leaf, MSM, MSA and Life Membership) should be sent directly to Doris Williams, Legion Magazine, 86 Aird Place, Kanata, ON K2L 0A1 or [email protected]. TECHNICAL SPECS FOR PHOTO SUBMISSIONS DIGITAL PHOTOS—Photos submitted to Command Correspondents electronically must have a minimum width of 1,350 pixels, or 4.5 inches. Final resolution must be 300 dots per inch or greater. As a rough guideline, colour JPEGs would be between 0.5 megabytes (MB) and 1 MB.

Madeleine Langlois (left) and President Eric Connor of Vaudreuil-Soulanges Palliative Care Residence accept $2,000 from Cody Gilmore of Hudson, Que., Branch.

PHOTO PRINTS—Glossy prints from a photofinishing lab are best because they do not contain the dot pattern that some printers produce. If possible, please submit digital photos electronically.

ROD HODGSON

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SNAPSHOTS

Honours and awards

LONG SERVICE AWARDS

NEWS

ALBERTA-NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

The L.A. presented $5,000 to Port Elgin Branch.

L.A. SHOWS SUPPORT

Creemore L.A. presented $8,000 to the branch toward renovations.

60

65

years

years

JAMES FEENSTA

JOHN MARUNCHUK

Acton Br., Ont.

Cranbrook Br., B.C.

Renfrew Branch presented a 50-year service award to Gilbert Iliffe.

Kingsway L.A. in Edmonton presented $25,000 to the branch.

Renfrew L.A. celebrated its 70th anniversary and presented $15,000 to the branch.

BRITISH COLOMBIA/YUKON

L.A. HELPS PORT ALBERNI BRANCH

Alberni Valley Branch in Port Alberni, B.C., received $1,000 from the L.A.

Morrisburg Branch presented 55-year service awards to Ruthie Rice, George Dowson and Inez Bilmer.

NEW BRUNSWICK

QUEBEC

LANCASTER L.A. HELPS OUT

VIETNAM VETERANS RECEIVE FRIENDSHIP AWARD

Lancaster L.A. in Saint John, N.B., presented the branch with $12,000 to help with operating costs.

The Quebec chapter of Canadian Vietnam Veterans received the Friendship Award from Greenfield Park, Que., Branch for their years of service to veterans at Ste. Anne’s Hospital in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

ONTARIO

BATTLEFIELD L.A. SUPPORTS HOMELESS VETERANS

Battlefield L.A. in Stoney Creek, Ont., presented $2,000 to the Ontario Command homeless veterans program.

70

years

WILLIAM PERRIN

RUSSELL VANVOLKENBURGH

Lt.-Col. Harry Babcock Br., Napanee, Ont.

Lt.-Col. Harry Babcock Br., Napanee, Ont.

HUGH GREENE

CECIL TRAVIS

Ponoka Br., Alta.

Wildwood Br., Alta.

BOB BRYSON

HAROLD TOSWELL

Dr. Fred Starr Br., Sudbury, Ont.

Powassan Br., Ont.

The branch presented Raymond Lee with the Certificate of Merit in recognition of his work on branch events, community projects and sports programs.

Goderich L.A. presented $30,000 to the branch. Port Elgin Branch presented 55-year service awards to Tom Steele and Norm Kaufman.

Greenfield Park L.A. donated $9,500 to the branch.

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SNAPSHOTS

Honours and awards

MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDALS AND MERITORIOUS SERVICE AWARDS

PALM LEAF

DAVE ADAMSON

ISABEL HAINES

ELIZABETH DIXON

BILL CRIDLAND

Highland Creek Br., Scarborough, Ont.

Mount Pleasant Br., Vancouver

Westbank Br., B.C.

Peterborough Br., Ont.

LIFE MEMBERSHIP UNIT REUNIONS BC/YUKON

SASKATCHEWAN

PETER BATCHELOR

SHIRLEY PEAKE

Dawson Creek Br.

Leask Br.

RITA MINER

ARLO STRANDEN

Dawson Creek Br.

RALPH OWENS Salmon Arm Br.

ELIZABETH DICKSON Westbank Br.

PHIL HARTMAN Westbank Br.

MAGGIE LAUINGER

Outlook Br.

ONTARIO TERESA DUNN Acton L.A.

TERESA UITERWYK Acton L.A.

Westbank Br.

ERNIE MARSDEN

ALBERTA/NWT

JAYE BEVAN

Bruce Mines Br. Cobourg Br.

SIMONE FRANKS Devon Br.

JANICE MORRIS Devon Br.

SYBIL EVANS Ponoka Br.

DON RAMSEY Cobourg Br.

KEN PARSONS Forest Br.

KITTY STONE

NORTH SHORE (NB) REGT.—June 2-4, Bathurst, N.B. Graham Wiseman, 1820 King Ave., Bathurst, NB E2A 4Z7; Capt. Luc Bouchard, 506-549-6014. RCCS (ATLANTIC)—Sept. 22-24, Sydney, N.S. Frances Arbuckle, 28 Arbuckle Ln., Port Caledonia, Cape Breton Island, NS B1A 6W8, 902-737-2806, [email protected]. THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN RANGERS— Sept. 29-Oct. 1, Kamloops. B.C. Bill Mitchell, 288 Parkercove, Vernon, BC V1H 2A1, [email protected]. ROYAL REGINA RIFLES—June 2-4, Regina. Stacey Bouck, RRR Assoc., The Armoury, 1600 Elphinstone St., Regina, SK S4T 3N1, [email protected]. 34 ROLAND J GROOME, 41 HERCULES AND 703 OPTIMIST AIR CADETS—May 26-28, Capt. S. Drew, 41 Hercules, Box 37159, Regina, SK S4S 7K4; 306-757-2252, reginaaircadets.ca, [email protected]. 223 RED LION AIR CADETS—June 3, Vernon, B.C. Monty Cross, Box 1171, Vernon, BC V1T 6N4, 250-309-9490, [email protected], www.223redlion.ca.

Sir Sam Hughes L.A., Lindsay

JIM PEARSON Sunset Post Br., Victoria Harbour

SHIRLEY SEMPLE Sunset Post Br., Victoria Harbour

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operated by the navy. Stephen Porrior, 617-110 Rossignol Drive, Orelans, ON K4A 0N2, 613-700-7843, [email protected].

INDOCHINOIS PASSENGERS—Researcher seeks stories/letters/recollections/photos of those who sailed on this cargo/passenger ship between Halifax and Liverpool during WW II for a project related to non-convoy North Atlantic voyages. Jon Bradley 3790 Royal Avenue, Montreal, QC H4A 2M2, [email protected].

VIMY PILGRIMAGE 1936—Badge obtained at the event by William Fraser, 9th Field Ambulance Corps, of Nelson B.C., and his daughter June, has Canadian Legion Vimy Pilgrimage on the perimeter and L-10 1936 in the centre. Seeking to know what the L-10 stands for. Les Povarchook, 882 Clifton Road, Kelowna, BC V1Y 4C5, 250-470-8668, [email protected].

RCN NAVAL AIR BRANCH—Badges for radio technician air, electrical technician air, air fitter, aircraft controlman, safety equipment

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LOST TRAILS

KEEP REMEMBRANCE ALIVE!

BARAN, MICHAEL—D124452, driver with the RCOC, RCEME, 1941-45. Lived in St. Catharines and Timmins, Ont., after the war. Contact with veteran, family, friends or comrades sought. Olga Rains, 571-314 Oxford St., W. London, ON N6H 4N8, [email protected].

PETERSON, “PETE” KELLY DOUGLAS— Air traffic controller served in Shearwater, Dartmouth, N.S, then transferred in 1986 to a base in B.C. Sought by school friend. Kathleen Morash Clarke, 4322 St. Margaret’s Bay Road, Lewis Lake, NS B3Z 1E1, [email protected].

BOURASSA, MAJ. JEAN AND RITCHIE, LIEUT. COLLEEN—Sought by retired Belgian soldier who worked with them in HQ in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1998. Travelling to Canada this year. Ivo Janssens, Lindebronstraat 9, Tongeren 3700 Belgium, janssens_ivo@ hotmail.com.

REGINA RIFLES D-DAY—Frederick Thorne, Royal Marine who took soldiers to Juno Beach, would like to contact surviving Regina Rifles veterans. Clare Williams, 88 Hareclive Rd. Hartcliffe, Bristol, UK BS13 9JW, [email protected].

Give a 10-year Legacy Subscription RICHARDSON, D.—Veteran sought who served aboard HMCS Magnificent, in Halifax, CANADIAN CORPS CYCLIST BATTALION— to someone to Legion Magazine 1955. Yvonne Colbert, 20 Richardson Dr., Members and families of this and related Fall River, NS B2T 1E7, 902-478-6245, units (Divisional CyclistEnsure Companies, Cyclist special. that our [email protected]. Reserve and Cyclist Depot) sought regarding possible reunion for members’ descendants history will never SFX NO. 20 AIRTRAINING SQUADRON as part of centennial of First World War WWII—Group photo of St. Francis Xavier Armistice. Casey Anderson, 26 Charlotte be forgotten. squadron sought by family of AC2 St., Carleton Place, ON K7C 1Y5, [email protected]. CFB CORNWALLIS 1968—Training group No. 6814. Veteran of Princess Louise’s 8th Canadian Hussars seeks to reconnect with crewmates Donald Lyle Clyde Martin, Roscoe Greenan, Kirk Underwood and Edward Broadbent, who trained at CFB Cornwallis, October 1968 and CFB Borden in 1969. William J. Sedor, 106 Cameron Rd. Neebing, ON P7L 0E9, 807-577-2957, [email protected].

John Robert Williams, USAF/RCAF, who served 1943-1944. Margaret Williams 174 Sydenham St., Woodstock, ON N4S 7B6, [email protected].

REQUESTS

ARMY AVIATORS—Contributions from air and ground crew, families and friends of those who served in army aviation organizations sought for the Army Aviation website plus applicable taxes CANADIAN PEACEKEEPERS, CYPRUS 1974— www.canadianarmyaviation.ca. Vic Coroy, Sister seeks information about fate of missing 99 Dalecroft Cr., Nepean, ON K2G 5V8, brothers Pavlos and Christakis Subscribe now atPpolos. 613-422-4024, [email protected]. Christakis, 20, disappeared at Koutsouventislegionmagazine.com/subscribe NAVY, POW AND MESS CHITS—Information Vounou in August; Pavlos, 22, photographed orincall and images sought to compile catalogue wounded July 613-591-0116 at Trachonas, near Nicosia, for collectors. John F. Yarwood, P.O. Box 966, in company of Turkish and UN soldiers. Horsham, Victoria 3402, Australia, Nina Iacovidou, P.O. Box 12773, 2252 Latsia, [email protected]. Nicosia, Cyprus, phone: 00357 99598888, [email protected]. WW II AIR FORCE PHOTO—Help requested in identifying wartime photo of 50 airmen CANNON, GNR. W.—B9083, 53rd Field posed before aircraft with 7252 on the nose. Battery RCA CASF, enlisted Toronto, Sept. 8, Signatures on back include R.R. Rosie 1939. Finder wishes to return service record, Rosenberg, Wm. Petrachenko, Russ Plumley, mounted and framed, to soldier or family. Lord Walker and FO McCao. Jim Russell, Tracy Goulding, 59 Gray Park Dr., Bolton, 27 Arthur St., Point Edward ON N7V 1T6, ON L7E 2N8, 905-951-9867, [email protected]. [email protected]. 1990S NAVY VIDEOS—Voice-over artist OLMSTED, LT.-COL. EARL ALEXANDER— seeks copies of DND videos about the WW II veteran and former national secretary Pg85-87_H&A.indd 87 Firemain System and fighting fires on of the Army Benevolent Fund. Grandson Sea King helicopters. Looking for copies or seeking comrades, friends and associates information on where they can be located. for information, documents and pictures, Drew Snider, 1491 Winslow Drive, Sooke, particularly about 3rd Inf. Div. HQ on BC V9Z 1B2, [email protected]. D-Day and 13th Field, RCA throughout

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CANADA AND THE COLD WAR

By J.L. Granatstein

Struggling to stay shipshape How politics and policies hurt and helped the navy

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rocurement of new equipment has always been difficult for the Canadian Armed Forces. In peacetime, even in the darkest of Cold War times, expensive items such as ships, aircraft and tanks were seen by government ministers, corporations and trade unions as profit centres and job creators as much as weapons systems to be used by men and women in uniform. At the same time, government policies and attitudes toward the military could hurt or help with the acquisition of new equipment.

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Consider the navy, the smallest of the “environments.” A first-rate anti-submarine force during the 1950s and into the 1960s, the navy was hammered by Paul Hellyer’s unification of the Canadian Forces—“the locust years,” naval historian Marc Milner called them. In 1968, the new government of Pierre Trudeau had a clear disdain for the military, and all three services suffered. The navy saw plans for its General Purpose Frigates cancelled, its aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure scrapped (after an expensive refit), the retirement of the last of the Second World War-era destroyers, and it was told to operate with only 24 ships, a number that the prime minister actually questioned as too high. At the same time, the navy had to manage demands for French Language Units (FLU),

Corporal Dany Veillette/Canadian Forces Imagery Gallery/HS2008-K047-003

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a real problem as there were at most 1,000 francophones among its 20,000 personnel. HMCS Ottawa eventually went to sea as a FLU, but some 40 per cent of its crew were bilingual or unilingual anglophones. That was hard, but for the navy the green uniforms imposed by unification were a particular trial that made sailors subject to jeers in foreign ports. At least the navy managed to resist its lieutenants being called captains, the army/air equivalent; instead they were designated as Lieutenant (N). Two bright spots of the early Trudeau years were that four DDH280s—helicopter-carrying destroyers—were nearing completion while two AORs—auxiliary oiler replenishment ships—came into service. But nothing else offered hope. Budgets were tight. Sailors’ pay was increased in the mid-1970s, but that further cut the available funds for operations and maintenance while the purchase of new equipment became even more constrained. The navy, one admiral complained bitterly and publicly, was the best paid and best fed in the world, but its ships could scarcely put to sea. Nonetheless, the navy continued planning for new ships. The admirals knew that the St. Laurent-class destroyers of the 1950s were aging into obsolescence, and the Soviet navy was pushing its submarines and surface vessels farther into the Atlantic every year. The Canadian ships could not defend themselves against the modern Russian missiles, and the anti-submarine weapons on the Canadian ships verged on the ineffective. The Trudeau government, trying to persuade Europe to strike trade deals with Canada, finally realized that it needed to do more to convince its NATO allies that Canada cared about defence. In 1977, the government declared that it wanted a fleet of 24 ships, four more than the navy then had, and it proposed to replace the remaining St. Laurent-class ships. But this was and is Canada. In 1977, the Liberals put up the funds for a definition stage for the construction of six frigates. The request for proposals went out the next year, and the selection of two finalists for contract definition came in 1980. The design proposals arrived in 1982, and the government selected the winner in July 1983. The first keel was laid in 1986. Happily for the navy, the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney

increased the order from 6 to 12 ships, and the Halifax-class Canadian Patrol Frigates entered service between 1991 and 1996. The process took almost two decades. To be effective at sea, these frigates needed helicopters. The navy had been using Sea King helicopters on its ships since the 1960s, initially under navy command and control, but under the air force after the creation of Air Command in the mid-1970s. That apparently led to some difficulties when captains ordered their helicopter into the air and the pilot, worried about weather conditions, exercised his right to refuse. That was serious, but much more so was that, although planning for new helicopters to replace the obsolescent Sea Kings had been underway since 1975, politics scuppered this acquisition. A replacement helicopter, the AgustaWestland EH101, had been selected by the Mulroney government, but it was denounced as a “Cadillac” by Jean Chrétien, who took power in 1993. Chrétien’s Liberals cancelled the contract on their first day in power. The Sea Kings flew on for almost a quarter century more.

Crew on HMCS Ville de Québec conduct an exercise with a CH-124 Sea King helicopter on the Indian Ocean in 2008. The CH-124 has been used by the Canadian military since 1963.

In other words, procurement was always politics writ large. Corporate profits and construction offsets mattered more than defence. Since the early 1960s, prime ministers had come to realize that Canada’s fate was going to be determined by the Americans’ nuclear strategy, not by the nation’s own military efforts. The A REPLACEMENT Canadian Forces became HELICOPTER…WAS diplomatic baggage that DENOUNCED AS had to be carried around A “CADILLAC” BY but kept as light as possible: minimal equipment, JEAN CHRÉTIEN. minimum spending and as few personnel as possible. The Trudeau government belatedly came to realize that NATO and the opinions of Canada’s allies mattered, and in the late 1970s, it began to rebuild the navy and the two other services. But its efforts to renew the Canadian Forces were costly and slow, very slow. The navy eventually did receive its dozen new frigates, but under the Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau governments, time has again taken a toll. New surface-combatant ships are soon to be on the drawing boards, but as costs escalate and implementation time frames stretch decades ahead, history seems destined to repeat itself. L

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2017-03-30 3:33 PM

HUMOUR HUNT

By Terry Fallis

Discovering Bartholomew Bandy

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ave you ever picked up a book that claims on its cover that “you’ll laugh uproariously on every page” and upon reading it, discover it’s about as funny as a root canal? Over the years, this has happened to me quite frequently. Even accommodating my high laughter threshold inherited from my father, I’ve suffered through many a novel that purports to hit “side-splitting” on the hilarity index, but then fails to nudge the needle past mildly droll. Now don’t get me wrong. It’s very difficult to take a blank page and line up words in the right order so that upon reading them,

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laughter ensues. No visual assists. No audio support. Nothing but words on a page. Making someone laugh while they read sometimes seems like literary alchemy. But the form is quite well represented in Canada. For instance, there is a wonderful Canadian writer, though sadly now somewhat forgotten, who gave his readers the gift of laughter in a hilarious series of novels collectively known as The Bandy Papers. Donald Jack will have you chortling and chuckling on every page, and at least once a chapter, writhing in paralytic paroxysms of mirth. Deservedly, he won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, not once, not twice, but three times. Some of you may know the name, Donald Jack, but I suspect most will not. A veteran of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, Donald Lamont Jack

Illustration by Malcolm Jones

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TERRY FALLIS is the author of five novels and twice the winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

emigrated to Canada in 1951 to ply his era. Through it all, Bandy leaves mayhem trade as a writer and playwright. Starting and chaos in his wake, usually without with Three Cheers for Me in 1962 and understanding that he has caused it all. He closing with Stalin Versus Me published then miraculously navigates the very choppy posthumously in 2005, Jack gave us nine waters he churned up himself and somehow very funny novels featuring a “horseemerges the hero none the worse for wear. faced farm boy from Eastern Ontario,” The humour is, well, funny, sustained, the inimitable Bartholomew Bandy. and very Canadian. And while Bandy Bart Bandy is not your traditional often takes amusing shots at the military do-no-wrong literary hero all square-jawed handsome, physically intimidating and intellectually gifted. In fact, he’s 0-3 on that score. Nor is he a DONALD JACK WILL HAVE YOU particularly reliable narrator. CHORTLING AND CHUCKLING Some might even suggest with ON EVERY PAGE, AND AT more than a little justification LEAST ONCE A CHAPTER, that he is often an utterly oblivious narrator, a rare bird in WRITHING IN PARALYTIC the CanLit canon. And that’s the PAROXYSMS OF MIRTH. source of much of the humour. Unintentionally, Bandy seems to infuriate most around him, sometimes for no more malevolent a reason than his own visage. brass and the politicians who sometimes Here’s how Bandy himself puts it in the give the orders, Jack clearly respects the opening pages of Three Cheers for Me: soldiers who fought and died for Canada. “There was, for instance, my long face, You can see it on nearly every page. which I knew to be smooth, bland, and In a memorable scene from That’s Me in maddening. Even at the age of 14 its lack the Middle, the second novel in the series, of expression had led me into many fights Bandy is arguing with his commandant with other Beamington boys. I think the in the officers’ mess. This is how Bandy situation was that, just as they felt the urge describes his seething superior officer: to chalk slogans and fallacies on walls, “The commandant continued to stand like so most of them felt impelled to express a pillar of salt for what seemed like several themselves on the blank wall of my face.” minutes, glaring into his glass. We were And we’re off on a wild and madcap all familiar with this posture. He was busy adventure on and above the battlefields summoning up some lightning repartee.” of the First World War. Jack skilfully That’s Bandy all over. L balances Bandy’s zany antics with the sober reality of that terrible war. That is a high-wire act that few writers would > Check out Humour Hunt online! attempt, let alone pull off. He knew a good thing when he wrote it, so we have the joy Go to legionmagazine.com/en/category/ of following Bandy through the Second blog/humour-hunt/ World War all the way to the postwar Stalin

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HEROES AND VILLAINS

By Mark Zuehlke

Montgom Romm O

n Aug. 15, 1942, when Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Eighth Army in North Africa, the British forces held a precarious defensive line based on El Alamein, Egypt, a way station 100 kilometres west of Alexandria. If that city fell to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps, the Germans would wrest control of Egypt and potentially the Suez Canal from Britain. At 54, Montgomery had been a soldier since 1908. He was wounded and decorated for valour in the First World War, led a division through the fall of France in 1940, and spent the next two years in a key training role that he claimed provided the basis of MONTGOMERY WAS A knowledge leading to all his future sucSTERN TASKMASTER AND SELF-CONFIDENT cess. A widower and ascetic who neither TO THE POINT smoked nor drank, OF EGOTISM. Montgomery was a stern taskmaster and self-confident to the point of egotism. Sizing up the situation at El Alamein, Montgomery realized this was to be a test of his personal philosophy that called for “decision in action and calmness in the crisis.” From intelligence intercepts, Montgomery knew that Rommel hoped to

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draw the British into the kind of mobile battle of armour against armour that the Afrika Korps excelled at. Montgomery ordered his commanders to fight defensively and not be drawn. He also carefully built up a material superiority that saw 1,200 British tanks arrayed against Rommel’s 530. By early autumn, Rommel realized it was the Germans who must go on the defensive. He created an elaborate line 8 kilometres deep that was protected by 400,000 mines and expertly covered by well-sited anti-tank guns. On Oct. 23, with Rommel recuperating from illness in Germany, Montgomery unleashed a massive nighttime artillery barrage that saw thousands of guns simultaneously shelling the defenders. British infantrymen and engineers advanced into the minefields and cleared two corridors through which tanks could pass. For two days, the battle raged inconclusively. Montgomery shifted the main effort to where the Australians had hacked a salient into the German lines. On Nov. 2, a renewed offensive here gained momentum and after two more days of fighting, the German defensive line was cracked open. Two weeks of gruelling attritional battle resulted in 50,000 German casualties (30,000 being prisoners) for 13,560 British. “Up to Alamein we survived,” wrote Prime Minister Winston Churchill. “After Alamein we conquered.” L

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omery mmel “I

In the fall of 1942, Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel squared off in a battle that proved a turning point in the war

f I were Montgomery, we wouldn’t still be here,” Field Marshal Erwin Rommel said as the Afrika Korps continued pressing against El Alamein in the late summer of 1942. He believed Montgomery would have withdrawn. Rommel was not given to retreats, yet he had little confidence of defeating the Eighth Army. “When one comes to consider that supplies and matériel are the decisive factor in modern warfare, it was already clear that a catastrophe was looming on the distant horizon for my army,” he wrote. Throughout his long military career, Rommel had proven a shrewd, sometimes brilliant, tactician and strategist. Like his nemesis Montgomery, he had been wounded and decorated in the First World War. In the interwar years, his unorthodox tactical theories attracted Hitler’s attention. Granted a Panzer command after the Poland invasion, he led a brilliant charge across France in May 1940. In early 1941, Rommel took the Afrika Korps to Libya to shore up the Italians. He swept the British back to Egypt in a stunning offensive marked by rapid decisions and sustained mobility that won acclaim from ally and foe alike. On June 22, 1942, Hitler made him, at 49, Germany’s youngest field marshal. By then, the Desert Fox dominated North Africa. That changed abruptly only days later when, on July 1, the Afrika Korps struck the British defences at El Alamein. RAF

Legion Magazine archives/LM_000906; Alamy/G39JBC

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air superiority, sandstorms and supply line “In my profession, you have to mystify shortages stymied Rommel’s advances, the enemy.” and a stalemate ensued. Pushed back —Montgomery (OPPOSITE) on the defensive, Rommel expected the stalemate to persist long enough for a “I would rather be the return to Germany to recover his health. hammer than the anvil.” On Oct. 23, while Rommel was gone, —Rommel (ABOVE) Montgomery struck first. Racing back to reassume command on Oct. 25, Rommel found that during the two previous days Montgomery had so battered the German forces that the situation was irretrievable. On Nov. 2, he sought permission to withdraw. The following day, Hitler ordered him to stand fast. “As to your troops,” he wrote, “you can show them no other road than that to victory or death.” Nevertheless, Rommel disengaged and a bitter retreat HITLER MADE ensued that returned remnants of the Afrika Korps to ROMMEL, AT Tunisia. Dogging along behind, 49, GERMANY’S Montgomery and his Eighth YOUNGEST FIELD Army “Desert Rats” pushed MARSHAL. Rommel back, like a team of plodding but determined fox hunters. No opportunity was permitted for Rommel to throw Montgomery off balance and regain > To voice your a fluid situation. With the failure at El opinion, go to Alamein, Rommel accepted that Germany’s legionmagazine. “one and only chance to overrun the British com/HeroesAnd Eighth Army and occupy the east Egyptian Villains. desert at a stroke was irretrievably lost.” L

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ARTIFACTS

By Sharon Adams

GNATs versus CATs When Germany introduced acoustic-homing torpedoes, Canada responded with noisemakers that lured them off-target

A torpedo detonator (known as a pistol) taken from German submarine U-889, which surrendered off Nova Scotia on May 13, 1945.

A Foxer decoy rests on depth-charge racks on HMS Hind, ready to deploy against German acoustic torpedoes in the Battle of the Atlantic.

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or a couple of years into the Second World War, it looked like German U-boats might prevail in the Battle of the Atlantic by starving Britain of food, troops and supplies, and smoothing the way for an invasion of England. But by 1943, the Allies had learned how to fight a submarine war. More ships, better air cover, new tactics, improvements to sonar and radar equipment, and better weaponry and defensive devices had begun to turn the tide midway through the five-and-a-half-year battle.

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But in September 1943, German Admiral Karl Dönitz dispatched 29 U-boats for a battle that he mistakenly believed would re-establish the wolf pack’s dominance of the Atlantic. The subs were equipped with a new weapon: the acoustic torpedo. The German Naval Acoustic Torpedo (GNAT) homed in on the noise of ships’ propellers.

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Admiral Karl Dönitz believed acoustic torpedoes would return the wolf pack’s killing power.

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“The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.” —British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 1949 “Escorts had always been under the threat of attack,” historian Marc Milner wrote in The U-Boat Hunters, “but never had the Germans scored so effectively.” Two westbound convoys suffered a series of attacks on Sept. 19-23, during which six merchant ships and three escorts were lost. The Royal Canadian Navy reacted quickly. On Sept. 21, experimental work began on a pipe noisemaker that would attract GNATs and cause them to explode harmlessly away from the ship. Sea trials followed the next day. Just days later, 400 sets of Canadian Anti-acoustic Torpedo (CAT) gear were being distributed. The British adapted minesweeping gear into an acoustic decoy codenamed the Foxer, but “it was complicated, cumbersome to stream or to pick up, expensive, slow to be provided and regarded unhappily at sea,” wrote RCN engineer Lieut. A.G.W. Lamont in Guns Above, Steam Below. “I got the job of designing the CAT gear Mark 3, which worked,” navy mechanical engineer Lieut. John Dyke said in an interview for The Memory Project. “Some of the original devices were so big, they…took four or

five guys to throw overboard.” Dyke’s device was less than 70 centimetres long, weighed 36 kilograms, required just one man to deploy, and could be turned on and off as needed. “We’d throw the CAT gear out [to trail 180 metres behind the ship]; it would turn on, make a buzzing noise and attract their torpedo.… Then their torpedo eventually exhausted its fuel, blew itself up and sank to the bottom.” HMCS Grou telegraphist Martin McGregor witnessed a CAT save HMCS Waskesiu when a Russian Arctic convoy was attacked by a wolf pack on April 30, 1944. “I saw from my voice pipe-tohedgehog action station on the bridge the trail of a torpedo cross our bow and strike the Waskesiu’s CAT gear. There was quite an explosion but no damage done,” said McGregor. Towed behind a ship, the metal bars of the CAT “vibrated back and forth and clashed… making a dreadful racket,” wrote Lamont. Periodically, “the order would pass ‘Stream the CAT!’ It was not a happy order to hear, but the device itself was a great comfort, for it worked.” L

Signalman Ken Worsencroft (top) on duty aboard HMCS Waskesiu, which CAT gear saved from a U-boat torpedo in April 1944. The company of HMCS St. Croix (above), which was sunk by GNATs on Sept. 20, 1943.

A badge from HMCS Grou shows a wolf biting a submarine in half.

LAC/PA-178908; PA-197396; PA-169228; IWM/A-24712; Alamy/BREE5C; Naval Museum of Manitoba

ALLIED SHIPS HIT BY U-BOATS 1,322

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HMCS Waskesiu, the first frigate commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, served as a convoy escort.

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1943 1944 1945 Source: www.uboat.net

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2017-04-06 11:38 AM

By Don Gillmor

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O CANADA

Find many more stories in our O Canada publication now available to purchase at www.legionmagazine.com/shop

John McCrae (back row, at left) served in the Boer War as a lieutenant with the Canadian Field Artillery.

John McCrae’s

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baptism of fire

he Boer War started the year John McCrae graduated from the University of Toronto’s medical school. He had served as an officer in the military reserves and had a romantic view of war, partly gleaned from Rudyard Kipling’s vivid accounts of war as British adventure. He had pasted Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden” into a scrapbook. After graduating, McCrae was determined to go to South Africa. “Ever since this business began,” he wrote his mother, “I am certain there has been not 15 minutes of my waking hours that it has not been in my mind.… I shall not pray for peace in our time. One campaign might cure me—but nothing else ever will, unless it be old age.” McCrae joined the Canadian volunteers as a lieutenant, and was assigned to lead D Battery. During his first week in Cape Town, he met Rudyard Kipling. “Met the high priest of it all,” McCrae wrote. “He is little, fat like his pictures, & very affable. He says ‘Up country is just Hell.’ He told me I spoke like a Winnipegger.” In mid-July, McCrae got his first taste of

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battle. “21 July 1900, Our baptism of fire,” he wrote in his diary. “They opened on us from the left flank.… One shrapnel burst over us & scattered on all sides of us. I felt as if a hailstorm was coming down & wanted to turn my back, but it was over in an instant.” McCrae’s romantic ideas of war were stripped away by the realities in South Africa. More men died of disease than in combat. The field hospitals were a disaster. “For absolute neglect and rotten administration, it is a model,” McCrae wrote. “I am ashamed of some members of my profession.… The soldier’s game is not what it’s cracked up to be.” Britain was mired in South Africa, surprised by a stubborn enemy and its guerrilla tactics. McCrae was disillusioned by the battle there, and returned home before the British began burning Boer farms and putting civilians in concentration camps, where 25,000 died of disease or famine. McCrae returned to his hometown of Guelph, Ont., to cheering crowds and a proud speech from the mayor, but his enthusiasm for war had withered. However, it wouldn’t be the last war for McCrae. And 15 years later, he would go on to write a poem of his own, a more sombre reflection on war: “In Flanders Fields.” L

Guelph Museums/M1968X.353.1.1

2017-03-30 4:09 PM

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