WW 11 Memories

I am proud to say my dad, with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and seconded to British Intelligence, in the Battle of Britain, as mom told me since dad never spoke in detail of what he did, except being part of a team that saw 250,000 air force personnel get killed and injured, in the fight to stop Germany, came home dysfunctional after what he saw and heard and was part of. ie to bomb everything, and to make German carpet bombing, nothing to what 1,000 Allied bombers could do as they obliterated civilian populations in major German cities. He showed me pictures.

Dad said the allies had to be more ruthless than the enemy to win; a sad time for all. A friend of mine I worked for said he was a Major with the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment, called the VanDoos, who were a terror to the Germans who knew they took NO PRISONERS, since they were always in attack mode, with no time for anything holding them back.

And at times when the Canadians were on the march, they even abandoned their posts because the Canadians, as he told me would blow through every one and everything. In fact, he said one of the tricks or tactics the VanDoos used as they approached the Germans in the dead of night was to come in waves with 1,200 soldiers at a time standing erect against a German position as they banged their bayonets on their gun barrels, as they crossed No-Man's-Land.

He said the enemy knew it was the Canadians coming and they ran like hell. No wonder Canadian forces were used as shock troops, in many front line battles, since they were fearless. Sorry for the braggadocio, because too many people thought Canadian troops were simply a small wing of British forces, although many Canadian pilots flew in the RAF to protect England and to attack Germany.

Dad did tell me a few things---about how close we came to losing the War, if Britain fell. We now discover how close the Germans were to develop the atom bomb, and the fastest jet in the world. Thank goodness the British were so resilient, since they suffered much from the bombing.

Dunkirk was a major factor when 350,000 British troops were saved from being massacred by the Luftwaffe. This was the beginning of the end for Germany and followed up by the Normandy invasion with two million allied troops ready, armed and itching for battle to retake Europs. And they did.

From our veterans I learned that around 100,000 casualties occurred after attacking British and then French forces assaulted Vimy Ridge. Canadians took it on the first charge, by developing an attack idea never used before.
Usually artillery would blow the dickens out of the front lines of the enemy, then from their own lines the attacking force would begin their charge.

Canadians designed their attack with artillery firing and landing mere yards ahead of advancing Canadian forces. And this is how they were able to sweep their way across German lines who were horrified to see their enemy on top of them minutes after the artillery landed.

I am proud of my country that had one million people in uniform by the end of WW 11, the highest ratio of any country in the world at the time, considering we were only thirteen million. Simply amazing events.

© Richard L. Provencher