This deserved more media attention than it got.
The massive monument that bears their names was dedicated Saturday in front of the Nanton Lancaster Air Museum.
[…]
“If these men were old geezers like me, it wouldn’t be such a tragedy,” he said. “But they were 18 to 25 years old. Some of those 18-year-olds were piloting Lancasters. Can you imagine?”
The event honoured the dead, and all who helped in the massive bomber offensive that kept Hitler at bay for the first four years of the Second World War.
The cost was high. More than 50,000 aircrew members were killed.
More than 10,000 of those were Canadians. The chances of a person surviving 30 bombing sorties was less than 25 per cent.
Almost 1/4 of Canadian fatalities in WW II.
Mark
Ottawa
It really turns my stomach to see ANY Liberal Member of Parliament at military ceremonies, but Bill Graham really puts me over the top.
This is a party that has had open comtept for the Canadian military for the last 35 years. Also a party who’s leader seemed to think Canada attacked the beaches of Norway in WWII.
http://paulmartintime.ca/mediacoverage/000446.html
I wonder what Veterans are thinking at functions like this. Any Veterans out there care to comment?
One of my uncles flew Lancasters while in the RCAF during WWII. After the war he brought his brains and ability, along with a profound maturity, from Newfoundland to upstate New York, where he married my mother’s sister. He went on to found a plastics business that eventually became a major corporation in Michigan. I very fondly remember him.
Ward–I agree with you totally. I always attend my small town’s ceremony–I cannot bear to watch Martin et al pretend they know anything about the sacrifice of these brave men and women.
Seeing Graham and Martin at Rememberance Day services makes my stomach turn–they are an insult to our Veterans.
Notice that the media nor the ‘dignataries’ didn’t react when Martin stated we attacked Norway–now matter what drools from his mouth seems to be ok with them.
The Lancaster Museum in Nanton is a fine place. I visit it often being a WWII Warbird buff.
Now it has been defiled.
“Most Canadians do not realize the extent of Canadian participation in the air battles over Europe…”
including every single moonbat socialist Castro-bootlick that votes time after time to keep the Commie liberals in power!
George:
I rather like McCallum’s recalling the great Canadian victory at Vichy Ridge. And he’s supposed to be one of the brighter ministers in cabinet!
Just asking – but does anyone know if the Lancaster in the Nanton collection is in flying condition? I always thought the only North American Lancaster that is flown is the one in the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum near Hamilton.
No, it’s not in flying condition–yet. In my opinion, it is still a long way off.
worth a few minutes: http://www.lancastermuseum.ca
My father was an air gunner in the RCAF during WWII. They were, and are, good brave men. Bless them all.
Per ardua ad astra!
A friend of mine (who is now 80) was a tailgunner in WWII, who was shot down and finished the war as a German POW. He gets a little riled at all the fond Lancaster talk, though. He flew in a Halifax bomber which were much more plentiful than the more-famous Lancs.
The Nanton museum is a great place to spend an afternoon but seeing the pictures and memorabilia and reading the accounts of events makes me want to run to Ottawa with a large axe…….
Welcome to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Lest we forget.
http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx
A large ax wouldn’t accomplish enough what you need is a high powered rifle and a high tower, I’d recommend a Parker-Hale with a scope and the Peace Tower, that way you might get enough attention to make this country sit up and take notice. It is an insult to the veterans of this country that the Liberals have the effrontery to show themselves at any WW II memorial. They have eviserated the armed forces of Canada and when the going gets tough again, as it surely will, they will be the first to volunteer the Canadian Forces for active duty. My heart bleeds for the almost 1,000 Canadians that died at Dieppe on August 19, 1942, not to mention the thousands more that died in other arenas, I doubt that they would rest if they could see the condition that this country is today.
“It really turns my stomach to see ANY Liberal Member of Parliament at military ceremonies, but Bill Graham really puts me over the top.
This is a party that has had open comtept for the Canadian military for the last 35 years. Also a party who’s leader seemed to think Canada attacked the beaches of Norway in WWII.
http://paulmartintime.ca/mediacoverage/000446.html
I wonder what Veterans are thinking at functions like this. Any Veterans out there care to comment?
Posted by: ward at August 23, 2005 03:59 PM”
Also:
” It is an insult to the veterans of this country that the Liberals have the effrontery to show themselves at any WW II memorial. They have eviserated the armed forces of Canada and when the going gets tough again, as it surely will, they will be the first to volunteer the Canadian Forces for active duty. My heart bleeds for the almost 1,000 Canadians that died at Dieppe on August 19, 1942, not to mention the thousands more that died in other arenas, I doubt that they would rest if they could see the condition that this country is today.
Posted by: Don at August 23, 2005 11:39 PM”
These two posts sum up exactly how I feel.
Soldiers I met while in Valcartier, older men red faced with the drink they’d consumed after weeks of training exercises. Tough but wearing out.
When retirement came they’d be completely worn out, worn out by being READY, when their country called. And they were called. The FLQ crisis was a scary time when I was in high school. Was there more to it than a bunch of Montreal thugs?
Ask Ms Jean, or Lafond, they’d know more.
And that fuck Tom Wappel; doesn’t deserve snot. But HE sure gets a nice pension EH?
call the election any time …I’m ready.
maz2:
More Canadians should forget that trip to Florida and make their way to Europe at least once in their lives. A visit to Vimy Ridge, or to the war graves in Normandy, is sobering.
The surnames of pretty much every Canadian ethnic group are well represented on the markers.
And notwithstanding our national “chicanerie” about the “two solitudes” there’s no lack of French surnames either.
Our current quibbles seem rather petty when you’re standing next to the grave of an 18 year-old lad from Camrose or Chicoutimi.
‘A total of 17,100 gave their lives in the service of their country.’
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/canada2/elsewhere
Can I trust the government?
I think that reference is just to those in the RCAF not the RAF where 1/3 or 1/4 were Canadian.
They played no small part in winning the war Germany had a massive anti-aircraft defence network and more fighters guarding the homeland than in russia for much of the war which Mr Stalin probably didn’t want to face as reserves at Stalingrad. That’s not even counting how many supplies they denied the enemy.
http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/flash/default-en.asp?t=1
Politically correct site about the canadian military. Beware you might think the war only had something to do with women and japanese internment.
My Mom was in the RAF, she was in London for most of the war and she met many RAF soldiers. She would not like you to call these soldiers ‘lads’ JJM. These were Fighting Men, and according to my Mom, some of those Men were only 17 or 18 years of age. It is only recently that people have been ‘kids’ until they are forwarded to a Old Folks home.
I cringe for those brave young Men every time I meet a Veteran (including my Mom). I hate the way that they are shamed and patronized by the left wing M.P.s and MSM in this country. They are made to feel that their bravery was misguided and that they had fought and died for something that did not matter – that it was all a ‘game’. Canadian Men fought that war, women were there to help, They won that war; We won too; but then we turned around and tried to give it all away to our enemies. No Liberano, NDP, or Bloc M.P. should be allowed within spitting distance of any cermony concerning Veterans. Especially NOT Graham or the guy that could not speak English or French that preceeded Graham. Clarkson and her pathetic ‘partner’, Saul, shamed the Vets at Dieppe and Normandy by attempting to upstage The Queen of England. The WWII and Korean Veterans should not be forced to fly the red and white Pearson flag at their cermonies either. They did not fight under that flag.
Never forget the words of Winston Churchill “Never, in the history of mankind, have so many owed so much to so few”. God Bless Winston Churchill and the brave young Men of the RCAF and the RAF and the Americans, Poles, Frenchmen, and others who flew with them.
The Calgary Herald, hey?