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History Television doc sheds new light on Dieppe, 70 years after invasion
News1130.com ^ | August 17, 2012 | Bill Brioux

Posted on 08/18/2012 10:03:29 AM PDT by iowamark

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To: justiceseeker93

I can give you some basic, the rest is on line.
Personally , my Father , a radio man , was in the 5th Division , in Italy and Europe . Ten days after he came home he turned 20 . I had an Uncle who landed on Juno beach and who received grievous injury , his face was blown off , while fighting in the Scheldt of Holland . He survived and became a post master in a small Ontario village . Another Uncle who was at Ortona and another who flew the North Atlantic looking for U boats. Another Uncle served for 2 years on one of the original 6 destroyers , another died with the rest of his Lancaster crew in 1943 . He was 22 and had been drafted by the Detroit Red Wings but chose to join the RCAF instead .

The Canadian army of WW1 sent 400,000 overseas , the population of Canada was about 7 million .

By 1939 the Canadian army was 4500 strong , the RCN had 6 destroyers and 1800 sailors, the RCAF about 3100 and a lot of the equipment was dated 1918 .

In 1939 the Canadian population was about 11 million , by 1945 1,086,000 had served full time in the Canadian military.

The Canadian Army, it was never called Royal , was made up of 5 divisions . (The following is from The History of the Canadian Army)
“During this war Canadian soldiers fought the Japanese in Asia and the Germans and Italians in Africa; they sailed to the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen and to the fog-bound Aleutians; they did duty in Iceland, the Antilles and South America; they helped to extend the defences of Gibraltar.

They were among the foremost of the defenders of the United Kingdom when it was the last citadel of European freedom. They bore the brunt of the largest and most significant of the Allies’ raids against Europe’s coast in the days when the enemy controlled it from the North Cape to the Pyrenees. Above all, they played their part, and that no small one, in two great campaigns: they fought for twenty arduous months in Italy, and were in the front of the fight in the last mighty struggle in North-West Europe from the Norman beaches to Luneburg Heath. They left a trail of triumphs behind them, and did honour to their country wherever they set the print of their hobnailed boots.

The Army that did these things is already little more than more than a memory. Many thousands of those who made its reputation sleep in alien ground; and of the survivors the vast majority have returned to civilian pursuits and are scattered about the country and the world. “

Perhaps this would be of interest , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada_during_World_War_II


41 posted on 08/19/2012 5:09:10 PM PDT by Snowyman
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To: Snowyman
Thanks for those facts and figures. Seems as if the Canadian participation and casualties in WWII, when compared with the US in proprtion to the respective populations of the two countries at the time, was pretty close to ours.
42 posted on 08/19/2012 5:29:30 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: SunkenCiv; afraidfortherepublic; mojo114; seenenuf; LucyT; Think free or die; DollyCali; ...

Thanks to Sunken Civ for the heads up.
Here’s hoping this great story will be shown on American TV or be made available on DVD soon.
We cannot forget!

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43 posted on 08/19/2012 6:53:55 PM PDT by Cincinna ( *** NOBAMA 2012 ***)
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To: Cincinna
Some interesting coverage and discussion of the documentary:

Arthur Kelly on Dieppe: A battle doomed to fail for all the wrong reasons

44 posted on 08/24/2012 1:04:26 PM PDT by TheMole
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