Stark contrast: The remarkable scene as Canada salutes her fallen and, below, how Britain's war dead are brought home almost unnoticed
Posted on 04/12/2008 8:59:15 PM PDT by nuconvert
Pictures that should shame us all reveal the shabby way Britain treats its heroes
12th April 2008
They serve the same Queen, fight the same foe and lay down their lives with equal valour and sacrifice.
But when the fallen heroes of Canada and Britain come home, the welcome is very different.
At airbases in both countries there is only sombre respect.
But today The Mail on Sunday publishes extraordinary pictures that contrast the final road journeys: in Canada, there is a police escort and crowds line the route; in Britain, the hearses are denied outriders and go unremarked.
Coffins carrying the Canadian soldiers' bodies are driven 107 miles from the airbase at Trenton, Ontario, to a coroner's office in Toronto; in Britain the trip is 50 miles from RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, to the morgue at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
In Canada the road is cleared and a police escort of several squad cars ensures a smooth passage as onlookers pay tribute and police and fire officers salute.
But in Britain most of the journey is spent ignored and stuck in traffic – because Thames Valley Police refuse to provide an escort as they "focus on community safety rather than ceremonial roles".
Last night MP Quentin Davies, who is heading a Ministry of Defence study into strengthening public support for Britain's Armed Forces, labelled the failure to provide an escort for our war dead "despicable".
Other Service personnel and police from other Forces concur.
The intensely moving pictures of the Canadian repatriation are being emailed among British soldiers and have been posted on the internet.
Canada currently has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan and has so far lost 82. Britain has lost 91 from a total of 7,800.
The series of pictures includes emotional scenes last year when six Canadian soldiers were flown home.
Captain Jefferson Francis, 36, Captain Matthew Dawe, 27, Master Cpl Colin Bason, 28, Corporal Cole Bartsch, 23, Corporal Jordan Anderson, 25, and Private Lane Watkins, 20, were killed together in their armoured vehicle by a massive roadside bomb near Kandahar.
Along the entire route, on 50 motorway bridges, at roadsides, intersections, on the sides of roads, in fields and even on the central barrier of the busy motorway, local people, firefighters and police stood to attention, Royal Canadian Legionnaires lowered flags and whole families proudly waved "We support our troops" placards.
"Fire halls had their trucks out, with their members in full dress uniform out front paying respects to our comrades.
"People stopped their cars along the side of the road, got out and saluted or held their hands over their hearts.
"As we neared downtown, the streets were lined with crowds waving Canadian flags and paying their respects.
"The outpouring of support for our fallen heroes and their families was beyond belief."
Lt Col Legere's letter concluded: "Never before have I been as proud to wear this uniform."
Highways for Heroes have been designated in other Canadian cities and many people pay their respects when a fallen soldier returns. Police escorts are the norm.
The spectacle contrasts strongly with the progress of a British cortege which The Mail on Sunday was given special permission to follow earlier this month.
Lieutenant John Thornton, 22, and Marine David Marsh, 23, both of 40 Commando Royal Marines, were killed in a vehicle explosion while patrolling in Helmand Province.
Their two black hearses and an empty spare hearse accompanying them were initially escorted by Wiltshire Police.
The cortege first passed through the village of Wootton Bassett where locals, forewarned by the RAF base, gather at the war memorial to pay their respects.
But for much of the rest of the trip to Oxford – where the bodies undergo post-mortems before being returned to their families – the hearses are on their own, led only by an undertaker's car.
They were cut up by impatient motorists at roundabouts, stuck in traffic and generally ignored by the public, their significance lost because of a lack of the gravitas that a police escort would provide.
The problem has arisen because the Wiltshire Constabulary escort – normally three motorcycle outriders and two patrol cars which stop other traffic along the route – has to "peel off" at the Oxfordshire border where the Thames Valley force area begins.
The corteges then have to fend for themselves on Oxford's notorious ring-road.
Inspector Mark Levitt of Wiltshire Police has taken up the matter with Thames Valley.
(con't at source link with more photos)
Stark contrast: The remarkable scene as Canada salutes her fallen and, below, how Britain's war dead are brought home almost unnoticed
duplicate. please remove.
Thanks
Canada has her problems, but at least they still remember that freedom isn't free.
Fare thee well Britannia. We hardly knew ye.
As I tried to post on the source of those dreadful images, the silly Brits would be speaking German today if it were not for the thousand of American Lives, both Canadian and US, given to keep them free of Hitler. What a sorry lot of a$$holes. Not all but a growing number with no memory or education about the history of their current “freedom”.
Thank you for your service.
What a sorry lot of sodding arseholes!
Britain is a miniscule shadow of its former greatness.
With a Father, born in Scotland, immigrated to these US of A’s in the 1930’s via Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with his parents, served in WW II, was severely injured on D-Day at Iwo Jima, while in the Navy, was a great and providing Father until he died at 84 and is now interned in Arlington National Cemetery, based on his honor of receiving a Purple Heart, I am totally with you on this posting. Thanks very much. Writing this message was good for me, too.
Ping. Pix at the article link are very revealing.
>>>the silly Brits would be speaking German today if it were not for the thousand of American Lives, both Canadian and US, given to keep them free of Hitler.
Sorry but that’s just out of line. Whatever criticisms of the Brits of today you want to make, none are appropriate against the WW2 generation. Almost alone until Hitler attacked Russia, they bought us the time to covert the factories, to launch the ships, and train the troops for war.
Weaklings would have thrown in the towel after Dunkirk. Cowards would have cried for peace during the Blitz. “Silly” people wouldn’t have fought Rommel in the desert or kept the North Atlantic sealanes open.
They did their part, we and the Canadians did ours. To disparage or minimize the contribution of either is just wrong.
This is absolutely, utterly, and completely the wrong thread to be wheeling out the tired old ‘Brits would be speaking Germans if not for us’ type comment. The British soldiers in those coffins died fighting for America’s national interest, so why don’t you go and fill another thread with your comments so they can be torn to pieces in the appropriate place?
The Thames Valley police should be ashamed of themselves. The “death of the West” continues at full speed in Great Britain.
I hope you feel better. Bye the bye, read some of the other posts. Have a good one.
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