Tuesday, May 17. 2005
Charles Comfort, The Hitler Line, 1944 The Canadian War Museum presents Art and War: Australia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War. This is the new museum's the first online exhibition, and is "motivated by the Canadian War Museum's large travelling exhibition of art from the Second World War in collaboration with Australian War Memorial, and the Imperial War Museum. In conjunction with this exhibition, the website features the exhibition's artworks, captions, and essays. It consists of 96 works of art from the collections of the Canadian War Museum, the Australian War Memorial, and the Imperial War Museum."
Monday, May 9. 2005
On this day, May 9, 1885, Major-General Frederick Dobson Middleton 1825-1898 and more than 800 soldiers of the North-West Field Force attacked Gabriel Dumont 1838-1906 and his Métis and Cree warriors at Batoche, capital of Louis Riel's provisional government.
Middleton had transformed the Hudson Bay Company steamer, the Northcote, into a gunboat. He intended to use it, along with a coordinated land attack, on the Métis positions. The Northcote scheme failed miserably as the Métis discovered the plan and made its whistle, intended to be used as a signal for the beginning of the attack, inoperative.
On land, the Métis hid themselves in protected dug out pits and began to fire on the advancing troops. For three days, they held their position, inflicting serious casualties on Middleton's troops. The Métis, however, ran out of ammunition and were reduced in the end to firing stones and nails.
On May 12, some of the troops disobeyed Middleton, stormed the trenches and slaughtered the remaining defenders. Twenty-three Métis were killed at Batoche. It would have been worse had not Dumont almost single-handedly held the troops back, allowing many to escape.
On May 15, Riel wrote a letter to Middleton offering to surrender as long as the Métis were allowed to go free. Riel would not listen to Dumont's request to escape with him to the United States.
Sunday, May 8. 2005
After almost three years of construction, at a cost of $136 million, the New Canadian War museum at 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, officially opened its doors on May 8, the 60th anniversary of VE-Day that marked the end of World War II in Europe.
The CWM, on a 7.5 hectare site by the Ottawa River, replaces the old museum on Sussex Drive, a cramped former archives building. The 40,860 square metre museum houses one of the biggest military collections in the world comprising more than 500,000 artifacts including vehicles, artillery, uniforms, medals, memoirs, works of art and an extensive military archive.
The Museum memorial hall contains a stark, bare chamber with a single window high on the southern wall. At 11 a.m. on Nov. 11 every year, the sun will beam through that window and strike a spot on the opposite wall, shining on a modest, bone-white tombstone inscribed: "A soldier of the Great War. A Canadian Regiment. Known unto God."
For more than 80 years, this stone marked Grave 7, Row E, Plot 8 at the Cabaret-Rouge cemetery in Souchez, France, near Vimy Ridge. In 2000, the body in the grave was exhumed, flown to Ottawa and reburied in the granite Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the shadow of the National War Memorial. Visitor services include a full-service library and archives, a boutique, a riverside café, dedicated spaces for rest and reflection, a 236 seat theatre, four ateliers, 310 indoor parking spaces, guided tours and a dedicated group entrance. The Museum presents a film and lecture series, hosts commemorative events and special exhibitions and offers educational programmes.
About the New Building
Says CWM spokeswoman Christina Selin, "The Canadian War Museum's mandate is about educating visitors about the impact of war and conflict on Canada's historical development and preserving the story of Canada's military history."
The new museum was designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects of Toronto and Griffiths Rankin Cook of Ottawa. Construction began with groundbreaking on Nov. 5, 2002. The theme of the architectural design is "regeneration." In the words of the lead architect, Raymond Moriyama: "Nature may be ravished by human acts of war, but inevitably it hybridizes, regenerates and prevails. This museum is a tribute to our military past and a salute to the freedom and democracy that has resulted from the sacrifices of the men and women who have served this country."
Exhibition design is by staff members of the CWM and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in collaboration with the architectural team and the exhibition design team of Haley Sharpe Associates of Leicester, England and Origin Studios of Ottawa. Backgrounder
Friends of the Canadian War Museum is a charitable organization formed to support the Canadian War Museum and its activities by sponsoring Museum projects, conducting research on subjects related to Canadian military history, fund raising, and providing volunteer services.
The FCWM also is hosting an essay writing competition to promote awareness of the evolution of the Canadian Military.
On May 8, 1945, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St-Laurent broadcast speeches to the Canadian people announcing that the Allies have finally secured victory in Europe in the Second World War, after 2,076 days fighting Nazi aggression. As Canadians across the country celebrate V-E Day, they also remember the 42,042 Canadians who died in the conflict. Image: King and St-Laurent broadcasting from San Francisco, where they are attending the founding meeting of the United Nations.
ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue order to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8th May 1945, to remain in all positions occupied at that time and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical means of prosecution of war in general.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
6. This Act is drawn up in the English, Russian and German languages. The English and Russian are the only authentic texts.
Signed at Berlin on the 8 day of May, 1945
Von Friedeburg Keitel Stumpff
On behalf of the German High Command IN THE PRESENCE OF:
A.W.Tedder On behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force
Georgi Zhukov On behalf of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army
At the signing also were present as witnesses:
F. de Lattre-Tassigny General Commanding in Chief First French Army
Carl Spaatz General, Commanding United States Strategic Air Force
Saturday, May 7. 2005
"Had the Germans been able to break into this area at any time during the war, they could not have done a more thorough job of looting and destruction. It was anarchy."
Halifax Mail, May 9, 1945 VE-Day festivities began on Monday morning, May 7, when radio stations broadcast the news of Germany's surrender. Across Canada, spontaneous partying broke out. Young people serving as soldiers, sailors, air crew and merchant mariners celebrated their release from the dangerous and sometimes tedious profession of war, and that day, many of them had too much to drink.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, was no exception. The Victory news broke about 10:30 a.m. Across the city and over in Dartmouth, people dropped what they were doing, stopped working, and ran into the streets to celebrate. But there was nothing much to do, and not much to drink. The authorities had made the mistake of ordering liquor stores closed, and there were no bars and taverns to visit.
Native Haligonians also had reason to celebrate. Halifax had boomed during World War II, and business was good. The population of the port city almost doubled, from about 70,000 to 130,000 people. But the city was hopelessly overcrowded with 25,000 military personnel, and food and shelter were scarce. Sailors on leave were not always well behaved, and tensions had built up with the military.
After six years of war, there was plenty to gripe about. Halifax people generally got along well with the officer class, but were bitter about drunken sailors smashing windows and accosting their daughters on pay day. Servicemen criticized the city for having archaic liquor laws, and poor recreation facilities, hotels, restaurants and shopping. They resented landlords who gouged them with usurious rents, and storekeepers and restaurant owners who made them pay more than civilians. Even Admiral Leonard Murray was heard to say that Halifax bootleggers were charging his sailors too much for their liquor. In the lower ranks, it was whispered that some sailors had threatened to "take Halifax apart" when the war was over.
Admiral Len Murray Business people had heard the rumours, and cautiously closed movie houses and restaurants for fear of damage by celebrating sailors. Halifax Police Chief Judson Conrod and his constables prepared for a night of heavy duty.
The Navy's wet canteens opened at noon and, at HMCS Stadacona, 2,000 sailors started into their beer, and the Navy announced that there would be no charges laid that day for drunkenness. At 9 p.m. the wet canteens closed, and over 9,000 seamen and hundreds of Wrens poured into the streets, joining the partying civilians and other servicemen. Army and air force personnel had to return to barracks before midnight. But the off-duty sailors were free until 7 o'clock the next morning, in the time-honored naval tradition of the "open gangway."
So the streets of Halifax were packed with servicemen on leave who wanted to celebrate, with nothing to do but drink up the bottles of rye saved up for the day, and buy more from the bootleggers, who made a killing while their stocks lasted.
The First Night of Rioting
Shortly after 9, a group of sailors stopped a streetcar on Barrington Street and smashed the tram's windows. The RCN shore patrol quickly arrived and dispersed the rowdies, but matters soon got out of hand when the mob grew to over 5,000 people. Many were just there for the fun, but some sailors and civilians started ripping down Victory Loan flags at City Hall, and by 10 p.m. they were hijacking streetcars, crashing them into each other, and lighting the seats on fire. When the Halifax Police paddy wagon arrived, the rioters burned it as well, and cut the hoses the fire department were attaching to the hydrants.
Around midnight, the rioters started looting the liquor stores on Sackville, Hollis and Buckingham streets. They smashed the plate glass windows and grabbed as much as they could carry before the Police arrived and boarded up the broken windows and doors. At about 2 a.m., the riot petered out, as the shore patrol dragged any sailors it could find back to barracks. In some parts of the downtown, the sound of breaking glass and drunken shouting went on until dawn.
Day Two
The next day, Tuesday, was official VE-Day, and many sailors were still drunk from the night before. When the wet canteen at HMCS Stadacona ran out of beer at 1 p.m., sailors smashed beer bottles inside the canteen. After they were thrown out, they smashed the canteen's windows with rocks. Then 2,000 of them spilled out into Barrington Street and started rioting again. Some hijacked a streetcar, ordered the driver and passengers out, and set off downtown, with the rest following on foot, smashing house windows as they went south on Barrington.
The shore patrol tried to stop the mob at Gerrish streets, but failed. Then a sailor, shouted: "On to Keith's brewery!', and 1,000 rioters turned toward Salter Street. They burst the gates and soon were passing out thousands of bottles, rolling out kegs and loading cases into stolen trucks. Soon 150 army and city police arrived and blocked the Water street entrance with a six-ton army truck. But the mob, now grown to over 5,000, easily pushed aside the truck and the police and started looting again.
Navy Looters Meanwhile at the VE-Day religious service at the Garrison Grounds, Mayor Allan Butler begged Admiral Murray and the Army for help. Murray decided to march a parade of servicemen downtown to divert the rioters and provide a show of discipline. As they paraded along Barrington Street, the marchers were pushed and taunted. Almost half of them joined the rioters.
The authorities were powerless to stop the binge, and that afternoon looters again sacked liquor stores. Joined by civilians, they looted and burned downtown restaurants. Then they turned to the stores and shops, ransacking Birks jewellers, Eaton's, Kay's, and the Barnstead and Buckley drug stores. They torched Fader's Pharmacy, People's Credit Jewellers, D'Allaird's and a gas station. At Wallace Brothers, a sailor handed out free shoes. Seamen slid down the cobblestone streets on department store mannequins. A drunken Wren walked around dressed only in a Union Jack.
Civilian Looting Mayor Butler wanted to read the Riot Act, but his staff wasn't sure if he had jurisdiction. Plus he and Admiral Murray feared shooting deaths if Army troops were ordered to arrest drunken Navy sailors. Finally, they decided to set an 8:00 p.m. curfew. They took a car and drove around downtown, with Murray shouting through a loudspeaker to his sailors: "Go to your billets, your ships, your quarters and your homes. This applies to both civilians and service personnel. This is an order. It is not a joke!"
On his orders, the Navy shore patrol started sweeping their personnel from the streets, and they dispatched nine trucks to haul more than 1,000 unconscious sailors back to barracks.
At 10:00 p.m., the Army sent a battalion from Debert through the streets, and finally, at about 12:00 midnight it started to rain, and the Halifax VE-Day rioting petered out. There was little left to loot, and very few unbroken windows left downtown.
On May 8, the military authorities set up a special court in the Halifax Armories, and indicted 363 people for drunkenness, illegal possession of liquor, property damage, theft and possession of stolen goods. Some of the rioters received long jail terms from the local criminal courts, but most sentences were reduced. The rioting left scores wounded from falling on broken glass, and three people dead, two from alcohol poisoning, and one, a naval officer, probably murdered to settle a score.
Ottawa ordered Justice Kellock to hold a federal inquiry into the events. In a report released in August, he blamed the RCN for poor discipline of its personnel. Admiral Murray was promptly fired.
The Canadian government eventually paid full compensation to all residents and the 564 businesses who suffered damage (mostly the 2,642 pieces of plate and other glass broken), and to the 207 shops that were looted. The Nova Scotia Liquor Commission and Keith's Brewery were given large settlements. Finance Minister Ilsley released a report that in the two days' rioting, 6,987 cases of beer, 1,225 cases of wine, two cases of alcohol and 55,392 quarts of spirits were looted from Halifax liquor stores and 30,516 quarts of beer from Keith's Brewery.
On May 5, Admiral Hitler's chosen successor, Admiral Karl Donitz, sent Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl to negotiate a full military surrender with the Allied command, at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's HQ in a schoolhouse in Rheims, France. The Germans stalled for time to allow as many soldiers and civilians as possible to move west in order to escape the savagery of the Red Army. But Eisenhower's patience finally ran out, and at 2:41 a.m. on May 7, with no remaining options, Jodl signed the formal unconditional surrender of all German forces.
Jodl then rose and turned to Eisenhower's chief of staff Lt Gen Walter Bedell Smith. He said in English: "I want to say a word". Proceeding in German, he declared: "With this signature the German people and the German armed forces are for better or worse delivered into the victor's hands. In this war, which has lasted more than five years, they both have achieved and suffered more than perhaps any other people in the world. In this hour I can only express the hope that the victor will treat them with generosity."
There was no answer, no salutes. The Germans got up and left the room.
In his book Eisenhower's Six Great Decisions, Smith recalled that Eisenhower and his colleagues "groped for resounding phrases as fitting accolades to the Great Crusade and indicative of our dedication to the great task just completed." But Ike was exhausted and worn out. He rejected a stack of draft messages proposed by his staff and opted for the plain and simple communique: "The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945."
The following day, Josef Stalin refused to recognize this peace, since had not authorized the Soviet aide at Rheims to sign the agreement. So on May 8, a nearly identical surrender document was signed in Berlin by General von Keitel and Marshal Zhukov. It stipulated that all hostilities cease at 12:01 am, May 9.
On May 23, Jodl was taken into custody for trial as a war criminal, along with other principal members of the German government and military. Judged guilty and sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Jodl was hanged on October 16, 1946.
On May 7, 1945, the Allies finally secure victory in Europe, after 2,076 days fightling Nazi aggression. Victory is officially announced May 8, as Canadians across the country celebrate V-E Day. A total of 1,086,343 Canadian men and women served full-time in the forces during the war, and 42,042 Canadians died. Image: Celebrating on Sparks St. in Ottawa CBC News Clip
Friday, May 6. 2005
Veterans Affairs Canada site on the Victory in Europe Day. "On Sunday, May 8, 2005, events will be held in Canada and overseas to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the liberation of the Netherlands. Excitement is building for veterans, their families, school children and other Canadians who will join together for this significant anniversary.
Parades and ceremonies of remembrance will take place in every provincial and territorial capital to honour Second World War veterans and mark Victory in Europe (VE) Day. A national ceremony will be held at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, with a parade march to the opening of the new Canadian War Museum. In the Netherlands, there will be a parade in Apeldoorn to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands. See the links on this page for a full list of May 8th events so you can decide where you and your family will join the celebrations."
CBC Archives presents Victory in Europe, containing historic CBC archival clips featuring reaction at war's end in Europe and in Canada. The page includes reporting on the official German surrender in Holland, the Halifax riot and Mackenzie King at the creation of United Nations in San Francisco.
Thursday, May 5. 2005
At 4:00 p.m. on this day sixty years ago, May 5, 1945, Col.-Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz formally surrendered the remaining 117,000 German troops in the Netherlands to Canadian Lt.-Gen. Charles Foulkes of the First Canadian Corps, ending nearly eight months of bitter and difficult fighting.
Surrender of German forces in the Netherlands, at 1st Canadian Corps HQ in the lobby of the Hotel De Wereld in Wageningen. (Left to right): Gen. Blaskowitz 1st, Gen. Reichilt 2nd, Gen. Charles Foulkes 4th, H. R.H. Prince Bernhardt 6th This long, hard campaign started in mid-September of 1944 when the First Canadian Army were ordered to help clear the heavily fortified Scheldt estuary and open the port of Antwerp. Led by General H.D.G. Crerar and lieutenant-General G.G. Simonds, the Canadians finally completed their task on November 8th. The campaign to free up Antwerp cost the Allies 703 officers and 12,170 other ranks killed, wounded or lost in action, presumed dead. Over half of these casualties were Canadians. But the capture of Antwerp and its port was vital for the Allies as they drove on into Holland. Most Canadians who died in the Battle of the Scheldt campaign are burried in Bergen op Zoom Canadian War Cemetery.
Crossing the Ijssel River en route to Arnhem. On Nov. 9, 1944, the 2nd Canadian Corps occupied the Nijmegen salient bridgehead in Holland and turned it into a winter base. Then on Feb. 8, 1945, following a huge barrage, Allied units began their winter assault - the Rhineland Offensive called Operation Veritable. Canadian casualties in this operation totalled 5,304. Most of the dead are buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, and the Groesbeek Memorial commemorates by name those missing in the last days of fighting in The Netherlands and Germany.
Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada troops in slit trenches, 8 Apr. 1945, Holten, Netherlands. On March 20, 1945, Field-Marshal Montgomery sent the First Canadian Army west and north into Holland to liberate the Dutch people. The 1st Canadian Corps, which had been in Italy since 1943, now rejoined their comrades and the entire Canadian Army overseas (except the 1st Parachute Battalion) was now under General Crerar's direct command. The 1st Canadian Corps was given the task of reducing the enemy in western Holland north of the Maas River and the 2nd Corps the cleaning up northeastern Holland. Canadian casualties in this phase of the liberation numbered 5,515. Most of those who died are buried in Holten Canadian War Cemetery.
Canadians escort German prisoners out of Holland.
Wednesday, May 4. 2005
The Royal Canadian Mint is circulating 60 million re-issues of the wartime Victory nickel to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The original Victory nickel had 12 flat edges. It was minted to promote the war effort, and was in circulation from 1943 to 1945. It had the Morse code for "We Win When We Work Willingly" along the outer edge of the coin. The V symbol on the coin refers to Winston Churchill's V for Victory sign, and is the Roman numeral V, for five cents.
The Mint is also releasing a $5 silver coin marking the 60th anniversary of the End of the Second World War.
Welcome Again Veterans has information on Project Maple Leaf, where Dutch schoolchildren place flowers on every grave, in solemn respect for those who gave their lives, for their freedom. The schoolchildren of Holten place, next to the ceremony on May 4th, burn candles on the graves on Christmas eve.
The Canadian Embassy in Holland has a page outliing the Canada & The Liberation of the Netherlands celebrations this week.
On this day 60 years ago, May 4, 1945, fighting stops in the Canadian sector near Wilhelmshaven, Aurich, and Emden; German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agree to surrender to Canadian commanders at Wageningen.
German officer discusses surrender arrangements on radio phone link set up by Canadian troops.
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