Commemorating 2005
- The Year of the Veteran -
Saturday, April 23. 2005
Canadian Ally
The Embassy of Canada in Washington presents Canadian Ally - A Snapshot of Canada's Military
- More than 110,000 personnel in Canada and around the world including 61,500 active duty (Regular Force) and 24,500 Reservists, 4,000 Canadian Rangers and 21,000 civilian personnel.
- Third largest employer in Canada and the largest single public sector employer.
- Budget is approximately $14 billion (US$11.2 billion).
- Canadian Forces personnel are deployed on 17 international operations in 16 countries.
- 13,500 Army, Navy and Air Force personnel have deployed in the War on Terrorism since October 2001. This includes 20 Warships and a variety of aircraft. Canada established an airbase in the Persian Gulf and has flown more than 3,000 sorties, transported 29,000 passengers and moved 25 million pounds of equipment.
- Hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel working in more than 50 countries around the world, including over 330 members serving in NATO posts, nearly 300 personnel with NORAD in the United States, 63 military attachés, 80 members providing security to overseas missions, and about 200 personnel serving outside Canada on exchange programs with military allies.
- The CF is present in 3,000 communities across Canada, including 28 main bases, wings, stations, detachments and sites, 228 Primary Reserve units and 165 Ranger patrols in our Northern regions.
60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland Celebrations Start May 3
On May 5, 1945, after a bitter winter of fighting and suffering, the German Army signed the capitulation treaty in the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen. The following major events are planned to commemorate the Liberation.
SILENT WALK AND REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY
May 3, 2005 - Silent walk and Remembrance Ceremony at Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, where 2,338 Canadian soldiers are buried. Groesbeek is situated just south of the city of Nijmegen.
THROUGHOUT HOLLAND
May 4, 2005 - Commemorative services will be held throughout the country.
11.00 a.m. - Remembrance Ceremony at the Canadian War Cemetery, in Holten, where 1.400 soldiers are buried. Canadian War Cemetery is located between Holten and Nijverdal.
8:00 p.m. - National Memorial Service in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, followed by a ceremony at the National Monument on Dam Square at 8:00 p.m. HM Queen Beatrix and other dignitaries will attend.
NATIONAL START OF THE CELEBRATIONS
Noord-Brabant - May 5, 2005 -Since 1996 the national celebrations of Holland's liberation have commenced in a different province every year, in the early morning of May 5. The province hosts the event and organizes the program in conjunction with the city in which the starting gun sounds. Noord-Brabant has been given the honor to start off the 2005 anniversary celebrations.
MARCH-PAST IN WAGENINGEN
Wageningen - May 5, 2005 -Crown-Prince Willem-Alexander will take the salute in Wageningen at a march-past of veterans, former resistance fighters and troops during the commemoration.
LIBERATION FESTIVALS
May 5, 2005 - Each of the twelve provinces will organize a Liberation Festival; free open-air music festivals for young and old.
BATTLEFIELD TOUR
Groesbeek - May 7, 2005 -Operation Market Garden and Operation Veritable in Groesbeek
MEMORIAL SERVICE
Nijverdal - May 7, 2005 -Memorial service Canadian veterans in Nijverdal
VETERANS’ PARADE IN APELDOORN
Apeldoorn - May 8, 2005 -International veterans’ parade in Apeldoorn, attended by war veterans from America, Canada, England and Poland. Princess Margriet will be present at this service.
COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE
Margraten - May 29, 2005 -Commemorative service in Margraten on May 29, 2005, with thousands of American and Canadian veterans and surviving relatives.
Thursday, April 21. 2005
New Canadian War Museum to Open May 8
After almost three years of construction, the New Canadian War museum will open its doors on May 8, the 60th anniversary of VE-Day that marked the end of the World War II.
The 18-acre CWM, at 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, will house 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. A parade of veterans will march from the Canadian War Memorial to the museum.
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. 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.
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.
Wednesday, April 20. 2005
Alberta Military Web Resources
Monday, April 18. 2005
University of New Brunswick Researchers Want to Save Redhead Battery
UNB researchers are trying to salvage the Redhead Battery, a 19th century military installation built in 1862 in the early stages of the American Civil War to respond to growing tensions between Britain and the US. Situated 20 metres from the edge of a 30-metre bluff overlooking the Bay of Fundy and the outer Saint John Harbour, the battery today is a football field shaped emplacement overgrown with sumac and alders. The last vintage coastal battery site remaining in Canada, its guns could fire on any ship heading into the port of Saint John, or the entrance of the St. John River.
Marc Milner, chairman of the UNB history department and head of the Military and Strategic Studies program, says "The battery is pretty much intact. The earthworks are probably 99 per cent intact. There's a small piece at one end where the soil erosion is working into the gun positions... Here we have one of the most complex and interesting sites in Canada. Even the people who knew it was there didn't really realize what we had."
Once it is cleared of growth and surveyed, the military will use a special camera to record 3-D images and build a virtual model for the archives. The New Brunswick Archeological Society will conduct soil tests and map it for a website.
"It was the Saint John River Valley that provided a link between the isolated frontiers of Canada and the rest of the world," Dr. Milner said. "The Red Head battery was the last fortress to protect the highway to Canada."
Says Bob Lockhart, a military history buff and former mayor of the city, the Redhead Battery is a very significant property. "Great Britain and the United States were going to go to war and Saint John was the fortress to prevent that."
[CBC Saint John]
Sunday, April 17. 2005
CBC Archives Presents "Countdown to Victory"
CBC Archives Presents Countdown to Victory, a series of a dozen radio reports from CBC Radio war correspondents Matthew Halton and Peter Stursberg, and from Charles Lynch reporting for Reuters.
On May 5, the network is launching 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.
Monday, April 11. 2005
Poll says only One in Four Young Canadians Know About Vimy Ridge
A new poll comissioned by the Dominion Institute and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute says Canadians overwhelmingly support increased public spending to commemorate the First World War and a greater emphasis on educating youth about veterans' contributions to the country.Canadians were intensely appreciative of veterans and willing to support a variety of initiatives to honour Canada's First World War legacy.
Despite such goodwill, a significant proportion of the 1,000 randomly chosen Canadians who took part in the survey -- including the vast majority of young people -- knew few of the basic facts of Canada's experience in "The War to End All Wars."
Knowledge of pivotal events and facts is in steep decline, in fact, and there remains only a tenuous identification with our most significant single victory: the capture of Vimy Ridge, which took place 88 years ago today.
Just 33 per cent were familiar with the successful assault on dug-in German positions at Vimy on the morning of April 9, 1917. The battle was instrumental in confirming Canada's sense of nationhood, although the cost was steep -- 10,602 Canadians were killed or wounded, nearly one in three present.
Twenty-six per cent of those under the age of 35 knew about Vimy, and fewer than seven per cent of Quebecers, although the 22nd French-Canadian Battalion, the famous "Van Doos," was present.
Greg Lyle, managing director of Innovative Research Group, Inc., the Toronto firm that conducted this and two previous polls, in 2002 and 1998, said the results indicate the education system is instilling an inadequate appreciation of veterans' achievements and sacrifice.
Only Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island require students to graduate with a course in contemporary Canadian history. Other provinces teach it as a unit of social science, emphasizing relevant themes rather than a detailed chronology of events.
"We know from other (studies) that knowledge drives interest, interest drives knowledge. They're a mutually reinforcing circle (and) the knowledge you leave school with remains relatively stable throughout life," Mr. Lyle said.
"We've stopped learning history the traditional way -- sequentially -- and it seems to be having an effect on Canadians' ability to recall key facts. People who know these facts are more likely to value these facts."
The poll, conducted between March 29 and April 3, is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and was released exclusively to CanWest-Global.
SOURCE: CanWest News Services; Sarah Staples, The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, April 9. 2005
Battle of Vimy Ridge: Triumph of the Canadian Corps
"Under the orders of your devoted officers in the coming battle you will advance or fall where you stand facing the enemy. To those who will fall I say 'You will not die, but step into immortality. Your mothers will not lament your fate, but will be proud to have borne such sons. Your name will be revered forever and ever by your grateful country, and God will take you unto Himself'."
Sir Arthur Currie
Commander, Canadian Corps
Special Order before Vimy Ridge
Mar 27, 1917.
Vimy Ridge was the biggest single Allied advance on the Western front up to that point in World War I. The Ridge, a 7 km long whalebacked crest of land, rose like a barrier 65 metres above the the Douai Plain in northeastern France. It was key to the German defence system. It gave the enemy an unobstructed view of miles of battlefield below. Previous attacks by the French and British had failed, at the cost of over 100,000 casualties and 20,000 lives. The route up the ridge was an open graveyard.
The Germans had dug themselves deeply into the limestone and chalk of Vimy Ridge. They had crafted a network of trenches and tunnels, with scores of machine gun emplacements, deep dugouts for cover, and concrete bunkers for their big guns. It was a fortress, and it appeared to be virtually unassailable. The Canadian Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng and Major-General Arthur Currie, were given the order to capture it. Veteran French General Robert-Georges Nivelle shook his head at the news, predicting ruefully that the attempt of the Canadian Corps would also end in disaster.
Arthur Currie insisted that the assault force for the next attempt on Vimy Ridge be comprised entirely of Canadian troops. Byng backed up Currie, and the British acceded to his request. Further, Currie realized that ultimate victory depended on a number of factors - weather, planning, and training. He had studied French tactics at Verdun, and put them into motion, leaving nothing to chance. He organized mock-up replicas of Vimy Ridge and he meticulously instructed each unit of every regiment on their specific assignment within the overall plan. Each platoon member was trained to be a specialist machine-gunner, rifleman or grenade-thrower. Each learned to carry out all platoon responsiblities.
Gunners practised with the new 106 fuse, which allowed shells to explode on contact, as opposed to burying themselves in the ground. This feature made it easier to take out barbed wire. They also learned how to handle captured German artillery pieces, so that once they captured the Ridge, they could turn the enemy's guns on the retreating Germans.
Hour after hour, the Canadians drilled on maps carefully drawn from aerial photos, so that they knew the area by heart. They constantly probed the enemy defenses, and dug deep reinforced tunnels to bring men forward safely for the assault, instead of forcing them to advance in the open through a murderous hail of fire.
Byng and Currie also fostered a spirit of learning and innovation that made the Canadian artillery the best in the war. Colonel Andrew McNaughton*, a 29-year-old officer from the 3rd (Montreal) Field Battery and a graduate in engineering from McGill University, was named counter-battery staff officer, to work on tactics to stifle the German artillery. Working with McNaughton were the "sound rangers", a group of scientists that included Professor Bull and Sir Lawrence Bragg, inventor of sound-ranging and winner (at age 25) of the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics. These men took fragile oscillographs out onto the reserve line to record the actual sound waves coming from the enemy guns. Armed with their slide rules, and aerial photographs, they were able to reckon a way to locate the big German artillery pieces precisely by their sound and flash. Thus, the Canadian gunners could take them out before the advance began.
Unlike many in the British High command, Currie also fostered a spirit of practical caring, to minimize casualties. As McNaughton later wrote, "The officer corps was remarkably coherent and caring. We were a close knit organization. We served with people that we knew - there was a personal acquaintance and a personal friendship; we had a feeling of personal responsibility for the men's well being."
*McNaughton headed Canada's overseas Army in the Second World War.
Armed with this knowledge, Byng and Currie perfected an innovative battle strategy called the creeping barrage. Rather than simply using their artillery to soften up the enemy as had been the norm up to that point, they combined accurately timed and aimed artillery barrages to destroy the enemy barbed wire and machine gun nests first, followed by rapidly staged troop advancement from underground tunnels.
The artillery would be carefully aimed just ahead of the troops so that they were given a cover just behind a moving wall of exploding shells. They would then rush through the holes in the enemy barbed wire and take out the enemy machine guns before the Germans could emerge from the cover of their deep dugouts. All winter the troops had practised what they called the "Vimy Glide", a measured pace designed to keep them close, but not too close, behind the falling shells.
"Chaps, you shall go over exactly like a railroad train, on time, or you shall be annihilated." - Sir Julian "Bungo" Byng.
Timing was everything, and nothing was left to chance. Byng and Currie's planners spent months preparing for the battle, building supply tunnels, trenches, tramways and roads. The prelude to the battle began on April 2, 1917, as the Canadian gunners started pounding the German defences, with everything from small howitzers to huge naval guns, using a nearly limitless supply of ammunition. It was the largest artillery barrage in history up to that point, using over one million shells. The attack lasted for seven days, and was loud enough to be heard in London. Germans in the front line trenches later called it "the week of suffering."
At dawn on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, all four Canadian divisions, fighting side-by-side for the first time, swept up the Ridge in a driving storm of sleet and snow with Byng's British 5th Division. Canadian 'sappers' (soldiers who dug trenches and tunnels) ignited a huge explosion at the base of the Ridge. Then came the deadly accurate creeping barrage, with over 1,000 artillery pieces laying down withering, supportive fire in eight minute intervals, followed quickly by 15,000 onrushing Canadian infantry.
The Germans were totally unprepared for the speed of the final assault. After less than two hours, three of the four Canadian divisions had overrun their objectives. The fourth division, however, ran into serious fire from the highest point of the Ridge known as Hill 145, where the Vimy monument now stands. The 87th Battalion had to make a frontal bayonet charge against machine gun nests, and suffered 50% casualties.
By nightfall, most of the Ridge was in Canadian hands. In one glorious day, Canadians had advanced father than any other British offensive to date. That day, more ground, more prisoners (4,000), and more guns were taken than in the entire two and a half years of the war. By April 12, the Corps had secured Hill 145, and also the Pimple, a large hill on the northern end of Vimy Ridge.
Canadians looking down on the town from the top
Vimy not only relieved the French city of Arras from immediate threat of attack, it also proved a breakthrough - the war could be made to move once again, after years of stalemate. The Canadian victory thoroughly demoralized the Germans, who had viewed the Ridge as one of their most impregnable strong points. The German Sixth Army, under General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, suffered over 20,000 casualties.
Currie knighted by George V. Byng at left
Canadian casualties were also high: 7,104 were wounded, and 3,598 killed. Currie was knighted, and four Victoria Crosses given out: to Captain Thaine MacDowell, Private William Milne, Private John Pattison and Lance-Sergeant Ellis Sifton.
The capture of the strategic high ground of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian Corps was a major factor in turning the tide for the Allies. The triumph of these citizen soldiers, who came from Halifax to Victoria, earned Canada a place at the post-war peace peace table, a clear mark of the nation's independence from Britain. As Brigadier General A.E. Ross later wrote, "In those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."
SOURCE: History of Canada Online, Chapter 9E, Vimy Ridge - Triumph of the Canadian Corps.
Friday, April 8. 2005
50 Years of Canadian Peacekeeping, Peacemaking and Peace Support
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Organization for the History of Canada invites submissions for a conference called 50 Years of Canadian Peacekeeping, Peacemaking and Peace Support, which is taking place at the University of Ottawa, 11-13 May 2006.
Members of the Program Committee include Serge Bernier (DHH), Norman Hillmer (Carleton), Greg Donaghy (FAC), Magali Deleuze (RMC), Stéphane Roussel (UQAM), Reginald Stuart (Mount St. Vincent), Jean Morin (DHH), and OHC President, Michael Behiels (UOttawa).
The OHC is seeking proposals dealing with the political, economic, cultural, social, military, and diplomatic issues concerning peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace support from both historical and contemporary points of view. Proposals for individual papers, complete panels, and session chairs should be submitted by 3 June 2005. Proposals from established academics, new faculty, graduate students, and other interested analysts and commentators are welcome and encouraged.
For more information please visit our web site, http://www.orghistcanada.ca,
or contact the Program Committee co-chairs:
Alex Morrison, Founding President (1994-2001) Pearson Peacekeeping Centre; Holder of Pearson Peace Medal 2002: sandym@mail.com
And John MacFarlane (DHH): MacFarlane.JDW@Forces.gc.ca.
Please send proposals, including a one-page abstract and a one page CV, to:
Professor Galen Perras
OHC Secretary-Treasurer
Department of History
155 Séraphin Marion St.
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5
tel: (613) 562-5800 ext. 1319
e-mail: galenperras@sympatico.ca
Dominion Institute Veterans Speakers Bureau
The Dominion Institute's Memory Project has a program where schools and youth groups such as the Scouts and Guides can request a veteran to speak to their group. To request a veteran from the Speakers' Bureau, please fill out this online form.
Veterans, peacekeepers and active Legion members who are interested in sharing their story and speaking to students can join the Memory Project Speakers' Bureau. "As part of the Speakers' Bureau, you will have the opportunity to attend a training workshop, be provided with a classroom presentation kit geared to your service, and have Dominion Institute staff available year round to facilitate classroom visits in your home town."
Minister of National Defence - Speech at Syracuse University
April 8 Speech to the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and the Maxwell School of Syracuse University:
Canada's Response to September 11th
Our longstanding security partnership with the United States has seen our two countries through the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War and the tumultuous years that followed. But any discussion of the North American security landscape must begin with the September 11 th attacks in the U.S.
Although Canada was not the target of these terrible acts, terrorism had come to our North American shores in a real and significant way - and had taken an awful toll on our closest friend and ally. Canadians, too, died that day in New York, a tangible consequence of the close personal, financial and other ties of which I spoke earlier. So like many countries throughout the world, our perceptions of security and defence changed on that day.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks in Washington and New York, Canada's response was unequivocal.
We deployed CF-18 fighter aircraft to protect our shared airspace. We welcomed tens of thousands of stranded American air passengers in our communities and our homes. And we committed nearly eight billion dollars - subsequently raised to well over nine billion dollars - to new national security measures, including: increasing our intelligence gathering capability; strengthening our special forces capacity; and enhancing security at our ports and along our borders.
Canada also recognized that, in this new type of conflict, we must be prepared to meet threats to our security as far from our country and our continent as possible.
This is why Canadian soldiers were deployed to Kandahar in 2001, alongside the 101 st Airborne, to confront the remnants of the Taliban regime and members of Al-Qaeda. This is why the Canadian navy has sent more than fifteen ships to the Gulf region to work as part of the U.S.-led operation, ENDURING FREEDOM. And this is why Canada has consistently been amongst the largest contributors to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
In fact, the Canadian Forces made up nearly forty percent of the entire NATO force in Kabul last year. And General Rick Hillier - who has served as Deputy Commanding General of Third Corps, U.S. Army in Fort Hood and who is now Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff - commanded the overall mission in the Afghan capital.
So, for a nation of modest size, we have recognized - and have been prepared to shoulder - our responsibility in the international campaign against terrorism. Not out of a sense of altruism - but to protect Canada, Canadians and our shared continent. I can assure you that our government has not forgotten that Canada has appeared on Al-Qaeda's list of targeted countries.
New Domestic/Continental Security Measures
Since the September 11 th attacks, Canada has also recognized that we need to do more to secure our part of North America. The terrorists did not strike the United States from Canada. And we are absolutely committed to ensuring that this does not happen in the future.
As Mrs. Bloodworth outlined for you this morning, Canada put in place a National Security Policy last year - the first of its kind in Canadian history. This new policy - roughly equivalent to the U.S. Homeland Security Strategy - sets out a broad range of new initiatives to ensure that we are able to counter potential threats to Canada and Canadians in a coherent, integrated and effective fashion.
For example, our National Security Policy calls for the creation of Marine Security Operations Centres on both of our coasts - centres that will work closely with the U.S. Coast Guard to monitor and defend our maritime approaches.
We also worked very closely with the United States to establish the Bi-national Planning Group in NORAD. Its purpose is to improve, among other things, the coordination of maritime surveillance and intelligence sharing, and to conduct contingency planning in the event of a terrorist attack or a major natural disaster in North America....
[More...]
Tuesday, April 5. 2005
Partnership to Explore Métis Veterans History and Contributions
OTTAWA, April 5 /CNW Telbec/ - Yesterday in an April 4, 2005 letter, the Honourable Albina Guarnieri, Minister of Veterans Affairs, committed to a partnership with the Métis Nation and to provide funding to explore the history and contributions of Métis Veterans during the wars and subsequent demobilization, including the review of the treatment Métis were subject to entering and returning from WWII and the Korean War.
In the letter, the Minister also committed to follow-up, as expeditiously as possible, with Métis Veterans and their spouses to ensure they are receiving the benefits and services for which they are entitled.
These announcements followed a March 21, 2005 Minister's meeting with President David Chartrand, Métis National Council Minister responsible for Métis Veterans and President of the Manitoba Métis Federation, and with Ed Borchert, President of the National Métis Veterans Association.
"Minister Guarnieri has assured us that the Government of Canada values and honours the accomplishments and contributions our Veterans have made," explained President Chartrand, adding that he was cautiously optimistic the past and ongoing challenges faced by Métis Veterans will be fully redressed in the immediate future.
"We are hopeful this will be Canada's important first step as a partner with the Métis Nation towards ensuring our Veterans will be properly respected for their service to our country and for their personal and family sacrifices," President Chartrand said.
"After the years of neglect and virtual abandonment of many of our service men and women there is some government action," President Chartrand went on to say. "The government has acknowledged that this issue must be dealt with fairly and quickly before there are no Veterans alive to see any forthcoming expression of Canada's gratitude."
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