Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
The Effect of British Commonwealth Troops in WWII
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Without them britian and the US would have lost many more men, and mabye even the war in the bigining.
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Books may be written (and have) on Canada’s impact on the war.
Please also note that we were an independant nation for all intents and purposes . . . .
Consider a few occurrances:
Diepe will continue to be one of the most controversial episodes of the war - a failure by some, a success by others - a Canadian sacrifice of epic proportions.
Holland was liberated to a huge extent by the Canadians (while we sheltered its Queen).
Juno Beach will long be a source of pride for us - On June 6, 1944, the 3rd Canadian Division landed on Juno Beach in the Battle of Normandy and sustained 50% casualties in their first hour of attack. By the end of D-Day, the Canadians had penetrated deeper into France than either the British or the American troops at their landing sites, overcoming stronger resistance than any of the other beachheads except Omaha Beach. In the first month of the Normandy campaign, Canadian, British and Polish troops were opposed by some of the strongest and best trained German troops in the theatre, including the 1 SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 12th SS Hitler Jugend Panzer Division and the Panzer Lehr Division. Several costly operations were mounted by the Canadians to fight a path to the pivotal city of Caen and then south towards Falaise. (wiki)
Belgium - One of the most important Canadian contributions was the Battle of the Scheldt. The British had liberated Antwerp, but that city’s port could not be used until the Germans were driven from the heavily fortified Scheldt estuary. In several weeks of heavy fighting in the fall of 1944, the Canadians succeeded in defeating the Germans in this region.The effects of one man - Sir William Stephenson - a Winnipeg native known as “Intrepid” is considered to be the greatest spy of all time and was instrumental in bringing the US into the war, acquiring and determining the secrets of Enigma, and pretty much co-ordinated the espionage efforts in the west, and liberated Danish atomic scientist Niels Bohr.
If i may borrow from the Canadian Defence webpage . . .
More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the Second World War. Of these more than 45,000 gave their lives, and another 55,000 were wounded.
the battle of Britain - Many Canadians served in the squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes which repulsed the Luftwaffe in the summer of 1940. No. 1 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, equipped with modern eight-gun fighters, became the first Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) unit to engage enemy planes in battle when it met a formation of German bombers over southern England on August 26, 1940. It shot down three of them and damaged four others with the loss of one pilot and one plane. Its next meeting with the enemy was not as fortunate as it was attacked out of the sun by Messerschmitts and lost three planes. By mid-October the squadron had accounted for 31 enemy aircraft destroyed and probably 43 more destroyed or damaged. It lost 16 Hurricanes; three pilots had been killed.Other Canadians flew with the Royal Air Force during that difficult period. No 242 (Canadian) Squadron RAF, which had been formed in 1939 from some of the many Canadians who flew directly with the Royal Air Force, was not reinforced with Veterans from the French campaign and joined in the battle. On August 30, nine of its planes met a hundred enemy aircraft over Essex. Attacking from above, the squadron claimed 12 victories and escaped unscathed.
Canadians also shared in repulsing the Luftwaffe’s last major daylight attack. On September 27, 303 Squadron RAF and 1 Squadron RCAF attacked the first wave of enemy bombers. Seven, possibly eight enemy planes were destroyed, and another seven damaged. The Royal Canadian Air Force thus received its baptism of fire.
For six long years the Canadian Navy was one of the principal contenders in what was to be known as the Battle of the Atlantic. Beginning the war with a mere 13 vessels and 3,000 men, the Royal Canadian Navy ended it with 373 fighting ships and over 90,000 men. In the crisis of 1940, when German armies were marching into France, four destroyers of the RCN, were sent to the English Channel where they provided aid in the evacuation of forces, landed military troops, and carried out demolitions.
One of Canada’s most distinctive contributions to the war effort was the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Under an agreement signed in December 1939, Canada provided training facilities for airmen from all parts of the Commonwealth. Far away from actual fighting, and with excellent flying conditions, Canada was ideally suited to such a program. She also possessed a great deal of the necessary expertise and facilities. A large number of Canadians trained during the First World War were still active airmen and the opening up of the vast northland had created others.This was a gigantic undertaking. An army of experts had to be assembled, airfields developed, and equipment, including airplanes, procured. Training began in the spring of 1940. By the end of 1943 more than 3,000 students were graduating each month. By the end of the war the BCATP had produced 131,553 aircrew including pilots, wireless operators, air gunners and navigators. Of these more than 55 per cent were Canadians
This is just the beginning - but i’m tired now. For those interested in the less condensed version - check out “Canada Remembers”:
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/Canada2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada_during_the_Second_World_War
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Nice history leason. :-)
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I agree, Commonwealth troops saved the Allies & the Empire. It was due compensation for many of these countries to receive autonomy after WW2 (albeit not exactly that easy).
The Japanese would have been a much larger threat if Australia & India didn’t resist them, as well as other indigenous peoples of SE Asia under the Union Jack.
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Yay Canada :-D
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This was an awesome subject.
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Without the commonwealth, the Axis won the war!
The canadians and the others makes a lot of sacrifice to save the brits!
Dieppe still the worst mistake of the allies.
AL
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Dieppe was a taste of what an emergency invasion of the continent might cost if the Soviets lost the war and the allies had to jump across the channel in 1942. The allies had plans for invasions in 42 and 43 in case the need may arise, but in 42 the Germans had more units defending and they were not training divisions. Latter they plucked all the goodies from france to shore up the eastern front, but in 42 the Germans were in good shape.
Besides Churchill became an expert in sea invasions after 1915 by experience.
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Allies would have lost without Churchill, but them CW-troops was pretty useless.
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I don’t know the exact figures but I do know a sizeable portion of the British Army was made up of elements from all over the empire.
I do know that New Zealand contributed more soldiers per capita than any other nation in the western allies.
John Keegan, the very well regarded military historian discribed the New Zealand Soldier as the best light infantry of the 20th century.
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why do you think there are so many movies of brits in jap POW camps :P
troops without supply = almost useless.
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Rommel praised the fighting ability Australian troops in North Africa, he considered 9th Australian the best division in Africa.
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