Canada had nothing in the way of an Army Force prior to World War I or World War II. Because we did not have any armed forces the Canadian Governments of the time and our military minds of the time scrambled to find equipment and men.
WORLD WAR I
A HALIFAX BOMBER CREW OF WORLD WAR II
I urge all of you to read the following and then watch the video produced by the Yorkshire Air Museum & Allied Air Forces Memorial at former RAF base Elvington. The video is titled The Last Flight of Halifax L 9561 and can be found on You Tube.
Canada sent a total of 418,606 men overseas and in comparison hospitalizations numbered 539,690. Battle casualties numbered 144,606 with hospitalizations for various diseases numbering 395,084 and this number included more than one hospitalization for a soldier. This was a period prior to there being any effective antibiotics. Minor illnesses of today were rampant in World War I and are mostly eliminated today. A soldier could be way from his unit for weeks or months in WWI.
THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN
While the war in Europe was being fought, the American President Franklin Roosevelt was well aware of the training taking place in Canada and it led him to remark that Canada "was the aerodrome of democracy".
During the war years of 1939-45 Canada for the most part was many thousands of miles from the European battlegrounds.
Hello,
I have recently come across your website, and it is fantastic! Thanks to everyone for your hard work. My Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Corporal William Hart (1878-1918) was killed in World War I, and I have some information and images if you are interested.
William was a very blue collar, working class guy. He and his family immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1908, and settled in Egmondville. He worked as a labourer in a brickyard.
I hope you are all well.
As you probably remember, the Dutch people commemorate the fallen of the Second World War on Monday 4 May during National Remembrance Day (Dodenherdenking).
The village of Hoogland that you visited last year, was liberated 75 years ago by the Canadian forces in April 1945.
Today, we unveiled a plaquard mentioning Pte. James Jamieson and four other Canadian soldiers who died in Hoogland, in the eve of the war.
Connecting with youth to help them appreciate local sacrifices made during the First and Second World Wars as well as other struggles, is a focal point of the Huron Remembers Committee.
The opinions in the article are those of the author only and are about how a Dominion of the British Empire became a nation during the War Years of World War I.
