Making sense of dad’s medal

‘Why did France give you a medal?” No matter how often we three kids put that question to our father, he always answered by offhandedly saying something like, “Because I could speak French,” or “I had a nice accent.” Other than rousing renditions of It’s a Long Way to Tipperary or Mademoiselle from Armentières (“Hinky Dinky Parley Voo”) and a couple of brief anecdotes, he never talked about the Great War. He died in 1955, at age 64, having never answered our question. Why had he received the Croix du Guerre? How had he earned one of France’s highest military honours?

In July, I was reading the local paper when an article caught my eye. It was reporting on celebrations to take place in Quebec City and France commemorating the Battle of Amiens on its centennial, Aug. 8. The offensive at Amiens was a surprise assault, and on that day the Canadians and their allies advanced 13 kilometres through the German defences, their most successful day in all combat on the Western Front. Gen. Erich Ludendorff described it as “the black day of the German army.” Until that battle, Allied commanders had expected that the war would last into 1919 or even 1920. Because of the overwhelming success of the Battle of Amiens, the German army was broken and demoralized. It marked the beginning of the Hundred Days Offensive that led to the end of the war in November.

Aug. 8, 1918 was also the day that my father had earned the Croix du Guerre. On the spur of the moment I decided I would travel to Quebec City to attend the commemorative service at the Citadelle. I contacted the organizer at Veterans Affairs, explaining my connection to the great battle. They arranged for VIP seats for one of my children and me to watch the program. I am not sure why I was so determined to go. Perhaps I thought I could find an answer to our question.

My father was born and grew up in Winnipeg in a large family dominated by his maternal grandfather, Andrew Broatch. A locomotive engineer, he had to leave Scotland as a result of his activities attempting to unionize railway workers. Perhaps he’s why my father loved all things Scottish: haggis, Robert Burns’ poetry and “first footing it” on New Year’s Eve. He was less enthusiastic about his strict Presbyterian upbringing. He loved canoeing in the wilderness and being with family at the cottage on Lake Winnipeg.

Royal Winnipeg Rifles unveil legacy project

During the Royal Winnipeg Rifles' 135th anniversary commemoration service at Vimy Ridge Memorial Park on Saturday, the Legacy Stone Project was unveiled. The project is a number of engraved stones placed around the cenotaph to remember the sacrifices of soldiers that served with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, an army reserve infantry unit based in Winnipeg. 

What’s open and closed on Remembrance Day weekend

On Remembrance Day, Canadians take time to honour the members of the Armed Forces who have served, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice for Canada.

The Free Press does not publish a print edition on Sunday, Nov. 11, or Monday, Nov. 12, but readers can visit winnipegfreepress.com for the latest news and information.

While no print edition will be published Monday, an electronic edition of the paper will be published. You can find out how to access the electronic edition by watching a video available for viewing at: wfp.to/eedition

Many businesses and government services change their hours over the Remembrance Day weekend. Here's a selection:

A warm Winnipeg embrace before the horror

It could be a photo of any group of students, playing in the snow at what is now Canadian Mennonite University in Tuxedo.

Taken in 1941, it shows 10 young men horsing around, mugging for the camera, not a care in the world.

That would soon change. Within a few years seven of them would be dead, killed while serving their country in the Second World War.

Unlike students at CMU today, they weren’t studying for peaceful careers as teachers, doctors, lawyers, musicians, aid workers, clergy or many other professions.

Awakening after two decades in Italy

It’s autumn 2018 and harvest time in Abruzzo, Italy. Thousands of sweet, mature green and purple grapes release their life’s juices into deep repositories to be transformed into fine local Trebbiano and Montepulciano wine.

It was in the Italian autumn of 1943 that hundreds of young and war-weary Canadian soldiers poured their life’s blood onto the soil of these Abruzzi hills to harvest a hard-won victory at Ortona, the city that today in 2018 commemorates the 75th anniversary of those who died in that battle.

I am fortunate, or maybe not, to be living among the pages of Canada’s history book, here on the Canadian battlegrounds of the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. I was helped along on my journey to a realization of what war is when I read Farley Mowat’s moving account of his experiences here in the Adriatic sector when he was just a a 22-year old platoon commander of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

Anybody who has not read And No Birds Sang is encouraged to read this non-fiction book and to put themselves in his place, duty-bound in his inescapable encounters with horrific events and unforgettable people that transformed him forever.

An honour and privilege

Leading up to Nov. 11, corps and squadrons from across Winnipeg and the surrounding area are involved in various training activities — from drill to military history to Canadian Forces appreciation and familiarization — to prepare them for Remembrance Day ceremonies. In most cases, these classes are led by fellow senior cadets who have taken this training in the past. In some cases, current and former members of the Canadian Armed Forces or local Royal Canadian Legion branches are directly involved in these classes as well. Members of the 1226 Fort Garry Horse Cadet Corps prepare for their roles in Sunday’s Remembrance Day ceremonies earlier this week at the McGregor Armoury.

— Capt. Ian Aastrom, regional cadet support unit training officer

Grandpa fought many battles, but won his war

Grandpa Henry never spoke about the war.

I asked him once: why did you go?

“Everyone was going,” he said, ending the conversation.

My grandfather was like many Indigenous veterans. He didn’t have to go to war, he chose to.

A final salute: Second World War veterans whose lives ended in 2018

Of the more than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders who fought in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945, only 50,300 were alive in 2017 at an average age of 92, statistics from Veterans Affairs show.

There are only 137 men left in the Manitoba Follow Up Study, which compiled cardiovascular information from 3,983 men who applied to join the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, and became the largest study ever of the same group of men.

The number was 259 just two years ago.

As the the Greatest Generation inexorably fades away, the Winnipeg Free Press is, for a third-consecutive Remembrance Day, marking passings of Winnipeggers and Manitobans who were veterans of the war.

Remembrance Day from a veteran’s perspective

In Canada, Remembrance Day means different things for different people. For some, it evokes memories of family members in the Canadian Forces. For others, Nov. 11 is a statutory holiday used for sleeping in and relaxing.

Dwight Smith, a Canadian Forces veteran, says he notices that people generally don’t pay much attention to Remembrance Day – but he still does.

“We’ve been at peace for so long, and our army is so small, it doesn’t affect as many people as it used to,” Smith says.

Despite this, he says that when he’s in uniform now, he’s respected more than in the past. Smith says he remembers being in a parade years ago and being yelled at by university students. They called him and his fellow soldiers baby-killers, and they shouted for the soldiers to lay down their guns.

New song a tribute to local valour

A Tec Voc student is paying tribute to three of Winnipeg’s most recognizable soldiers with a song.

Fifteen-year-old Heidi Wright wrote the The Boys of Valour Road after driving past the large mural depicting Cpl. Leo Clarke, Sgt. Maj. Frederick William Hall and Lt. Robert Shankland at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Valour Road.

“I went home and I started researching and finding out who they were and I thought to myself that this would be a good Remembrance Day song to write,” Wright said.

The men lived on the same block of what was then called Pine Street and served in the First World War. All three were awarded the Victoria Cross — the highest medal awarded by the Government of Canada — for acts of bravery during the war.

Ceremony honours Indigenous veterans

Clothes don't necessarily make the man or woman, but they reveal a lot at a military service.

So at Thursday's ceremony for Aboriginal Veterans Day, which is always held three days before Remembrance Day, there were all manner of uniforms as well as haberdashery: wedge hats, berets of all colours, naval caps, and even a headdress, or war bonnet.

Aboriginal Veterans Day is a special occasion to the man donning the war bonnet: Joe Meconse, 77, a veteran of Dene descent from the Churchill area.

"This is one of the most important days on my calendar," said Meconse, 77, who has participated in the ceremonies for the past 16 years. "I remember my friends and all the people who have passed on."

Play nods to First World War centenary

This year’s Remembrance Day will mark the centenary of the end of First World War, the kind of occasion not typically acknowledged on Winnipeg theatre stages.

But, it is observed with the Theatre Projects Manitoba production of Mary’s Wedding, a two-person play about an English immigrant (played by Winnipeg actor Sarah Flynn), a young Alberta farmer (Justin Fry) and their tragic wartime romance.

The drama is the work of Stephen Massicotte, a Canadian playwright from Ontario who attended the University of Calgary “and then I stayed out there.

“It’s kind of strange that I call myself a Calgarian,” he says.