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foumd in a cemetery

C

Chas. Ont.

Member
Had an occuasion to be in a small cemetery. Over in one corner I saw a grave marker with an American flag ( the type I have seen in US cemeteries to indicate the grave of a verteran). Curious, I did some research and found that 40,000 Americans joined the Canadian forces between 1939 and 1941. Didn't know that. I that this time to indicate apprieciation for these people and their effort.
Lest we forget
Chas.
 
Glad to Help Out , Neighbor !...Back then . No one knew what was coming around the corner?/ ... In those Years a guy could fly a American built War plane into Canada and leave it and collect a nice pay check,.. and you guys promptly sent it too England for service ... Also then Chenault was in CHINA unwittingly building the FLYING TIGERS legend from many American Volunteers ...
 
I've read that a number of Americans illegally went to Canada to join up though 40,000 sounds high. It was against U.S. law to go to Canada or Britain to fight Hitler because the U.S. was neutral until Pearl Harbor.
 
Americans who were rejected for US military service for medical reasons often were able to join Canada's military.

Their was a story about it on the History channel several years back.

Yoy guys up north had lower standards I guess.
 
Canadian military medical requirements were just as high as the American. In fact more rigorous in some respects.
Canada,Great Britain and western European refuges alone. Held back Hitler for two years while the US dithered until 1941.
Some Americans crossed the border into Canada to volunteer out of the goodness of their hearts.
 
While the US may not have had boots on the ground we were in the war. Who do you think was keeping your guys supplied over there?
 
Churchill said: "Send us the tools and we will do the job". Wasn't long and we had to go over there and do the job too.
 

One of those situations that depends on who you ask.


Canada for a small nation was doing the primary suppling along with Australia and ALL of the British colonies.For the early years of the war 39-41.
Ever see the number of tons of men,supplies and equipment shipped from Canada? By the Canadian merchant fleet without escorts early in the war?
Aircraft and components too were built in Canada and ferried over. Spits, hurricanes and Lancasters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster
The Lancaster was the heavy long range bomber in the western allied effort.
America waited until 1941-1944 to prep for the D-day operations and later. Then yes the US did carry the bulk of the European war from there on in.
There would not have been a D-Day if Britain and the colonies. Had not by themselves held back the German armed forces from crossing from France into Britain . During the 1940 battle of Britain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain

Canada was heavy into Italy and Holland which seems to gather little press compared to other war fronts.
A lot of Americans after watching American movies. Figure the entire WWII was fought and won by only the US. While everybody else sat back and watched.
The US did have the bulk of the later Pacific war but Canada and the other colonies carried the European war from start to finish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada_during_the_Second_World_War

http://www.wwiivehicles.com/canada/default.asp

http://www.wwii.ca/content-17/world-war-ii/canadian-war-industry/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II
 
Canadians served in the US military too. Got to know one of them while in tech school at Chanute AFB Illinois. He was a nice guy too, but those Canadian cigarettes he smoked were awful tasting things.
Joe
 
While it is true that Canada joined Britain and France in declaring war on Germany in September of 1939 it is also true that Canadian troops barely fired a shot in the european theatre until 1943. Canadian troops were mostly stationed in Great Britain and since no land invasion ever took place there was not much action for the infantry until Sicily. The threat and strength of the British Navy and Airforce are what kept Hitler from invading the British mainland in 1940/41 and then he spread his troops to thin in the invasion of Russia. As far as pure number and percentage of troops there were far and away more American combat troops overseas by late 1942 than Canada could have or ever did muster. At least half of the Canadian troops never left Canada. If, in 1940, had Hitlers only deterrent to invasion and occupation of Great Britain and her colonies been British and Canadian ground forces your user name might be Volkswagonandfendt instead of Buickanddeere.
 
I agree that WWII would have eventually went bad for Britain without US assistance.
Any invasion of German held territory would have been very difficult if Britain and her allies. Had not Britain and the colonies prevented Hitler from invading England. Long before the US was "into" the war.
As for Canada speaking German? Would not have happened across the span of the Atlantic.
In the late 1800's there was a hotly contested decision made about the US official language.The German language was nearly chosen instead of english. Very heavy German heritage through the US North Central and North East.
A whack of Germans in south central and south western Ontario too.
 
Sounds like a bunch of Troops sitting in a bar, trying to out talk the other branches of military. I'm sure it's not gonna break out into a fist fight, and a bunch go to the Brig tonight, but that's about the only difference. Even in the bar, the branches from other countries bickered back and forth. The good thing??? Once on the ground, they ALL fought together. Now as you all know, none of these wars would have been won and kept us free if it had not been for the U.S.Army Air Corps, and the U.S. Air Force in later years!!!
Yeah, I'm running for a plane now :) Ya'll enjoy...
 
It pains me to tell you this but according to Walter Thompson, Churchill's bodyguard, Churchill was secretly 'delighted' when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour because he knew then it would bring the U.S.A. into the war. He even said to him when he heard about Pearl Harbour "Thompson, we can't lose now!"
Hitler then declared war on The U.S.A. When he heard about the Japanese attack.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_3532000/3532401.stm
 
Yes, you are correct. I forget who called the other, but Churchill was overjoyed with the news of the Pearl Harbor bombing and Roosevelt kept saying: "Oh, my dear Winnie, this is terrible." And Churchill kept saying over and over: "No, No, Mr President. Don't you see? We're in this together now. We cannot lose." Churchill said he went to bed shortly after the call and "slept the sleep of a new born babe".
 
There were strong german connections in Wisconsin right up to WWII. Right after the war broke out, the people of Berlin, Wisconsin decided to change the name of their town until they found out there was some cost involved. They then decided to pronounce the name "Burrlnn" instead. My US history teacher was a Polish lady who hated the germans. She used to say: "Make no mistake about it, IT'S BERLIN!". My dad threw out all of our christmas decorations that said "Made in Japan" on them. That was Dec of '41. Right before christmas. Tree was pretty bare that year.
 
You really need to do some study of WWII....
By late 1941 the North African campaign was well under way with Rommel mostly in retreat. You might also want to spend some time reading about the 'Dieppe Raid' where a lot of Canadians died... just in case you though we were all sitting around doing nothing. It could just as easily have been Americans that died in that stunt.
The simple fact remains, like it or not... that there were more Russians killed in that war than all other allies combined. The eastern front was a pure war of attrition on both sides... it's just that the russians had more bodies to give... and hitler eventually weakened the western front sufficiently to allow a successfull attack.

It's also notable that a large portion of the steel that supplied the commonwealth war effort came from DOSCO here in Sydney along with a large chunk of coal from it's pits in the area.
Lend Lease gave Britain ships and aircraft early in the war... but a big part of the supply came from within.
I beleive 'cheap and nasty' was Churchill's remark at some of the ships they got... once he saw what they were...

Rod
 
There must have been troops going both ways to these countries. We had quite a few come from Canada and inlist in US Arrmy during WW2. Most of them you never heard about until after the war. Good bunch of men going either way.
 
man for man the Canadian army is one of the best in the world so I question the standards thing. Remember that the Canadians were fighting with the Brits and doing their dirty work since 39 and could probably use every man they could get.
 
ever heard of Dieppe? It was raided in 42 by predominantly Canadian soldiers, many were killed and captured, that was some of the "dirty work" that England used Canadians for.
 
You really need to follow your own advice and do some study, in addition, you might start reading what is written before answering. Rommel was not in retreat in North Africa until late 42. None of that applies to the original claim or insinuation that British and Canadian ground forces kept the Germans off British soil while the Americans twiddled their thumbs. I have the utmost respect for all of them and have always believed that without Churchills leadership all of Europe would have fallen before the US came into the war. The number of Russians that died is irrelevant, bodies were Russias main resource, maybe they should not have attempted a deal with Devil.
 
I don't expect Canadians would look upon it like that, doing their Empire duty may be closer to the mark, Australia was the same in WW1 and WW2.
 
Even though claimed otherwise the US was far from neutral in 1939-41. The American Navy was in a hot shooting war with Nazi U boats in the north Atlantic long before Pear Harbor. Around here some place I have a Savage built 303 SMLE that says "Property Of the US Government", of course it never was. They went straight from the Savage plant to the UK. Also during those years the airplane Americans called the DC3/C47, was known to the rest of the world as the Dakota. Due to the some neutrality treaty the airplains were flown into Pembina North Dakota, along with P40 fighters they were hitched to mules or horse teams and towed across the border into Canada. Horse drawn goods and equipment were exempted by the treaty. That is why the C47 is also the Dakota. Lend Lease it was called, I guess FDR expected this stuff back when they were done using it. Many Canadians also joined the US military and were in the Vietnam war.
 
(quoted from post at 15:53:13 11/14/10)...Due to the some neutrality treaty the airplains were flown into Pembina North Dakota, along with P40 fighters they were hitched to mules or horse teams and towed across the border into Canada. Horse drawn goods and equipment were exempted by the treaty....
Click to expand...

Yes - this was a terrific loophole and the US and Canada made good use of it. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was going full tilt up here in Canada but we needed training aircraft. Enter the North American Harvard / AT-6, supplied by the US in the same fashion. They were flown to the border, landed and hauled across then took to the skies again.

Billy Bishop also was also actively but covertly recruiting American pilots as instructors due to demand.

Let's just all thank God we got the job done. The effort and sacrifice by all involved, no matter the timelines or nationality will forever be one of the defining accomplishments of our age.
 
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