2024 Remembrance Day Blog
Some readers might not know what Remembrance Day is all about, so here is a quick primer.
Basically it is a day that remembers the Armistice of November 11, 1918, at 11:00 a.m.. It is observed in most English speaking countries, probably others as well. The U.S. has a variation called Veteran’s Day. The idea is to spend some time honouring those served in that war and in following wars, and especially those who were killed or wounded. It has the dual and somewhat conflicting aims of remembering the ugliness of war and appreciating the duty and sacrifice of those who fought in those wars.
Anyway, my dad served in WW2 in the Canadian army (engineers), mostly in Italy, though his unit also served in northwestern Europe in the latter part of the war. After his death (in 1991, so not war related) my family has made it a sort of informal tradition to visit the grave on Remembrance Day, in particular to be there at 11:00 a.m., as is the custom of Remembrance Day in general. That is also a chance to catch up on family events, go to lunch and so forth.
A few of us are in the photo above. As the years have gone by, the number of participants has dwindled, due to moving residences, illness, death and the other vicissitudes of life. So it goes.
An interesting aspect of this year’s event was a semi-formal ceremony around the Canadian flagpole. I don’t know the provenience of the group, but it was a fairly large gathering. They had a speech, a prayer and a recording of the Last Post (a traditional bugle number done during military funerals). That was nice; we observed from a respectful distance.
While at the cemetery, we happened upon a marker for a certain Daniel J O’Hara, who had also been a sapper (a member of a unit of military engineers) with the RCE. The name rang a bell. I thought that he may have served in 12 Field Company Royal Canadian Engineers, which is the same unit that my dad was in for much of the war. That seems to be the case, as is indicated by the record below, taken from the orders of that company, from December of 1941. The army record has the name D.J. O’Hara, but it seems unlikely that there would be two people with such similar names in the RCE.
I also show a record of when my dad was first posted to the unit, in October of 1943, just before 12 Fld Coy was sent to the Italian campaign. It could be that O’Hara was no longer with the unit by the time Olausen was posted there, but all-in-all it seems fairly likely that they were in the unit at the same time. So, I guess this blog brings two old comrades back together, or at least I would like to think so.
After spending some time in the cemetery, my son and I then stopped at the museum of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, a local infantry unit that served in both of the world wars (though called the 49th in WW1). That unit served in 1st Canadian Corps, as did 12 Fld Coy RCE. On some occasions, the Eddies (as they were called) even helped 12 Fld Coy with bridge work and force protection (standing guard for the sappers as they built a bridge, for example). The museum held many artifacts from these periods, as well as information plaques and so forth.
But perhaps the best information comes from random conversations with people. We happened to talk with one fellow, who was in the band that played The Last Post, earlier that morning. Before retiring, he was a dentist and had worked extensively for the army in that role.
He was just packing up his instruments, when we chatted. After I mentioned that my dad had been a sapper, which included sweeping for mines and disabling them, he related a sad anecdote. He knew a fellow who had attained a high rank, that had lost both legs to an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan. It took a long time for him to get over it physically (eventually being able to get around with a wheelchair). But the psychological damage was still there, including a bad case of alcohol addiction. I think that was very common among WWII veterans, and apparently still is.
My final observations, perhaps somewhat happier, relate to the Chinese section of the cemetery. As the photo shows, it was very colourful with a large number of flowers festooning the grave markers.
According to various websites, the white and yellow flowers are for mourning, while the red flowers are for celebrating the long life of someone who lived north of 80 years old. The dominant colour seemed to be red, so I guess that’s kind of hopeful.
And here’s a note about my book, detailing the history of 12 Field Company and the role of engineers in general during WW11. It is available as an ebook, soft cover print book or hard cover print book. In my completely unbiased :) opinion, it would make a good Christmas present for anyone with an interest in this time and especially with an interest in the role of military engineers.
The Sappers' War: 12th Field Company Royal Canadian Engineers, Oct 1943 to Sept 1945
Thus,
this is meant to be an informal and unofficial history of the
company, written by an interested party in an effort to understand
what these men went through during this period, and how that
experience affected them and other people who lived through the war.
The military aspects of the company's history are there (e.g.
fighting, building bridges, detecting mines, maintaining routes), as
are the cultural factors that influenced them and their times (e.g.
the movies that they watched, the drinking they did, the many
diseases they faced, their interactions with the Italian, British and
other civilians that they lived among, their worries for the future).
Some focus on life on the British home front is also given, via the
experiences of my mother and her family.
Since many people
had family and relations that lived during this time, it is my hope
that the account will be of general interest to them, and to any that
have a particular interest in this critical interval in history.
Also, though the text relates specifically to Canadian sappers, I
believe that many of the experiences will be common to the soldiers
and loved ones of other nations who lived through the war, especially
Americans and those from Britain and the British Commonwealth.
The
primary sources of this document are the 12th Field Company War
Diaries and related orders, with some material from The History
of the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers, Volume 2 as well as
various official histories by the Department of National Defence.
Various other published sources are used as well, especially when
discussing the wider issues of the war or the army experience (e.g.
Churchill’s history of the war) , or conversely when relating very
specific episodes of the war (e.g. Popski’s Private Army in late
1944). Personal accounts of my father’s or mother’s stories also
augment the narrative. I have tried to fit those in during
appropriate time periods, though some stories are more general and
have therefore don’t necessarily relate to the time period being
discussed. Nonetheless, they do help capture the essence of “being
there” during the war years.
The War Diary is a day by
day account of the primary activities of a given unit, as recorded by
personnel in the headquarters staff of that unit, and signed off by
the commander of the unit. As such, it is an official record, though
the writers often brought a bit of their own character into the
document. Naturally, as a relatively brief document it can’t hope
to capture the complexity of the individual stories of 280 or so men,
so the family lore generally has no corresponding entry in the War
Diary, though there are sometimes tantalizing hints and
near-verifications of these personal accounts.
There are a
number of other sources for the book, from official histories to
popular history books. I include quotations and references from these
works (an eclectic mix), as I believe that they also shed light on
different aspects of this period of time, and besides that, are just
interesting accounts, in and of themselves.
U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09HSXN6Q2
