2025 Remembrance Day Blog

It took a while to gather some photos from the photographers on this occasion, so this blog is a little late (about 5 weeks actually, as it is closer to Christmas than to Remembrance Day).

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.

For the record, that’s my brother Craig and his wife Maureen on the left of the photo beside the military grave. Next is Crystal, who is widow to another brother, Russ, who is no longer with us. Then there is me, the writer of the blog, with another brother Bruce, and his wife Noella. My son Scott is included in the third photo.

It was a very nice day in November for this part of the world (central Alberta, Canada). After the cemetery, we went to a nearby hotel with a restaurant and lounge. It also has an off-track betting area, which Craig and I sometimes frequent on our horse-racing trips (some reports of these are also on this blog, for those who are interested).

As the years have gone by, the number of participants has dwindled and/or altered, due to moving residences, illness, death and the other vicissitudes of life. So it goes.

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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.

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

What follows is a review of the history of the 12th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, primarily relating to the time that the company was in the Italian and Northwestern European theatres during World War II. Though the book focuses on the experiences of a particular company of Canadian military engineers, it also discusses some of the wider issues of the second world war and how it affected the people who lived through the era, civilian and military. Among those are my father (a sapper or military engineer) and mother (a war worker in wartime Britain and ultimately a war bride).

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