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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-05-07, Page 2BLUE RIBBON AWARD WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1980 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published, each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers. Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langloii Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association, Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Year. Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each. Our clean streets . A man representing a tour- ist magazine was in at the Brussels Post last week and he had a compliment for the village. He was looking for some possible historical site in Brussels to advertise as a tourisf attraction in the mag- azine. While in at the Post, he said he had travelled all over the province of Ontario and Brussels hadi the clean- est streets he had seen. • That compliment is some - thing peciple can think about the next time they go to drop something on the street in- stead of a garbage container . where it belongs. _LET'S GET 'A HEAD START Sugar and spice Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston A forgotten part of the war By Bill Smiley Man, that's going to be some party, if it comes off. I'm referring to a massive reunion of airmen slated for Toronto next September. That's one I plan to take in, even 'if I have to lock my wife in the bathroom to get away. The occasion will mark the 40th anniver- sary of the Battle of Britain. Ninety-nine per cent of us were not in that particular affair, but it's a great excuse for a party. Everybody "who wore blue" is invited. That means all air and ground crews of Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A., who spent his war years in the air force blue of the allies, according to an official news release. Americans? Of course. Thousands of U.S. youths headed north and joined the RCAF before their own country was in the war.. And some of them stayed in air force blue until the end, though they were given the opportunity to switch to the USAF when the Yanks got into it. But the list above would scratch only the surface. The Royal Air Force contained the greatest potpourri of nations since the Foreign Legion was established. I wonder if all the others who fought on our side are invited. Poles, Niorwegians, Belgians, Free French, Dutch, Czechs, West Indians, South Africans, Rhodesians. Maybe my old friend Shigh Thandi will be there. He's probably a general in the Indian Air Force by now. Or dead. Or my old sidekick Mohammed Ral. Who is likely a general in the Pakistani Air Force. Or dead. Will Nils Jorgenson make it from Oslo? He was a mate in prison camp, and feared he would be courtmartialled when the war ended. It's a long story, but he was shot down while on leave, quite an accomplish- ment. Will Don McGibbon make it all the way from Salisbury, Rhodesia, or has he been purged? We were on the same Typhoon wing, and were shot down within days of each other. These are the questions that a lot of ex-Air Force chaps must be asking themselves. And the answers will probably be disappointing. I doubt if I'd fly to New Zealand for a reunion. Too much money. What would make the reunion a slam- dammet would be every nation with W.W. 2-airmen sending them all free of cost to Toronto, on government aircraft. , That would swell the ranks. But for too many, there will be too many obstacles; lack of money, sick or nagging wives, troubles with grandchildren, failing health. FOr those poor devils, I have some advice. Beg, borrow or steal `the money. If your wife is sick; get a babysitter, she'll probably last till yoU get home. If she's a nag, tell her to stuff a sock in it, for once in your life. Forget your rotten grandchildren for a week; they appreciate nothing you're doing anyway. If your health isn't good, go to the reunion. 'You'll either die there, and your troubles arc over, or you'll be so sick when you get home that your present failing health will seem petty stuff. Reunions are great for the ego. You go to one and see all these old, fat, baldheaded guys, and you marvel at how you kept your youth; strength and good looks, even though they are thinking the same when they see you. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No man who 1 ooks in the mirror while he's shaving has jowls or bleary eyes or a shiny pate. What he sees is a steely gaze, a firm jaw, and he doesn't let his eyes wander high .er than his eyebrows. I've been ,,,to a few reunions over the years, and come home feeling and looking like a skeleton, but wondrously rejuvena- ted. A good smashcroo with a bunch of other guys allowed off the leash for a weekend, a mutual exchange of whoppers, a little sentimentality about old So-and-So who b ought it over the Channel; this kind of stuff puts your wife and kids and your dull civilian life into proper perspective. For a week or so you're a real fire-eater, issuing orders, refusing to do things you hate doing, and generally smartening every- body up to the fact that you were once young and brave and carefree, before you sink back into the cold bathwater of your regular life. Fighter pilots' reunions were the best and the worst. They were fairly small, quite exclusive, and the entertainment was great. But a reunion that begins with Bloody Mary s for breakfast can change a man, literally. Last time I came home from one of them, my wife met me at the bus. She walked right by me. Didn't know me. Thought I was some, old chap who should be in a wheel chair. She was right, as usual. Well, this shindig in September will probably be the last chance sawn for many. As long as they don't invite the wives, it'll be OK. When they started doing that, I stopped going to reunions. There are four thousand hotel rooms put on hold for the event. If one twentieth of the air force vets turn up, it will be the greatest geriatric convention ever' held, in the world. It is the forgotten part of the war, even in the nation that played such a large part in it. It was this week 35 years ago, that the Allied troops finally pushed their way across Holland to liberate .the last of the Dutch cities conquered five years earlieeby German forces when it appeared' that Hitler might achieve his goal of conquering the world. The Dutch this week are remembering those years. In the spirit which has made the little country such a friendly nation they're bringing some of the liberating soldiers back to say thank you all over again. But who else remembers this ,corner of the war? Aside from the Canadian soldiers who were there and their families I dare say even most Canadians tend to forget about the campaign to drive the Nazis out. of Belgium and Holland. It wouldn't be that way if the British or the Americans had spearheaded the drive across the low countries. It is a testimony to the power of the American and British cultural influence on the world that on 'e can almost forget there was a war in Holland. A quick impression of the war from the movies, the books and the television of these countries would make you Lhink of the war in France, the war in Italy, the war in Germany and perhaps in Poland but not Holland and Belgium. Great liberation victory scenes such as the entry of the Americans into Paris or Rome are imprinted in our minds. through media exposure but not the equally ecstatic welcome given the Canadians in Antwerp or Amsterdam. Aside from the Dairy of Anne Frank, very little attention is paid to the hardships of the people of Holland living through the war. And yet the occupation was possibly harder on the Dutch than on any of the other captive nations. It was a Dutch city, Rotterdam) that Hitler chose to make an example of, to show how devastating his air force could 'be when it chose to bomb a city. The surprise attack destroyed the heart of the city and the will of the Dutch army to stand up to the German power. The able-bodied men of Holland were taken off to work in German factories. The Jewish population either were rounded up or went into hiding like the Franks. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the Jews of Holland were killed during the war'. Many of the Dutch were stubborn underground fighters, doing what they could to disrupt the German war plans. The Dutch people often paid a stiff price for the resistence. Innocent people were rounded up and shot in reprisal for acts of sabotage. The Dutch people's hard won war against the sea was lost in places when the Germaris opened the dikes and flooded the land with salt mater aS'they tried to proteet their positions againtt attack. The salt water would damage the land for years to' come. In the last years of the war things became progressively worse for the Dutch as vfood .and fuel beearriesearee. , . It wasn't easy for'the Canadians eithef 'as they tried to drive the Germans out. After they stormed' the beaches of Normandy 'as part of the D-Day landing (their part in that battle too is usually overlooked by the Americans and. British) they were given the job of heading north, capturing the channel ports 'and opening supply lines to the Americans and British who were 'pushing inland. The job had its rewards as when the Canadians took Dieppe, the scene of their bloody humilia- tion two years earlier. But as they fought across low lands of Belgium arid Holland they faced an enemy determined not to yield the channel ports.They fought under less than ideal conditions across canals and flooded fields. For 'the people of those countries the liberation brought more heartache. The Germans fought stubbornly and the battles often reduced towns to rubble. Even once the Allied troops took a town the damage • often didn't stop as the 'Germans counter- attacked and the damage mounted. After the Canadians took Antwerp the Germans were, determined to destroy the effective- ness of the port and launched a -heavy rocket attack that killed more people than - the earlier years of the war. .But the end eventually came for both the vanquished and the liberators. There were celebrations. There was love where there had been hate. The amazing thing about the Second , World War is how well the world has recovered. There have remained problems mostly because of. the division of Europe into Communist versus Democratic blocks but for the most part old hatreds have died remakably well. Former enemies are now strong allies: There may still be deep feelings within people but they have remained But the friendships h ps i lhciadveen4rem ained, The Canadians who fought their way across the low countries and the DUtch and Belgians Who met them in' celebrat,ion have fen-talli- ed doge friends. They have more common than just the war. They are small Countries who live beside giants, little guys who know that their proudest achieve= meats, their saddest tragedies will often go unseen by the rest of the world. Some party! • • 1•••••••...