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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times-Advocate, 2002-11-06, Page 14Wednesday, November 6, 2002 15Exeter Times–Advocate MANUFACTURING GROUP DINNER Wednesday, November 13th Knights of Columbus Hall, Goderich Your opportunity to see the new Manufacturers’ website and database demonstrated, and see how your business can be included! 5:00 - 6:30 Social time and cash bar 6:30 - 7:30 Roast beef dinner 7:30 - 8:00 Introductions 8:00... Website and database demo...and networking Bring your spouse! They’ll want to see the website demonstration too. Bring along your brochures and there will be a table available for display purposes. Make this a good networking evening! Dinner: $15 per person Pre-register by November 8th through Nina (524-2188) nina_reynolds@fcmail.avonmaitland.on.ca HONOUR OUR VETERANS Remembrance Day Activities This year Remembrance Day falls on Monday 11th November. The Remembrance Day Ceremonies will take place on Sunday November 10th. The parade will form at 10:25 a.m. sharp and march off promptly at 10:30 a.m. for the laying of wreaths at the cenotaph. The Remembrance Service this year will be held at the Trivitt Memorial Church. At the conclusion of the service the parade will reform and return to the Legion Hall. Refreshments will be served to conclude the day’s events. The Remembrance Day Banquet will be held in the Legion Hall on Monday the 11th. Dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m. Beverages will be available from 6:30 p.m. You will recall that last year the banquet was prepared and served by the Ladies Auxiliary. It was done in fine style and measured up to the best of meals available in any five star hotel. Tickets are $8.00 each. Our guest speaker is Mr. Jack Cann. We could use a little help during the day with the attendance of Legion members at the local schools to help them celebrate Remembrance Day. If you can spare an hour or so please contact Comrades Dave Frayne or Harvey Hillman. The schedule of attendance is as follows: South Huron High School Nov. 11 9:00 a.m. Exeter Public School Nov. 9 9:30 a.m. Precious Blood Nov. 11 9:30 a.m. Usborne Central Nov. 11 10:20 a.m. Stephen Central Nov. 11 1:15 p.m. Exeter Villa Nov. 11 3:00 p.m. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Nov. 13 9:30 a.m. Hensall Legion Activities Monday Oct. 28th Poppy Campaign begins between 6:30-9 p.m. with a door to door canvass in Hensall. The support of the public for the annual poppy appeal will be greatly appreciated.. Sunday, November 10th Remembrance Service. All veterans, mem- bers, Hensall and area residents are cordially invited to attend our service at the Hensall United Church at 10 a.m. and parade to the church. After the church service, the parade will go to the cenotaph for the laying of wreaths and the last post. Following the ceremony, refreshments will be served by the Legion. We trust that mem- bers of the community and area will make a special effort to attend these services. Monday, November 11th Remembrance Day. The annual banquet will be held at the Hensall Community Centre, social hour 6 p.m., dinner 7 p.m. Guest speaker will be Doug Andrews - WWII navy veteran and past zone commander. Everyone is welcome. Tickets are available from Legion members, the branch or call 262-2722 Bravery amidst the carnage of war By Peter Kikkert SPECIAL TO THE TIMES-ADVOCATE “It was a cold spring day in 1942: Some 200 English navy ships were sailing off the coast of France, near Dieppe. The soldiers in the land- ing crafts could see the German guns and entrench- ments all over the high cliffs overlooking the beaches. Some soldiers were praying, while others were shiver- ing in fear. The small landing crafts were now heading towards the beaches and the men in the crafts were ordered to stay low - then the world hit them. The ramp went down and the first soldiers ran out, but extremely heavy machine gun and artillery fire drove them back. The young soldiers could not even get off the landing craft before half of them were dead. A few men managed to stagger up to the beach and were now making a run for the seawall but were stopped by the shore obstacles and their bodies lay riddled with bullets along the beach. The men that had landed there on the beach were slaughtered. Their bodies lay all along the shore. It was a horrible sight. For many Canadians, this was their first time in battle, and they had to take pillboxes and concrete bunkers which were harbouring German guns! These young brave men did all they could to take the beach but of all who landed there, almost 6,000 men, only one small unit managed to get to the town. Five thousand of these men were Canadians, and out of all the men, only 2,000 men got back to England. Why did these men join up to do this! Why did they fight so valiantly, and why did they go across seas to fight in a war which did not affect them? Some joined because they thought it might be fun or it would be an adventure. Others fought because they had to, they weren’t making enough money to support their families, so they joined the army. Others joined because they had no choice, they were drafted into the army and others joined because it was the right thing to do. Among them was Rev. John Foote, a Chaplain in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. Foote was at Dieppe and he fought at Blue Beach. Foote alone saved 30 lives there. In the midst of all that fighting, while he himself was under heavy fire, he ran and lifted a wounded man on his back. He trudged to a rescue boat and put the man in there and then went back to the beach to pick up another man and brought him to the rescue boat - he did this 30 times. For a whole hour, all the time being shot at by snipers, he was yelling encouragement to his fellow soldiers. Then, when retreat was inevitable, he yelled to the men, “Every man carry a man.” Finally when only one boat remained, two men grabbed Foote and pulled him into the boat. Now the boat was turning around. But all of a sudden Foote jumped out and in a brave and loud voice he yelled, “It seems to me that the men ashore would need me far more in captivity than any of those going home!” And so, Foote was captured and he stayed in captivity until May 1945 when his prison camp was liberated by the Allies. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his brave and honourable deed. On the night of June 12, 1944, a Lancaster bomber was flying over France on its way to bomb a railway station. N.C.O. Mynarski was a brave and cheerful man and he and his crew of six were going on a routine bombing mission. Everything was going fine, they had just cleared the channel and were now flying over France. But then, something horrible happened! Several enemy spotlights had locked on to them and anti-aircraft fire started sweeping the skies before them, but the experienced crew managed to maneuver around the spotlights and the anti-aircraft fire. They had managed to avoid their first scrape with death. Suddenly over the intercom came a report from the rear gunner - “Bogie, Bogie, 6 o’clock.” But, it was too late, the German aircraft had punctured the Lancaster’s engines. A large fire broke out between the rear gunner and the middle gunner, Andy Mynarski. The ship was lost and the ‘bail out’ sign was given. The crew quickly bailed out but Andy saw the rear gunner was stuck. The rear gunner was supposed to bail out the back of the plane but he couldn’t get out of his turret. In other words, he was trapped in something like a bubble and when Andy saw this, he got down on his hands and knees and started to crawl slowly towards the place where the rear gunner was stuck. He was going through a sheet of flames, Andy was badly burnt, but he just kept trying to get the man out and even when the gunner tried to tell him to go Andy did not listen. But finally Andy realized it was useless and went back to bail out. Before he jumped, he stood at full attention and saluted his comrade and then jumped. He made it to the ground but was too badly burnt to live and he died two days later. Miraculously, the rear gunner sur- vived. For his bravery, and his total disregard for his own safety, Mynarski was awarded the Victoria Cross. Fourteen other men were awarded the Victoria Cross. These were amazingly brave men! In fact, every man during that war was amazingly brave. After all that mess, all that death and killing, only one question remains - “Do you deserve what these men did for you!” Peter Kikkert is a Grade 11 student at South Huron District High School Dinicol wins nomination STRATFORD – Despite terrible weather Nov. 1, the Labour Centre in Stratford was packed with 50 members, supporters and guests to hear Lorne Nystrom speak about a recent Windsor by-election won by Brian Masse who had come third in the last federal election. Teacher Greg Herod and 2000 NDP candidate Sam Dinicol vyed for the Perth Middlesex riding candidate position with Dinicol getting the win. In his acceptance speech, Dinicol focused on the environment, housing and healthcare and was opposed to warfare. He attacked Jean Chretien and Paul Martin for abandoning the just society Canadian worked to build and for “slashing the budget for health and education and handing it over to their big business contributors in the form of subsidies and tax breaks.”