A favor if you please

[Bill Murray]

Evening all:
My first post on the new Forum. Very nice indeed!!

I need a little help here if you feel like it.
I belong to probably 20 other vehicle oriented forums and some get pretty active about current events. Infortunately, a lot of bad intel means a lot of crap gets spread around and the food fights get into real baseball bat wielding donneybrooks.

Any, one one particular forum there are three Canadian Ford truck owners that are getting killed by a bunch of my countrymen. The basic theme from here is that America has saved the world since WWI, Canada has done nothing but benefit from that and why is Canada not more supportive of our posture on Iraq?

I am not going there, but having lived in Canada a couple of years and been associated with Canadians through past careers for thirty years and of course hanging out on this forum for a few years I am fairly well up on the really vast contributions Canadians have made to "save the world" but.......I would like to get some input from you guys so I can slam your detractors with facts not more half baked opinions. I could spend a day or so on research but I would like to get back on that other forum fairly soon so here goes.

What is the population of Canada today?

At what point did Canada enter into WW I or the 1914-1918 War?
I thought it was early as 1914 but I am not sure. What in general was the force sent to Europe? Major actions? Casualties.

I know Canadians participated in WWII from the get go and some surely got caught at Dunkirk. I am generally aware of the Dieppe raid and that it was a Canadian operation. Could I get a nutshell synopsis of that one including prisoners.
As for the 1914-1918 conflict, what was the size of the Canadian contribution? Was it Canadian forces alone that liberated Holland? Total casualty figures for WWII. Is it not so that all Canadians posted to the war zones were volunteers as opposed to conscripts?
I know Canadians fought in Korea, not sure about Viet Nam so need that and maybe a laundry list of conflicts post 1945 where Canada has contributed troops of whatever type.

Sorry for the long post, but these guys are getting slaughtered and Canada is my most favorite country after my own and I really would like to help these guys out. Not by slinging mud but rather with a long list of achievements by our neighbors to the north.
Bill

Originally posted by Bill Murray
[B]The basic theme from here is that America has saved the world since WWI,

----That's a pile of crap. America didn't save the world in WW1, in fact, the American's only really fought in one major battle and lost. America was Johnny come lately in that war.


Canada has done nothing but benefit from that and

---Huh? America benefits as much from Canada.

why is Canada not more supportive of our posture on Iraq?

---we don't believe in the cause for war.



What is the population of Canada today?

---31 million

At what point did Canada enter into WW I or the 1914-1918 War?
I thought it was early as 1914 but I am not sure. What in general was the force sent to Europe? Major actions? Casualties.

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub...irstwar/canada

I know Canadians participated in WWII from the get go and some surely got caught at Dunkirk.

--not Dunkirk. Canada officially declared war September 10, 1939

I am generally aware of the Dieppe raid and that it was a Canadian operation. Could I get a nutshell synopsis of that one including prisoners.

Was it Canadian forces alone that liberated Holland? Total casualty figures for WWII.


http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub...ondwar/Canada2


Is it not so that all Canadians posted to the war zones were volunteers as opposed to conscripts?

Almost all, in 1939 Canada had 11 million people and a standing army of 5000, by 1945 Canada had fielded an army of over a million. Conscription only happened at the end of the war and less than 500 concripts were in combat action.


I know Canadians fought in Korea,

-At the Battle of Kapyong 800 Canadians faced off against 4000 Chinese. The Canadians won the Presidential Citation for it.
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub...oreaWar/valour

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
Any, one one particular forum there are three Canadian Ford truck owners that are getting killed by a bunch of my countrymen. The basic theme from here is that America has saved the world since WWI, Canada has done nothing but benefit from that and why is Canada not more supportive of our posture on Iraq?

Forum & thread URL please.... sounds like they could use a bit of 'fire support'...

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I am sure that Canada entered the war immediately the British Empire did, namely 11 pm 4th August 1914. The US were I believe never actually allies of the Allies so to speak but CO-COMBATANTS. I regret to say that whilst Canada had entered the second war in September 1939, the US were hamstrung by the Neutrality Acts and it took a huge effort in Congress to have them amended to allow "Cash and Carry" for military sales. There was a substantial and vocal electorate including "Lindy" Lindbergh that totally opposed anything that might bring the US into the "European War". It was of course Hitler that declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor, not the other way around.

On this side of the Pond we can see that the electorate in the US are becoming if not already ant-French, saying that they should be grateful for help in two world wars, etc. This because of the anti-war stance. It is a fact that there is a substantial minority if not a majority opposed to war in the UK now.

[sapper740]

The 1st world war started August 4, 1914, not the 14th.

According to "Canada in the Great War" by W.S. Wallace of the University of Toronto (Lately Major, Canadian Infantry), the Canadian government promptly cabled to England offering the services of Canadian troops and the first Canadian contingent, 33,000 strong, arrived in Plymouth in October, 1914. The first Canadian troops to land in France were the Princess Pat's which arrived in early December 1914 along with a hospital unit. The First Canadian Division left for France in February 1915. In March 1915 Canadian artillery took part in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and in April 1915 the Division entered the trenches of the front line north of Ypres in Belgian Flanders in time for the 2nd battle of Ypres.
In the afternoon of April 22, 1915 Chlorine gas was first used by the Germans. On the immediate left of the Canadian division were French colonial troops, the Turcos and Zouaves who fled before the asphyxiating gas. The Canadian left flank was completely exposed and our boys were outnumbered 5 to 1 by the massed German troops. The Canadians held fast. The strength of the Canadian defense and the success of two brilliant and heroic counter-attacks gave the Germans the impression that the Canadians were in greater strength and consequently were never able to fully press home their advantage. After three days of ceaseless fighting, the Canadians were relieved.
By the end of 1916 The Canadian Corps comprised 4 divisions and had an unbroken record of victory in the Somme.
I could go on and on about Canada's contributioin in the Great war; Courcelette when Canada used tanks for the first time, the capture of the Desire Trench, Vimy Ridge, Arleux and Fresnoy, Lens, Hill 70, Passchendale, Bellevue Spur, Amiens, 2nd Battle of the Somme, Arras, Cambrai, Mons. Suffice it to say that the Canadian Corps had come to be regarded by the High Command as "Shock Troops." It was always with great trepidation when the Germans learned that they were facing Canadian troops across No Man's Land as that almost nearly always meant an attack was forthcoming. In 1918 alone Canadian troops engaged and defeated no less than 57 German divisions, captured 35,000 prisoners, 750 field guns, 3,500 machine guns, advanced over 100 miles, captured over 150 towns and villages, and released over 300,000 French and Belgian civilians from the domination of the Hun, all without a single failure!

Canada carried this fighting spirit into WW II. Case in point: At the outbreak of WW II, Canadian infantry units were classified into one of three categories, A (best trained), B (second best), and C (insufficiently trained and not recommended for operations). Two units, the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada were classed as "C". In October of 1941, neither Battalion was at full strength and both included men who had never thrown a grenade or fired a mortar. In November, 1941 these two Battalions landed in Hong Kong where with four other Commonwealth battalions they held off the combined might of the Japanese Air Force, Imperial Japanese Navy, and 60,000 seasoned Japanese troops for 18 days with nothing but their rifles and a few machine guns. After the fall of Hong Kong the Japanese became enraged when they realized how few defenders had held up their advance and they embarked on a campaign of murder, rape and torture of the survivors.
Canada's contribution to the war effort was all out of proportion to it's size as a country. The hubris shown by those in the other forums is a testament of their ignorance. Give me the website and I'll set those buffoons straight. Derek

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Canada's contribution to the war effort was all out of proportion to it's size as a country.

Absolutely!

[Ken Hughes]

hey if those guys need someone to pick on tell them to pick on the new zealand govt with its peace keeping only roll!!!
and letting others do the dirty work!
Australia ,Brittan ,Canada ,and the US are there but we let down the team!!!

[Bill Murray]

Thanks again guys, but this is a bit odd.
My post is over 4 years old and was written on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.
Are these current posts or did they just somehow jump out of a suspense file?
Bill