Canadians and Australians

[Lang]

I can't find any reference to Canadians working along side Australians during WW2 apart from aircrew and a few naval operations.

They were closely associated in WW1, often relieving each other in trench positions, but nothing in WW2.

What were they doing during the early part of the war when British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Polish and Indian troops were in the Middle East?

Anybody got a clue?

Lang

[Mike Kelly]

A Canadian wireless unit came to Australia during WW2 . They stayed and trained , can't remember the unit details but I have a pic somewhere. Have a look on Peter Dunn's website

here it is http://www.ozatwar.com/sigint/1swg.htm

[Lang]

Mike

Just read the Canadian war history.

Poor buggers suffered from the British not accepting they were a separate nation even more than the Australian experience. The British attempted to interfere in the running of the country, deployment of forces and the manufacturing industry without regard to Canadian national interests. At least King the Prime Minister stood up to them as much as he could unlike Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, who actually moved to London for months to become a yes-man at the War Cabinet table.

It was ironically fortunate the Japanese gave us an alternative battle-field and the much more benign and progressive American umbrella defending our own shores rather than providing gun-fodder for European operations in debacles such as the Greek campaign or the Canadians at Dieppe.

Nothing about the war was good but the bottom line is always self interest and who can blame the British in desperate times if they can intimidate, con and lie to subservient Dominion governments (and the Americans) to save their own hides. None of those Dominions was ever in a last ball of the last innings situation as they were after Dunkirk.

Lang

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

A Canadian wireless unit came to Australia during WW2 . They stayed and trained , can't remember the unit details..

There was also the Radar Unit that accompanied the "Radar Train" vehicles and trailers. A link to their story here is in the radar trailer thread.

Originally Posted by Lang

It was ironically fortunate the Japanese gave us an alternative battle-field...

There was a large contingent of Canadians as part of the garrison on Hong Kong. Their experience of the Japanese (and British Command!) mirrored the Australians at Singapore. And after the match, some went to Changi, and we met up with others as slave labourers in Thailand and Japan..

[Mike Kelly]

Been watching the SBS docos Sunday evening at 5.30 . Some historians reckon the German army was not that strong at the time Hitler rolled into the Sudatenland . If the Brits/French had acted then and acted with military force Hitler would have been forced to retreat and the German people would have seen the Hitler in a different light.

[Lang]

I really don't think that was an option. In the time a sufficient UK/French force was mobilised in France to act as aggressors (popular support for such action would have been zero) in a first attack, the Germans would have had their act together and Dunkirk would have been an even greater disaster.

Remember it took the whole world to beat them twice in 25 years. Very few major engagements undertaken by the Germans in the entire war saw them as the largest or best equipped force (including the French blitzkrieg).

When you take on what is arguably the best fighting nation since the Romans, or at least Genghis Khan, (regardless of the cause or morality) you have got to have your act together as we, particularly the Russians, painfully discovered. Even for the Germans you eventually run out of people. As they said in WW1 "God is on the side of the big battalions!"

Lang