Stolen Mortar

[David Dunlop]

The scope of the human contribution/sacrifice during World War One really hits home when you travel through 'small town' Canada. If the place is on the map, you are pretty much guaranteed to find a cenotaph dedicated to the local boys lost in The Great War.

Up until 40 years ago, most of these cenotaphs had at least one war artifact on display: typically a version of the Maxim, a German Field Gun or Trench Mortar. Then, for some reason, the machine guns all started to disappear. The last ones I have seen were in Douglas and another town East of Portage la Prairie and that was close to 10 years ago now. My suspicion is beaucrats have removed them, not trophy hunters or idiots.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

.. My suspicion is bureaucrats have removed them, not trophy hunters or idiots.

Pray tell, David. What is the difference?

[Marc Montgomery]

I wonder if someone wasn't trying to sell it to a scrap metal -breakers- yard? that happens a lot here. Many cenotaphs have been desecrated in Canada by thieves taking the bronze or brass original plaques.. This metal fetches a good price..and i can't say that Im aware of a lot, or any ethical breakers-scrap dealers

Lots of wire theft too for the copper.. recently someone broke into a transformer enclosure, broke some equipment to take the copper wire and left a couple thousand people in New Brunswick without power in the arctic cold...also a popular winter carnival had to be cancelled with no power.

Thieves care not a whit about historic, heritage, or respect for the fallen...

[motto]

Canada is sounding more and more like a colder version of Australia.
There is a rogue virus or s**t-head gene running rampant through the population. The percentage of witless creeps seems to be growing dramatically.

David

[rob love]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

The last ones I have seen were in Douglas and another town East of Portage la Prairie and that was close to 10 years ago now. My suspicion is beaucrats have removed them, not trophy hunters or idiots.

The MG08 and sledmount in Douglas was removed by a well meaning volunteer about 3 years ago for restoration. I got it from him back in August and had it sandblasted and coated in POR 15 by that weekend. A week later I cemented it back onto the memorial, and the townsfolk have since cleaned up the fence around the centaph.

There are still a few more hiding around Western MB that I have heard of, but at the same time a few more have disappeared. There were a pair of MG08-15s in front of the Holland MB legion, but the guy cutting the grass got tired of cutting around them and so off they went. That was around a decade back.