Canada Has an Amateur Army
The liberal elite media is up in arms today, as yesterday commentators on Fox News said something that has needed to be said for quite some time; Canada has an amateur military.
I mean no offense, but America has pretty worthless military allies.
In our politically correct society, there is some forced ACLU convention where we’re supposed to pretend like everyone is equal and that no difference in skills or abilities exist. The problem is that lying is about such things will lead to a hellfire far worse than what Hitler cast upon Europe during World War 2.
Time and time again America has made the allied armies of every other nation on Earth look silly in comparison. Let’s take a good lesson from our aforementioned World War 2.
The Great War is surely one of the best examples of what happens in a world without an American military presence. It all started when the NAZIs and their blood-thirsty Chinese allies had just about conquered the Earth, from Russia to England, in under a year.
As France and an all but conquered Britain lay prostrate before the NAZIs in the West, the communist Soviets were one horseback and trying to defeat the Sino-NAZI alliance with rocks and potatoes, as they had run out of bullets.
Hilter’s forces easily decimated his backwoods challengers until a real army –American –, guided by the hands of morality from Most High himself, showed up. Within a year, America had single-handedly defeated the Asian-German alliance and brought peace back to the world via bomb inspired treaties.
Such has been the case in every war in which America has defended its helpless allies and brought God’s will of freedom to our enemies. Yet, it has become custom to say ‘we all fought equally’ and that, my friends, is hurting society.
Countries are now so delusional they think sending 20 soldiers and $1,000 of their fake money to a war effort — like the war on terror — is a real contribution. They think by sending their little trained farmers out with our soldiers, they are actively contributing to bringing peace and freedom.
The fact of the matter is that by not calling out these weak countries: Canada, Britain, France, Australia and everyone else in the U.N. that’s not America, we’re creating a dangerous environment. Without American, the U.N. is powerless.
When we get a proper president in the White House in 2012, America needs to get back to being assertive in our world diplomacy. We need to politely instruct our allies that terrorists will kill them dead, this new war on terror is no more a joke than WW1, WW2, the Cold War and both Iraq Wars.
Our enemy is of great resolve and numbers over 1 billion dedicated soldiers in strength. Every allied nation needs to pay America to build a base of operation in its country, as well as supplying our troops who station those bases. Each nation on Earth, that’s of good standing, needs America’s divinely inspired guidance protection.
It’s time we enforce this standard until everyone admits it. Fox News discusses this essential concept in more detail:
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Author: Amber
Amber <3's you and someone else does too!
3:44 am
Amber, I think you may need to reread a history textbook. The JAPANESE were the allies of the Nazis, not the Chinese.
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5:02 am
Wow, you are an idoit. We would of not won the second world war if Germany had not attcked Russia, fighting a war on two fronts, Russia did more for the war then you ever did, you joined the war for your own selfish reasons, your econemy was shit; “pump priming” was failing your econemy prospers greatly from war and you were attcked by the japanese at perl harbour. These are the only reasons you joined the war.
If the US army is so good why could you not win the Vietnam war, conserding you dircetly started that war by funding the viet cong and trained them, for every viet cong killed someting like 10 or more Americans were killed. You were fighting one of the poorest armies in the world and lost, that is I call an “amateur military”, you droped twice as meany bombs on Vitenam than you did in world war two and killed hardly any viet cong you killed a ton of civillans in stead of the enemy, that is wwhat I call an “amateur military”
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7:33 am
سببنا صحيحة, أنت يستطيع لا يتوقّفنا في حربنا ضدّ أنت! إلهة عظيمة!
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1:38 pm
Amber, you are such an ignorant cunt it is unbelievable. Canada’s contribution to every war has been great.
WWI – Canada’s total casualties stood at 67,000 killed and 173,000 wounded.
WWII – 1.1 million Canadians served in the army, navy, and air force. Of these more than 45,000 lost their lives and another 54,000 were wounded.
And your current “war on terror” which had nothing to do with Canada has cost us Since February 2002, 116 Canadian soldiers who have died in this war.
The US spends over 500 billion a year on thier military….us Canadians just find better ways to spend our tax payers dollers….such as a little thing called healthcare and not 300 million on a single bomb….go find a dark corner and die you little cunt.
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9:23 pm
The Great War ≍ World War Ⅰ.
China ≭ Japan.
>“Countries are now so delusional they think sending 20 soldiers and $1,000 of their fake money to a war effort — like the war on terror — is a real contribution.”
No, they did not consider it a real contribution; they simply recognized the stupidity of the “War on Terror”.
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11:56 pm
this is such a win, im not even going to go as far as to play the facade
just pure win
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12:31 pm
So the fact that the Canadian army successfully stopped the US from invading us must mean we are weaker than you big and strong americans.
And don’t forget, we burned your white house down too. Twice.
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6:45 pm
I’m amazed and saddened to think that you know so little about your own history and disgusted that you feel you need to sew your poison in a world sufficiently burdened with ignorance and hatred. You represent what most of the world accurately perceives as American self-interest and myopia. It’s a shame, as there are many good people that call the U.S. home, but you tarnish the good names of countless millions with your stupidity and venom.
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2:37 pm
Pure comedic gold. Please, please read a book. Once. In your life. Seriously. And by the way, the canadian army is not the best equipped oone in the world it’s true. But it has the best trained soldier. Check the facts.
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9:19 pm
While I agree with some of what you are saying, you’re still sounding like you believe America is invincible, while at the same time America wages its civil war known as the drug war. Americans can’t win this war because it is Americans whom are also the enemy, and they hold very few characteristics that stand out.
America has failed to control the illegal drugs issue, which is apparent by what is going on in Mexico now. So what now? Is America next going to unleash its military on the civilians of Mexico as well? How far can this go? When will the military be used on our own Americans? The drug issue is only growing worse, and that’s because kids are being taught to start drugs in school by programs like DARE. They get to learn all the cool little names about drugs. Sure, you snag a few supporters, but you can’t eliminate the appetite for an altered state of mind. Teaching kids about all the many illegal drugs just promotes drug abuse. It’s counterproductive to the drug war, in other words.
And if you’re thinking “Oh, well surely our military could eliminate drugs.” You’re giving up one of our most valued protections, the ones from our own military. They are trained to fight vicious wars with violent tactics, and are without a doubt trained to kill. They aren’t trained like law enforcement is trained. They don’t know how not to step on your rights and still get the job done. But believe you me, these police officers are also trained to ride the limits on what is and isn’t allowed. They are hardly suitable to wage war on American civilians either. Racism, idealogy, and dogma get in the way of a fair trial in many cases. And really, what one person does with his or her body is really none of the government’s concern, unless of course the government claims ownership over Americans’ bodies. Is that all we are? Livestock? Oh what the American government wouldn’t do to do away with our free will.
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2:15 am
Totally wrong on the facts.
(1) The Japanese were allied with the Germans and Italians. The Chinese fought against the Japanese.
(2) The Soviets accounted for about 80% of the German (Nazi)combat casualties. They wore down nearly 80% of the Nazi armed forces. US (along with UK and other Commonwealth nations) accounted for the remaining 20%.
(3) Canadians are brave fighters. History bears this out.
(4) The type of ignorant rant in this article helps the US to make blunders in its foreign policy and earn a bad name for itself.
(5) Faith is good, but cannot be a substitute for information and action.
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12:02 pm
Im amazed that you call yourself Cristian. And are allowed to write for what is deemed a Christian web-site. I truly question the validity of this web-sites and their standing in Christ after reading this and them allowing it to be printed. Your words filled with venom are NO Different than those of a radical Muslim who hides behind religeon and belives his reasons to hate and kill have God’s backing. God instructs us to love oneanother and that the end result of all we do is Love. Honestly, I see that nowhere in your article. To belittle our Canadian neighbors military effort is absolutely pridefull. Our God is an awesome God and can do more with very little. Need I also remind you that there are brave young Canadian soldiers dying every day along side our boys in this war. Thank you Canada. Those men have given the ultimate sacrafice and their deeds should never be looked down upon by anyone
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2:37 am
All I can say is that you are a moron. Here’s what it boils down to. Canada is not an amature army. In fact Canada is the second best tacticaly trained military in the world (second to the Israeli’s…NOT YOU!!). In fact, your delta force are trained muchly by OUR JTF 2 Soldiers. Delta Force is one of your elite squads and many of our JTF 2 guys go down there and train them because we are so well trained. The major diffrence between the American and Canadian military is this…You guys have all the fire power and fun toys and we have the incredible tactical training. You guys have decent tactical training but it is NOTHING compared to Canada’s. Maybe you should do some research you uneducated, self righteous, arrogant prick! I need not remind you of the Millions of Canadian Soldiers killed at war defending our allies (yes that means you too!). Oh, and I guess I have you guys to thank for the 116 dead Caanadian Soldiers killed as a result of a War that you started!! And one last thing while were playing the blame game…um, what was it now…Oh yeah, THAKS FOR THE ECONOMIC RECESSION ASSHOLE!
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2:44 am
Oh and another thing. You Bastards did not “End” World War 1. In fact, all you really did was blow the shit out of Japan in the most despicable, deplorable, and morally repugnant way possible…Nuclear Warfare, which by the way, they are still feeling the effects of today (Nice Job Slick!) You’re wondering why everybody hates America. Maybe if you were’t so goddamn arrogant and a punch of little piss ants to your “allies,” people would relate with you a little better. I’m sure If Canada and Britain and all of our other allies at the time weren’t involved with defeating the Nazi’s, you- America- would have crashed and burned harder and faster than the 6 million Jewish Citizens that Hitler Murdered. Don’t think that you’re so invincible. Without your allies…YOU WOULD BE NOTHING!!
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10:10 am
Actually the us HAD A VERY AMATEUR ARMY UP UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO.CANADA ALWAYS MAINTAINED A SMALL PROFESIONl ARMY AND Raised a citizen army during two world wars.Canadian attitude differ greatly from our large mouth us cousins.We say we are among the world`s best which is very true,you dick smacks say you are the world`s best which is very wrong…….get my drift???
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1:56 pm
In Vietnam the U.S. forces were beaten by what amounted to a light infantry army….the Vietgong.I`m afraid the quality of the U.S. soldier is not much better today……just a lot of hight tech…….fire and forget.U.S. soldiers are not very well thought of by professionals.
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6:46 pm
Sunday Telegraph Article from today’s UK wires:
Salute to a brave and modest nation – Kevin Myers,
The Sunday Telegraph
LONDON
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always, will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
It seems that Canada’s historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.
Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance.
A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.
That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions… it seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
Almost 10% of Canada’s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died.
The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the “British”.
The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attacks. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world.
The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time.
Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated… a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has no notion of a separate Canadian identity.
So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality… unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have, in the popular perception, become American, and Christopher Plummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.
Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves, and are unheard by anyone else, that 1% of the world’s population has provided 10% of the world’s peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth…in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace, a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.
So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
11/10 04:52 PMShare
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6:53 pm
Rob Furlong, Tim McMeekin and three other Canadian sharpshooters — Graham Ragsdale, Arron Perry and Dennis Eason — had spent nearly a week in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan’s Shahikot Valley, reaching out and touching the enemy from distances even they had never trained for. But that shot was something special. Rob Furlong had just killed another human being from 2,430 m (7972 feet, 1.5 mile), the rough equivalent of standing at Toronto’s CN Tower and hitting a target near Bloor Street. It was — and still is — the longest-ever recorded kill by a sniper in combat, surpassing the mark of 2,250 m (7,382+ feet) set by U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock during the Vietnam War.
It should have been a moment of pride for the Canadian army. Five of its most talented snipers — men trained to kill without remorse, then turn around and kill again — did exactly that. They destroyed al-Qaeda firing positions, saved American lives and tallied a body count unmatched by any Canadian soldier of their generation. U.S. commanders who served alongside the snipers nominated all five for the coveted Bronze Star medal. “Thank God the Canadians were there,” is how one American soldier put it.
Yet days later, their heroics on the mountain would be overshadowed by suspicion, including stunning allegations that one sniper, in a subsequent mission, sliced himself a souvenir from the battlefield: the finger of a dead Taliban fighter. Military police launched a criminal investigation, but uncovered nothing but denials. As the months wore on, there emerged so many conflicting accusations and supposed explanations that no charges were ever laid. Even Rob Furlong’s record-breaking shot became lost in the confusion. In fact, until now, a different sniper has been widely — and incorrectly — credited with pulling the trigger on that long-distance kill.
Today, more than four years later, three of the five decorated snipers who served in Afghanistan are no longer in the army, brushed aside by a military machine that seemed all too willing to watch them go.
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7:02 pm
From one of your own
by Austin Bay
January 25, 2006
Take two apparently contradictory terms, and link them in a single phrase. The result is an oxymoron, a figure of speech yoking a perceived contradiction in terms. “Military intelligence” almost always rates a chuckle, as does “jumbo shrimp.” A skilled poet can use an oxymoron to stir emotions beyond laughter. Shakespeare riddled the tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet” with incongruous verbal jolts like “cold fire” and “happy dagger.”
The term “Canadian military” should never be an oxymoron, but after a decade of reduction and decline, what was once one of the world’s most able and elite combat organizations is now a hollow force.
The slide in defense funding that began in the mid-1990s is one cause. The current Canadian defense budget buys about 25 percent less bang and less peacekeeping than it did 10 years ago.
With the end of the Cold War, some reduction in force structure was understandable.
The defense cuts, however, weren’t simply based on a strategic assessment of finances and the disappearance of the Soviet Union. Post-Cold War, North American geography played a role. Here’s that presumption: The United States would always be there to defend Canada, so why bother maintaining military forces?
That wasn’t always Canada’s defense philosophy. At one time, when it came to defending liberty and democracy, Canada punched way above its weight class, and the Free World was thankful.
Prior to Pearl Harbor, while the United States hid behind the false wall of “neutrality,” Canada confronted with armed force the cultural and political threat of fascist tyrants. At the end of World War II, Canada had the world’s third-largest navy. In 2006, despite having the globe’s second-largest nation in terms of landmass, Canada deploys only three dozen or so warships and naval support vessels. Over a million Canadians served during World War II, out of a population of 12 million. Today, the expeditionary military that Nazi Germany feared must juggle troops and equipment to sustain two battalion-sized task forces in an overseas deployment.
The Nazis did indeed fear and respect Canada. From Sicily to Normandy and on into Germany, veteran Canadian divisions often formed the “hard core” of an allied thrust. That wasn’t a conspiracy by London to “let the colonials be cannon fodder” — it was recognition of Canadian military capabilities and fighting spirit.
Canada’s military continues to attract outstanding men and women.
I have yet to meet or serve with a Canadian soldier who failed to impress me with his professionalism and discipline. In my experience — in terms of individual, quality personnel — only Australian troops match Canadians on a one-for-one basis.
Two years ago, I had the privilege of serving with Australian troops in Iraq. The Aussies are crack. In the mid-1970s, I had the privilege of working with the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in then-West Germany. In my opinion, the Canadian brigade was the best brigade in NATO, which probably meant at that moment in time it was the best brigade man-for-man in the world.
Today, Canada has too few of these fine troops, and the superior troops Canada does field are not supplied with the modern, first-rate weapons and equipment they deserve — at least, not in sufficient numbers.
The lack of military punch weakens Canada as a global political player, because Canada cannot act with a full spectrum of foreign policy options.
In many ways, the Canadian rhetorical and political game of “We Aren’t America” is a reasonable, if semi-hypocritical posture. The game has actually benefited the great cause of freedom. In Cold War situations where American troops or observers might have escalated tensions, Canadians could provide security, stability and democratic presence. Canada could be the United States without Washington’s alleged baggage. Those of us who understood the stakes were thankful.
However, as the Canadian military declined, the Canadian “We Aren’t America” game — particularly under Paul Martin’s Liberals — degenerated into rank, adolescent anti-Americanism. Is there a connection between increasingly strident, appeasement-laden rhetoric and the loss of military capability? I think the answer is “yes.”
Canada’s Conservatives have managed a narrow victory and now confront the challenges of a coalition government. Let’s hope the first consensus Canadians reach is to restore and revive the Canadian military.
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4:54 am
One of our amateurs at work
Korea DCM:
Leo Major fought in the Korean War, where he won another Distinguished Conduct Medal for capturing and holding a key hill (hill 355).
This position was in the hands of the Third US Infantry Division (a Division is around 10,000 men) when the 64th Chinese Army (around 40,000 men) made a decisive artillery barrage.
Over the course of two days, the Americans were pushed back by elements of the Chinese 190th and 191st divisions. The Americans retreated, leaving everything behind (food, weapons, vehicles, etc).
They tried to recapture the hill, but without any success, and the Chinese had moved to the nearby Hill 227, practically surrounding the US forces. In order to relieve pressure, General Dextraze brought up an elite scout and sniper team led by Leo Major. Wielding sten guns, Leo and his men silently crept up the hill, surrounded by Chinese. At a signal, Leo’s men opened fire, panicking the Chinese who were trying to understand why the firing was coming from the center of their troops instead from the outside. By 12:45 am they had retaken the hill.
However, an hour later two Chinese divisions (the 190 and the 191 around 14,000 men) counter-attacked. Leo was ordered to retreat, but refused and found scant cover for his men. There he held the enemy off throughout the night, though they were so close to him that Leo’s own mortars were practically raining down on him.
For three days, Leo’s men held off multiple Chinese counter-assaults, until reinforcements arrived. For his actions, Leo was awarded the Bar to the Distinguished Service Medal. Amazingly, twenty French Canadians successfully resisted the assault of 2 Chinese Divisions while an entire American Division had been forced to retreat.
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5:46 am
Damn these amateur Canadians.
The History and the Aircraft of the Air Forces of Canada – from 1914 to today.
The First World War and Canada’s Aces.
With the disbandment of the Canadian Aviation Corps, those who wished to fly had to serve with the British Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. At the beginning of the war only qualified pilots were being accepted and, as a result, civilian flying schools started up in Canada. Young men flocked to the Curtiss School of Aviation at Toronto Island and Long Branch where, with J.A.D. McCurdy as chief instructor, a hundred and twenty-nine pilots graduated in 1916 and 1917.
These civilian schools could not keep up with the demand for pilots and the Royal Flying Corps, early in 1917, set up training wings at Camp Borden, North Toronto and Deseronto. When the United States entered the war, American flyers trained in Canada during the summer at Camps Mohawk and Rathbun, near Deseronto. In winter, in turn, the Royal Flying Corps moved to Texas. A total of Not counting the Americans, 3,136 RFC pilots and 137 observers were trained in Canada during 1917 and 1918. Alittle later, Russian pilots were also trained in Canada to fight the Bolsheviks.
Over twenty-two thousand Canadian men served with the three British services and 1,563 gave their lives. Three won Victoria Crosses. Flying boat pilots from Canada shot down Zeppelins, fought enemy seaplanes, bombed submarines and escorted convoys. One, Maj Robert Leckie, DSO, DSC, DFC, later became Chief of the Air Staff. S.D. Culley gained recognition by flying his Sopwith Camel off the deck of a rudimentary carrier to shoot down a Zeppelin.
No 203 Squadron, consisting of mostly Canadians, was led by Squadron Commander L. S. Breadner, DSC, who was to become Chief of the Air Staff in the RCAF and its first Air Chief Marshal. Other outstanding fighter pilots were Maj D. R. Maclaren, DSO, MC, DFC with 48 aircraft and 6 balloon victories; Maj W. G. Barker, VC, DSO, MC, with 50 victories. Barker won his Victoria Cross for fighting off 60 Fokkers in one engagement before crash-landing, wounded several times, in Canadian lines. Capt A. Roy Brown, DSC, got credit for the kill of the legendary “Red Baron” – von Richthofen, who was at the peak of his own career. The third Canadian Victoria Cross was won by 2LT A. A. McLeod, who stepped out on the wing, because his cockpit was in flames, to control his aircraft to a crash-landing in No-Man’s-Land, thus saving the life of his helpless observer.
Ten pilots were among the top 26 leading Allied “Aces” – all credited with 30 or more kills. Heading this list was Major W.A. (Billy) Bishop VC, DSO, MC, DFC, with 72 victories. Major Raymond Collishaw DSO, DSC, DFC, was second with 60 victories. R.H. Mulock, was the first Canadian pilot to fly against the enemy in 191 5. Canadians flew on every front and distinguished themselves in every operation. They could be found flying fighters, day and night bombers, flying boats, in balloons and co-operating with the army in the skies of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Following the armistice, several flew against the Bolsheviks in Russia.
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5:53 am
This is fun
oint Task Force Two Members Receive U.S. Presidential Unit Citation
NR-04.098 – December 8, 2004
OTTAWA – Members of the Canadian Forces unit (CF) Joint Task Force Two (JTF 2) received the United States Presidential Unit Citation from President George W. Bush in the United States on December 7, 2004. Personnel from JTF 2 received the citation for their outstanding contribution to the multi-national Special Operations Forces task force in Afghanistan in 2002.
“ This citation from the United States signifies the outstanding counter-terrorism and special operations capability that has been developed by the Canadian Forces,” said Defence Minister Bill Graham. “JTF 2 has played a critical role in Canada’s contribution to the war against terrorism and will continue to be an important part of our domestic security.”
“The presentation of the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation to members of JTF 2 brings important recognition to a group of incredible Canadian Forces members whose accomplishments normally cannot be publicly recognized in the interest of national security,” said General Ray Henault, Chief of the Defence Staff. “Canadians should be very proud of this specialized Canadian military unit.”
The President of the United States presented the Presidential Unit Citation to the Commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force – SOUTH (JSOTF-SOUTH) for its success during operations in Afghanistan from October 2001 until April 2002. Canada’s JTF 2 was one of several international units in JSOTF-SOUTH. The United States Presidential Unit Citation is awarded to units of the Armed Forces of the United States and allied nations for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy occurring on or after 7 December 1941. The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart and above other units participating in the same campaign.
JTF 2 is the Canadian Forces Special Operations unit responsible for federal counter-terrorist operations. It provides a force capable of rendering armed assistance in the resolution of an incident that is affecting, or has the potential to affect, the national interest. The primary focus is counter-terrorism, however, the unit can expect to be employed on other high value strategic tasks.
-30-
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6:00 am
Seems your king at the time thought we were pretty professional as well.I believe your forces ran during this one:)
The battle at Kapyong belongs to the third phase of the war. It began on April 23, 1951, when the Communist (Chinese and North Korean) forces moved to check the UN advance just north of the 38th parallel, taking the initiative for the second time. On the night of April 22-23, 1951, the Communist front hit the UN central and west sectors, pushing back two large U.S. Army formations, I Corps and IX Corps.
The 6th (Republic of Korea) Division, an element of IX Corps, was in grave danger of being cut off and destroyed because its withdrawal route lay through the valley of the Kapyong River. To keep the route open and guard the Koreans’ rear, the 27th (British Commonwealth) Brigade established a defensive position straddling the river, north of the village of Kapyong.
The 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (2 PPCLI) dug in on Hill 677, west of the Kapyong River, while the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment occupied Hill 504, east of the river. South of the Patricias, on their rear, were the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment (a British unit) and the 16th Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery.
On the night of April 23-24, the Communists attacked the Canadian and Australian positions, screaming, shouting, blowing whistles and moving forward in encircling waves. The Canadians and Australians fought them off with everything they had – Captain Mills, in command of D Company, 2 PPCLI, even called down artillery fire directly on his position – but, at 1730 hrs on April 24, the Australians were forced to withdraw. The battle-weary Patricias held on, receiving a fresh supply of food and ammunition at around 0400 hrs on April 25 by air-drop from four USAF C 119 Packet transports. In the afternoon of April 25, the Communists broke off their attack and the fighting was over.
Although the Communist forces at Kapyong outnumbered the Canadians by as much as eight to one, 2 PPCLI lost only ten killed and 23 wounded in the battle. (The Communists’ casualty figures are not known.) 2 PPCLI fought so well that it earned the US Presidential Citation for “outstanding heroism and exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.”
Note to editors:
For reliable information on the Battle of Kapyong and Canada’s role in the Korean War, consult the following sources:
* Strange Battleground: The Operations in Korea and Their Effects on the Defence Policy of Canada by Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Fairlie Wood of the Army Historical Section (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1966). This is the official history, written by a Canadian Army officer who served in Korea and published by the Department of National Defence.
* http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/
sub.cfm?source=history/KoreaWar/valour
RSS DND/CF News (What is RSS?)
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6:03 am
This link will blow your mind.
http://www.transasianaxis.com/vb/showthread.php?t=304
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6:10 am
Despite the Navy’s censorship of the Ocean Venture ’81 article, and the fact that the uncensored version was never published, the story became public knowledge in Canada. An anonymous Canadian submariner leaked the story to a Halifax newspaper, and indicated that this successful Canadian attack on an American carrier was by no means an isolated incident. It was a simple ambush in the North Atlantic, and it worked perfectly. Indeed, the article concluded that the Americans never knew what hit them, that they were embarrassed by this failure, and that they wanted to bury the matter then and there. The Canadian submarine did not fire the customary green flare to indicate a hit, for reasons unknown to anyone except for the skipper of the submarine, but instead simply took periscope photos of the carrier to prove its point. In doing so, the diesel submarine ambushed a surface ship in the same way that Germany’s U-boats had done it decades before. This news and Knuth’s original uncensored report, which ended up in the hands of Senator Gary Hart, caused quite a stir in Congress, and the US Navy had a lot of explaining to do. Why had not one but two American carriers been sunk, and why were the submarines responsible not detected? Why indeed had a small, 1960s-vintage diesel submarine of the under-funded and multi-dimensionally “bantam†Canadian Navy been able to defeat one of America’s most powerful and expensive warships, and with such apparent ease?
Conjointly, why were the Canadians able to do essentially the same thing to the US Navy in subsequent exercises in the spring of 1983? The Winnipeg Free Press reported that the submarine HMCS Okanagan “snuck to within a kilometer of the USS John F Kennedy, went through preparations to fire a salvo of torpedoes and slipped away unnoticed by the carrier or the destroyers…†The submarine got close enough “to score a lethal hit, Defence Minister Jean Jacques Blais said…†Blais went on to say, “This is a matter of some pride for submariners and shows the strength of our underwater boats at a time when satellite detection can identify surface ships more readily.â€
There are several possible explanations. Firstly, the Canadian submariners have a long-standing reputation for being well trained and professional. Supporting this argument is Compton-Hall, one of the world’s leading authorities on submarines, who evaluated the Canadian submariners as “first class, aggressive and innovative.†Secondly, the Oberon-class submarines used by the Canadian, Australian, British, and other navies, built in the UK, but based on a German design from World War II, were probably the quietest in the world at that time. Of course, adverse acoustical conditions produced by temperature variations (thermal layers) may temporarily cloak even the noisiest nuclear submarines, but the nearly silent Oberon-class diesel boats running on batteries were still harder to find in such conditions than even the best nuclear boats. And in any case, Knuth described the acoustical conditions as being “excellent†for detecting submarines, so the answer probably lies elsewhere. A third possible reason is perhaps that the powerhouse US Navy just is not very good at hunting submarines, especially the ultra-quiet diesel boats available today. It is the last explanation that intrigues me, and it is the one on which I shall focus much of this article.
While Canadian submarines have routinely taken on American carriers, other small navies have enjoyed similar victories. The Royal Netherlands Navy, with its small force of extremely quiet diesel submarines, has made the US Navy eat the proverbial slice of humble pie on more than one occasion. In 1989, naval analyst Norman Polmar wrote in Naval Forces that during NATO’s exercise Northern Star, “…the Dutch submarine “Zwaardvis†was the only orange (enemy) submarine to successfully stalk and sink a blue (allied) aircraft carrier…†The carrier in question might have been the USS America, as it was a participant in this exercise. Ten years later there
were reports that the Dutch submarine Walrus had been even more successful in the exercise JTFEX/TMDI99. “During this exercise the Walrus penetrates the US screen and ‘sinks’ many
ships, including the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71. The submarine launches two attacks and manages to sneak away. To celebrate the sinking the crew designed a special T-shirt.†Fittingly, the T-shirt depicted the USS Theodore Roosevelt impaled on the tusks of a walrus. It was also reported that the Walrus sank many of the Roosevelt’s escorts, including the nuclear submarine USS Boise, a cruiser, several destroyers and frigates, plus the command ship USS Mount Whitney. The Walrus herself survived the exercise with no damage. Talented and wily enemies, of course, usually do not play by the rules, and they do not stick to a script.
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7:16 pm
ah idiot,the ” great war” was the first world war,a war you mostly sat out…..idiot.
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7:34 pm
Suck this idiot.
We may not be known world wide for some of our military accomplishments but we’re always known to our enemy, and our enemy is the only one that needs to know how good our military can be. Stories of Canadians trouncing the Kaiser’s men even carried over to World War II and Canadians were feared by the Nazis from the get go.
Yes, we fought with the Commonwealth, as did numerous others like the ANZAC and the Newfoundland Regiments (as they hadn’t joined Confederation yet). You can also go back to events prior to Confederation, such as the Seven Years War, the War of 1812 (which ended with the British/Canadian Colonial Militias holding more “enemy land” at the end of the war), and the men that snuck aboard ships against out goverments wishes to fight alongside the British in the Boer War.
One other advantage we’ve always enjoyed is a volunteer army. No draft, no conscription, no government endorsed coerced entry. We all know about the infamous American Conscription during most wars, made well known during Vietnam, but we don’t hear much about the British Army. This information dates back to the Napoleonic era but there’s evidence to support it continued through to the second world war. Press Gangs from the Navy would kidnap people who would wake up, on a ship, and are now members of the Royal Navy. People found guilty of a crime were given the option to enlist, hang, or go to Australia (when it was a penal colony), most criminals chose death as it was the most humane option. The government would have a woman plant an item of hers into an innocent man’s pocket so that he could get arrested and then “volunteer” into the army. There was also the trick of placing the King’s Shilling in the bottom of a stein, once you touch it you’ve accepted payment from the King to join his army and off you’re carted (that’s where “bottoms up” came from, check for that shilling before drinking). So unlike some other countries our men were all there because they either believed in the cause they were fighting for or believed in their country, not because they were tricked or coerced.
Yes, we’re full of some great military accomplishments, but we don’t toot our won horns. We also don’t show up in the last 5 minutes of a war and claim to have won it for the world. Yes, a slight jab at our neighbours to the south, in all honesty yes, the Americans helped win, but the other Allied forces were at least as influential in the outcome.
One line from a Tanglefoot song I always liked was “There’s women and men Canadians all of every rank and station, to stand an guard and keep us free from Yankee domination.” It was about Laura Secord’s contribution to the Battle of Beaver Dams in Hamilton 1813, but the term “Yankee” can be replaced with almost any enemy and still apply.
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8:25 pm
Brilliant, gripping. Some of the bloodiest fighting in WWII, Jan 7 2002
By Doug Briggs (Houston, TX USA) – See all my reviews
This is the story of barely two months of the eleven months of brutal combat seen by Canada’s 4th Field artillery regiment, and of the infantry units 4th Field supported with astonishing firepower. After several years in England, 4th Field’s combat role begins with the regiment’s landing in Normandy twenty days after D-Day.
Canadian field artillery during WWII was the best in the world. The guns of every artillery unit in a given battlefield sector were laid out on a grid plan that allowed Forward Observation Officers to call in pinpoint fire from every other regiment as well as their own. The Germans, who considered their’s the best, were astounded by the Canadians’ ability to rain huge barrages down precisely on target. Post-war German accounts of the fighting here repeatedly mention the dreaded Canadian field artillery. When Canadian infantry companies were being overrun, they often took what cover they could find and called in artillery barrages on their own positions, catching the Germans out in the open and astounded that they would do it.
In some of the fiercest action of WWII the Canadian Army advanced only 30-some miles, but they slugged it out against some of Germany’s toughest, most fanatical panzer divisions and battle-hardened infantry. Hitler had ordered them not to give up an inch of ground, and they tried desperately to obey. Nevertheless, the Canadian units drove them into the famous Falaise Pocket from which only remnants of crack German divisions escaped.
One reason why writings by men on these front lines is rare is that few lived to tell about it. Some of the Canadian outfits in this action suffered over 100% casualties. Some replacements who arrived at Blackburn’s regiment one evening were wiped out the same night. It takes a man who was there to REALLY know what it’s like to live in the same sopping-wet clothes, in mud-and-water-filled dugouts for weeks and weeks, rarely getting a warm meal, fighting today for ground they may have to give up tomorrow.
So much detail seeps from one’s memory, and for those who try to keep notes, doing so is daunting in conditions where imagination is needed to even keep written target coordinates preserved long enough for them to be used by the gun crews. George Blackburn was a reporter before enlisting in the Canadian Army in 1939. He took notes during combat and somehow preserved them. And, he survived the war to use them. After the war he interviewed some of the men he writes about. He visited the battlefield almost thirty years later gathering more material. His life after the war included writing in several professional regimes. His skill at painting vivid recollections of minute-to-minute life on the battlefield is evident throughout this splendid work.
I like the author’s way of arranging the book into short chapters, each of which is an episode in the whole campaign. I like his way of presenting his first-person narrative, using “you” for “I”. It works very well: “For a moment your attention is drawn to an opening in the stone wall, where a giant German tank, which you believe is a Panther, points its long-barrelled gun right at you.”
This book, and its companion “The Guns of Victory,” (even better, if that’s possible) are the best accounts of battlefield action I’ve read. Even that exemplary novelist and war historian Len Deighton, with his outstanding “Fighter” historical novel and “Bomber” true account (or was it the other way around?) doesn’t measure up to this. Blackburn stands above Remarque (“All’s Quiet on the Western Front”) and Siegfried Knappe (“Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier”)
Detail — vivid, essential detail – provides a crucial underpinning of the gripping narrative. 4th Field’s training in England allowed us to appreciate its excellence on the battlefield. I was honored to meet some of the men, like that gallant and resourceful Capt. Bill Waddell, for just one. From the descriptions of the bombings of Canadian forces by American and RAF bombers I have gained a new understanding of how devastating saturation bombing really is. Geez! For men who are already at the ragged edge of human endurance to suffer bombing by friendly air forces …
We think of war as being conducted by infantry and tanks and planes – and of course generals in their comfy commands back there. There are many more. I was pleased to learn about the vast support network behind the troops in the thick of it. The Canadians fired more rounds per gun per day in this campaign than has ever been fired before – more rounds overall than during the Normandy beachhead. How does the ammo – MOUNTAINS of ammo — the fuel, the food, the medical help get to the front? How do they even know where the front is from one day to the next? (Some didn’t, like that intrepid motorcycle messenger.) And, of course, who carries the casualties from the front, and the replacements for them? (The dead usually had to be left where they fell: the overpowering stench of thousands of dead Canadians and Germans is always there.)
Footnotes, not so many as to inundate us, appear on the page, not as endnotes which keep readers flipping back and forth. The book has a fine index.
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8:48 pm
http://www.cda-cdai.ca/seminars/2004/thorne.htm
For all our talk about a lack of Canadian identity and so on, there is a Canadian way – and no where is it more evident than among our very capable soldiers overseas. I have seen it. An example came on the mountain known as the Whale in eastern Afghanistan. It was March 2002 and Canadian soldiers had launched their first combat offensive operation in 50 years. There were supposed to be between 60 and 80 highly motivated, suicidal al-Qaida fighters waiting for the Canadians on that mountain. The fact is, by the time we got there, they weren’t there. Most had left. There was, however, a single, lonely donkey wandering around the cliffs and hillsides. It had probably humped more mortar rounds for the al-Qaida during the past month than Canadians had fired in decades. But it didn’t matter. The animal posed no threat. There were 600 Canadians on that mountain and 100 American troops. For all we knew at the time, there was an al-Qaida fighter around every corner. It was a highly charged atmosphere, yet the Canadians – as Canadians are wont to do – feared for the donkey’s safety. So they broke open some infra-red glo-sticks and smeared the stuff all over the donkey so he could be seen at all hours. Then they sent him on his way. A little while later, there was a volley of gunfire and the donkey was dead, shredded by hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The Americans had blown him away.
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9:31 pm
Read the article you idjit
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11:26 pm
One member of the team, a corporal from Newfoundland, said on his first night in combat he and his partner got an al-Qaeda machine gun in their sights as it was hailing bullets down on U.S. troops below. Crawling up into a good position, they set up their .50-calibre rifle — the MacMillan Tac-50, a weapon the corporal compares to having superhuman power in your hands. “Firing it feels like someone slashing you on the back of your hockey helmet with a hockey stick.” When he hit his first target, an enemy gunman at a distance of 1,700 metres, he said all that ran through his mind was locating his next target. “All I thought of was Sept. 11th and all those people who didn’t have a chance and the American reporter who was taken hostage, murdered and his wife getting the videotape of the execution; that is my justification.”
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During the next four days of fighting, the Newfoundland corporal set what is believed to be a record for a long-distance shot under combat conditions, hitting an enemy gunman at a distance of 2,430 metres.
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Three of them, along with U.S. special forces soldiers, also rescued a company of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division that was pinned down by enemy fire on the first day of Operation Anaconda.
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Lieutenant Justin Overbaugh, of the American scout platoon to which the Canadian snipers were attached, said it was a pleasure to work with the Canadian troops [in "Operation Harpoon"]. “Their professionalism was amazing,” Lieut. Overbaugh said. “The Canadians were a very large asset to the mission. I would have loved to have 12 Canadian sniper teams out there. I’d have no problems fighting alongside of them again.” He said the Canadian snipers had equipment far superior to theirs. Their rifles had longer range than the U.S. weapons and better high-tech sights. Lieut. Overbaugh said if another mission comes up, he will request the Canadian sniper teams be sent with his unit. Senior military officials in Ottawa made a point of praising their work at the time. “The sniper teams suppressed enemy mortars and heavy machine-gun positions with deadly accuracy,” Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison said after Operation Harpoon ended. “Their skills are credited with likely having saved many allied lives.”
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12:26 am
Professionalism Under Fire: Canadian Implementation of the Medak Pocket Agreement, Croatia 1993
Lee A. Windsor
For many Canadians, the Somalia Affair became a symbol of their armed forces in the 1990′s. Intense media coverage of a Somali teen’s murder by Canadian paratroopers, its cover-up by senior bureaucrats and officers at National Defence Headquarters and a series of subsequent scandals shook public confidence in the nation’s military institutions. Negative coverage particularly in the first half of the 1990′s created an image of military incompetence and unprofessionalism, vividly captured in letters to the editor to major newspapers across the country. In recent years that image was balanced with more positive ones of Canadian Forces personnel protecting the peace in the Former Yugoslavia, Africa, and East Timor. Nevertheless, the spectre of Somalia still lingers in the minds of many both in and out of uniform.
The strong presence of Somalia in the national collective memory is perhaps partly a result of the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Canadian deployment to East Africa, revealingly titled Dishonoured Legacy: The Lessons of the Somalia Affair. This report is one of the few publicly accessible, quasi-scholarly accounts of a Canadian military operation in the last decade which is based on an allegedly full appreciation of primary sources. Essentially, the report represents a first draft of Canadian military history since the end of the Cold War.
Composed by a commission of two jurists and a senior journalist, the report lent credibility to public perceptions that the Canadian Forces in the 1990′s were deficient and in danger of collapse. The commissioners claimed that during Operation Deliverance (the mission to Somalia) “systems broke down and organizational discipline crumbled” within the Canadian Airborne Battlegroup, and that “planning, training, and overall preparations fell far short of what was required…. We can only hope that Somalia represents the nadir of the fortunes of the Canadian Forces. There seems to be little room to slide lower.” The report implies that Canada’s military personnel were poorly trained, incompetently led, badly equipped, and quite often rascist. Dishonoured Legacy is especially influential as an historical text since it passes criticism of the Somalia operation to all of Canada’s military institutions based on an admittedly incomplete investigation of criminal activity and cover-up during the mission of one battlegroup on a foreign deployment.
In fact, Operation Deliverance was only one of dozens of missions carried out by Canadian soldiers, sailors, and aircrew during the past decade. Before accepting the commission’s condemnation of the professionalism and leadership of the armed forces, and of the army in particular, it would be useful to scrutinize other military activity during the same period. The Balkans are a good place to start. Indeed, Canadian experience in the Former Yugoslavia is more representative of the nation’s military experience in the 1990′s than the rather unusual case of Somalia.
Since 1992, tens of thousands of Canadian military and naval personnel have endeavoured to restore peace to the Balkans. They have acted as peacekeepers, negotiators, aid workers, and quite often as combat soldiers. Initial examination of a number of Canadian missions to the region in 1992-94, including those at Sarajevo, Srebrnica, and the Medak Pocket, seem to contrast with the Somalia Commission’s findings about poor leadership and training. What follows is a closer investigation of Canadian efforts to implement the Medak Pocket Agreement in 1993 to determine if the nation’s armed forces were truly at their “nadir” during the fateful year of the Somalia scandal.
In mid-September 1993 United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) soldiers from 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (2PPCLI) advanced into the disputed Medak Pocket in southern Croatian with orders to implement the latest cease-fire between Croatian Army troops and Serb irregular forces. 2PPCLI were reinforced with two mechanized companies of French troops. The Canadians, well schooled in the delicate art of “peacekeeping”, discovered their negotiation skills and strict impartiality were not immediately required the Medak Pocket. Instead they found themselves calling upon their primary war-fighting skills when Croatian Army units opened fire with machine-guns, mortars and artillery in an effort to stop the Canadian advance. To complete their assigned mission the Patricia’s were required to threaten the use of, and ultimately use, deadly force against Croatian units. However, the true test of military professionalism and discipline came after the smoke cleared, the Croatians backed down and the Canadians immediately reverted to their role as impartial peacekeepers in their dealings with individuals who only moments before had attempted to kill them.
Resolute Canadian and French action came at a time when the UN reputation in Croatia was at a low ebb due to repeated failures to secure the infamous United Nations Protected Areas (UNPA’s). Colonel George Oehring, commander of UNPROFOR Sector South, claimed the Princess Patrcia’s “won for the whole mission a credibility and respect that will be long remembered by the opposing parties and much facilitate our future efforts here.” For their efforts, 2PPCLI was awarded a United Nations Force Commander’s Commendation from French General Cot, the first of its kind of one of only three awarded in UNPROFOR’s history.
Of course, the Canadians originally went to the Former Republic of Yugoslavia to protect a fragile truce, not to impose peace on warring factions locked in a bloody civil war. Until the early 1990′s Yugoslavia was a federation of consisting of six republics including Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, all quite similar in language, culture and custom. Despite the presence of ultra-nationalist movements in each republic, the Yugoslav federation existed harmoniously earning international acclaim and the privilege of hosting the world at the 1984 Winter Olympics.
The collapse of centralized communist authority in Yugoslavia during the late 1980′s brought nationalists in each republic into mainstream politics. In Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic and in Croatia Franjo Tudjman, rose to power by destroying the carefully constructed Yugoslav identity in favour of a new nationhood based on blood and religion. In the process, Serbia, most powerful of the six republics, attempted to take control over the crumbling federation. This did not appeal to growing nationalist movements in Croatia and Slovenia resulting in declarations of independence in 1991, followed closely by a similar move in Bosnia. Croatia and Bosnia contained large numbers of ethnic Serbs, hostile to the federal breakup. Croatian and Bosnian Serbs established paramilitary forces to resist their respective new governments leading to two distinctly separate civil wars.
During the opening months of these wars, the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), on orders from Belgrade, openly intervened to prevent the breakup of the federation. JNA involvement usually meant assisting Serb militias in Croatia and Bosnia. However, the regular army was a mirror of the old federation and thus suffered from the same problems of divided loyalties. Non-Serb officers and senior NCO’s left the JNA to join the new national armies of their home republics. This exodus of non-Serbs destroyed cohesion in the JNA, thus eliminating the only modern professional military force in Yugoslavia. With no army left to implement its goals and an economy on the verge of collapse, Serbia gradually withdrew from conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia, leaving Serb minorities there to fend for themselves against the newly created Bosnian and Croatian armies. Serb militias acquired weapons, vehicles, and even volunteers from the JNA as it withdrew, while newly created Croatian and Bosnian forces received equipment from outside sources like Germany and the United States. However, equipment alone does not build an army. It would take years before the various militias and armed gangs would coalesce into professional military forces.
For most of the period between 1992-95, the Yugoslav wars of succession were waged by amateurs. When the JNA was removed from the equation, they took with them the normal codes of conduct held by modern professional military officers. Rival militias fired weapons in the vicinity of opposing troops, more often than not, intent on killing civilians. The result was to create a pattern of combat where military casualties were few. The new armies knew how to kill, but not how to wage war against other soldiers properly. Unprotected civilians were a different matter. And so, the objective in these wars was not to defeat the opponent’s combat power but to consolidate new ethnic nation-states by killing or driving out those who did not fit.
The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) entered this storm in 1992, first in Croatia and later in Bosnia. In Croatia, the UN brokered a cease-fire between the new Croatian government in Zagreb and minority Serbs who sought independence from the new state. The peace agreement included establishment of a UN patrolled buffer zone in under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. Both parties welcomed the cease fire, when in fact it held, as an opportunity to build their military capabilities until such time as victory could be assured. This was the environment faced by Canadian soldiers making up UNPROFOR’s Canadian Battalion Number 1 in 1993.
The second rotation of CANBAT 1 was based on the “regular force” 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. However, of the 875 soldiers making up the battlegroup, only 375 actually came from that unit. One hundred and sixty five came from other regular force units and assignments. The remainder consisted of 385 reserve soldiers who had volunteered from militia units across the Canada. Due to the requirement for highly skilled and experienced regular soldiers in support and technical trade positions within the battlegroup and the overall shortage of combat infantry soldiers in the Canadian Army, the majority of those reservists served in the rifle companies. In fact, reserve soldiers made up 70% of rifle company strength during the mission. This includes 7 out of the 12 platoon commanders who came from militia battalions as Reserve Entry Scheme Officers (RESO).
Reserve augmentation was not new in the Canadian Army. For decades, under-strength regular battalions had their ranks filled out with reservists before deploying to Cyprus. Indeed, after much debate in the Canadian defence community, providing regular unit augmentation with individual soldiers became a primary role for reserve regiments in the 1990′s. Augmentation was particularly vital during the time of immediate post-Cold War conflict proliferation, a corresponding spike in the number and intensity of peacekeeping missions combined with shrinking personnel pools and budgets. This was especially true in 1993 when the army, now known as Land Forces Command, was stretched nearly beyond its means; providing two battlegroups to the Former Yugoslavia (the other in Bosnia), one to Somalia and a number of other units, detachments and individual soldiers to a myriad of missions around the world. Nevertheless the 2 PPCLI Battlegroup in Croatia contained the highest concentration of reserve soldiers on an operational mission to date. The standard of Militia performance in a tense and demanding theatre like Croatia, remained to be seen.
The 2PPCLI Battlegroup spent the first three months of 1993 conducting preparation training first in Winnipeg, and later in Fort Ord, California. Much of this time was spent working the large reserve compliment up to basic regular force standards for section and platoon battle-drills. There was no time to properly exercise companies, let alone the whole battalion. Besides, section and platoon skills were generally all that is required of soldiers manning observation posts on UN peacekeeping duty. No one could know that the 2 PPCLI platoons would be called upon to gel together and go into action as a full battalion.
2 PPCLI moved to Croatia at the end of March 1993, replacing 3 PPCLI on what Land Forces Command referred to as Operation Harmony. At that time, UNPROFOR’s CANBAT 1 was responsible for a UN Protected Area in Sector West, in the north-western corner of Croatia. It was there that Lieutenant-Colonel James Calvin, commanding the 2PPCLI Battlegroup, and his troops developed a reputation among the warring parties and their fellow UN contingents for being fair, but tough.
Unlike units from most other international contingents, Canadian battalions operated with its full compliment of war-fighting weaponry and equipment. Rifle companies travelled in M-113 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC’s) configured in an American armoured cavalry fashion with an armoured cupola offering some protection for crewmen manning the powerful Browning .50 calibre machine-gun. The companies also carried along with them C-6 medium machine-guns and 84mm Carl Gustav anti-tank rocket launchers to add to platoon weaponry consisting of C-7 automatic rifles and C-9 light machine-guns.
Rifle company firepower was amplified by the heavy weapons of Support Company including 81mm mortars and TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-armour guided missiles mounted in armoured turrets aboard purpose-built APC’s. Canada was among the first member nations to deploy blue-helmeted soldiers with this kind of firepower when UNPROFOR first deployed to Croatia in 1992. This sort of stance was not initially well received in UN Headquarters in New York, where the traditional notion of lightly armed blue-bereted peacekeepers prevailed. However, by 1993, the value of well-armed forces in the Former Yugoslavia, where the consent of the warring parties was not always apparent, was well understood.
Once on the ground, 2 PPCLI earned their tough reputation not only with their equipment, but by their demonstrated willingness to use it. Not long after their arrival, the battalion conducted a major defensive exercise in the sector. The exercise was intended partially to complete the battlegroup’s collective training and improve force cohesion, but also to demonstrate to the Croats that an attack into the UN Protected Area in Sector West would and could be resisted by the UN.
The Patricia’s vigorously enforced weapons bans in their area of operations, seizing contra-band arms of all types from both warring factions. Colonel Calvin also, on his own initiative, developed a procedure to deter Croat and Serb patrolling and raiding within the Protected Area. Previously, belligerent soldiers detained by the UN after engaging in such activity would be returned to their own authorities for punishment. Calvin began releasing detainee’s to the opposing forces with UN civilian police keeping a close eye to ensure punishment was not ‘terminal’.
After five months of in-theatre training coupled with hands on practice, the 2PPCLI Battlegroup became one of the most effective and respected units in all of UNPROFOR. It was for that reason that the new Force Commander, French Army General Cot, selected them to move to Sector South to undertake one of the more difficult assignments in United Nations peacekeeping history.
Unlike 2PPCLI’s relatively tranquil former area of responsibility, Sector South was still a war zone. It was here that Croatian Serbs most fiercely resisted the notion of living under Zagreb’s rule. Croatian and Serb troops routinely exchanged small arms, mortar and artillery fire all over the area. This steady exchange of fire was punctuated in 1993 by several major Croatian offensives, including “Operation Maslencia” in January. At Maslencia, French troops guarding the UN Protected Area were forced to abandon their positions when faced with heavy Croatian fire. The French withdrawal allowed advancing Croatian units to occupy the supposedly de-militarized buffer zone. This event destroyed Serb confidence in the force mandated to protect them. It also taught the Croatians that a few well directed bullets and shells would send the blue-helmets packing anytime they wished to remove prying UN eyes.
Nonetheless, by summer of 1993 both sides had been pressured by the international community into a new ceasefire in Sector South known as the Erdut Agreement. Under the terms of this agreement, Croatian forces would withdraw from many of the territories gained in the Maslencia offensive. The Canadian battlegroup, reinforced with two mechanized French companies brought in from Bosnia and northern Croatia, was ordered to ensure that Croatia followed through with the agreement.
General Cot anticipated that Croatian troops would be reluctant to withdraw from their hard-won gains. This is why he chose the well armed and highly effective CANBAT 1 to implement the agreement and restore UN presence in Sector South. Cot expected and even hoped for trouble as he was looking for an opportunity to win back UN credibility lost in January. He would get his wish.
While Cot expected trouble, he may not have been aware of the extent to which Croatian forces used the Erdut negotiations to shield preparations for a renewed offensive in Sector South. On 9 September, as lead UN elements moved into the village of Medak, the Croatian 9th “Lika Wolves” Guards Brigade commenced its assault on the salient section of front known as the Medak Pocket. Intelligence assessments later indicated the Croats were most likely attempting to push back the frontline so that their operational zone headquarters in the town of Gospic would be out range from Serb gunners located in the long narrow Medak salient. They may also have intended to drive a corridor to the Dalmatian coast, or draw attention away from domestic political controversies back in Zagreb.
The Lika Wolves Guards Brigade were well supported with tanks and artillery, including a squadron of former East German Army T-72′s as well as older model Warsaw Pact armour. However, while the Croat force contained all the trappings of a modern mechanized army, it applied its combat power in very rudimentary fashion. Artillery was used to lay down a simple creeping barrage while the infantry and armour advanced without any degree of co-ordination. As Croat armour pushed down the main road along the valley between Gospic and Gracac, a Croat light infantry force operating in the mountains to the south moved to close off the Medak Pocket from the opposite direction. The even more poorly organized and equipped Serb defence collapsed under the crude, but effective Croat onslaught.
The Croat preliminary barrage on Serb defences in the Medak Pocket commenced as lead elements of 2PPCLI were moving up to the front, through the Serb rear area, in preparation to implement the Erdut agreement. The outbreak of heavy fighting required a rapid and dramatic adjustment to Canadian plans. Trained to react quickly to unexpected developments on a fast-moving battlefield, the Patricia’s easily managed the adjustment. Forward platoons immediately commenced construction of fortifications to protect against the bombardment. The well-drilled Patricia’s took advantage of every lull in the barrage to further sandbag and revet positions. Over 500 mortar, field and medium shells fell in an area the size of Parliament Hill around Lieutenant Tyrone Green’s 9 Platoon from Charlie Company within the village of Medak itself. This did not deter Green and his men from carrying out their newly assigned tasks of gathering intelligence on the developing battle and recording cease-fire violations. It is a tribute to their high-intensity war fighting skills, including a thorough appreciation of the effects of artillery, that only four Canadians were wounded during the shelling. If the Croats expected their barrage on Serb defences would also drive off the UN, they were wrong.
Serb reinforcements poured into the Medak Pocket from all over Yugoslavia and in two days managed to stop the Croatian advance cold, but not before the ten kilometre long and five kilometre wide salient had been pinched out and the front line straightened, roughly 3000 metres northwest of Medak. Fighting raged on in a bitter stalemate for two more days until Serb artillery opened fire on the Croatian city of Karlovac, and then launched a FROG long range missile into a Zagreb suburb. Serb retaliation coupled with growing pressure from the international community was enough to convince President Tudjman to abandon the offensive and withdraw his forces to their pre- 9 September startline. A verbal agreement to that effect was signed into the “Medak Pocket Agreement” on 13 September. It would be up to the reinforced Canadian battlegroup to ensure all parties complied with the new terms.
Up to this point, 2PPCLI had just been passive – if direct – participants in the Medak Pocket action. However, that soon changed. At 1630 on 14 September, 1993 Lieutenant-Colonel Calvin held an Orders Group (“O” Group) with his subordinate officers and NCO’s to review plans for the coming operation. The new withdrawal agreement was to be implemented in four phases. The first step of occupying Serbian frontline positions would be made by 2PPCLI’s Charlie Company and one French company on 15 September. Phase 2 would see Charlie Company, under the watchful eyes of the anti-armour platoon, establish a crossing point in the no-man’s land between the opposing armies on the main paved road running the length of the valley floor. In phase 3, Delta Company and the second French Company from FREBAT 3 would move along the road, through the secure crossing point and on to occupy the forward Croatian positions. 2PPCLI’s Reconnaissance Platoon and the battalion tactical headquarters would follow Delta company into the pocket. The last step would be to oversee the Croatian withdrawal to their pre-9 September positions thereby completing the separation of forces and establishing a new demilitarized zone. The Patricia’s Alpha and Bravo Companies, which only just arrived in the area from Sector West, would secure the remainder of the CANBAT 1′s area of responsibility during the operation. Unfortunately the Canadians would have to do without its 81mm mortar platoon. Since the unit was due to rotate home in only a few weeks, the tubes had already been shipped back to Canada.
In the hours prior to the operation General Cot personally flew into the area to speak to Colonel Calvin, essentially taking overall command of the operation and eliminating the link to Sector South Headquarters in Knin. Too much was riding on the coming events to have any delay in the reporting chain or any misunderstanding about what was to happen. The Force commander reminded Calvin of how vital it was that his battlegroup succeed in order to restore UN credibility. Cot also indicated that details of the Medak Pocket Agreement had not likely made it from Zagreb down to the frontline Croatian soldiers that would be soon encountered. General Cot strongly implied that force may have to be used to ensure their compliance with the agreement. He reminded Calvin that the UN rules of engagement allowed to blue helmeted Canadian and French troops to return fire in kind if they or their mandate were threatened. The mission was clear and the stage set.
The M-113 Armoured Personnel Carriers of Charlie Company rolled forward on 15 September on schedule. Not long after setting off, Lieutenant Green’s 9 Platoon came under small arms and machine gun fire from the Croatian lines. At first it appeared that General Cot was right about the Croat frontline units not being advised that the Canadians were coming. The solution to this problem seemed obvious. Get the white painted armoured vehicles out in the open where there would be no mistake that it was UNPROFOR advancing, rather than a Serb counter-attack..
Large blue UN flags were fixed to radio antenna and the carriers driven out of a tree line into the open. This brought an increase in Croat fire, including heavy machine gun, rocket propelled grenades and 20mm anti-aircraft gunfire. It was now obvious that the Croatians had no intention of letting the Canadians advance. All along the Charlie and FREBAT 1 Company front, the blue helmets halted in whatever defensive positions they could find, roughly along the former Serb line. For the next 15 hours, the Croatians shot it out with Canadian and French troops. Interestingly enough, of all the weapons used against the advancing UN troops, the deadly T-72′s known to be in the area did not make an appearance. Perhaps Croat officers were aware of the potency of the TOW anti-armour missile system, especially when manned by Canadian crews, and were unwilling to risk their precious new vehicles.
It was not exactly a battle, at least not by the standards of western armies where positions are attacked with fire and movement. There were no infantry assaults or sweeping tank thrusts to seize ground held by the UN. That is not how war is waged in the Balkans. Ground combat in the Former Yugoslavia consisted of both sides attempting to make opposing positions untenable by bring maximum fire to bear. Conversely, as soon as a position became too dangerous due to accurate and sustained fire, it was abandoned. Any movement that involved placing troops in the open was avoided. Weapons were plentiful in the region but soldiers, especially of the trained variety, were not. This way of war may also be a vestige of Tito’s guerilla military doctrine that formed the basis of the old Yugoslav National Army in which many of the officers and NCO’s on both sides had served.
The argument then is that by Balkan definition, the Croat firefight with Canadian and French soldiers was indeed a battle. It surely seemed that way to Sergeant Rod Dearing’s section of 2PPCLI’s 7 Platoon on Charlie Company’s right in the village of Licki Citluck. It was there that some of the heaviest firing took place, often at ranges of 150 metres. At one point in the evening Croat mortars and 20mm autocannons went to work on the Canadian trench line. Croat infantry tried repeatedly to flank Dearing’s section, but each time they were driven off by Canadian rifle and machine-gun fire directed by a Starlight telescopic night vision sight. In the early hours of 16 September, when Croat troops made one last attempt to push out the Patricia’s, Private Scott LeBlanc leapt out of his trench blazing away at the attackers with his belt-fed C-9 light machine-gun. Leblanc’s audacious act was apparently enough to convince the Croats that these Canadians were not about to give ground and that it was time to pull back. Regardless of how this action compares to other larger battles in Canadian military history, for the riflemen of Charlie Company, it was war. Five of Dearing’s men were reservists, including LeBlanc.
Over on the UNPROFOR right, the French Company was having better luck. Each of their mechanized platoons was equipped with one VAB infantry fighting vehicle mounting a 20mm auto-cannon in an armoured turret. When hostile fire was returned with this powerful and accurate weapon, Croat troops were less inclined to offer resistence.
The firefights lasted all night and early into the next morning. During the night Colonel J.O.M. “Mike” Maisonneuve, UNPROFOR’s Chief Operations Officer, arrived from Zagreb in an effort to talk down the Croatians. Eventually, Maisonneuve, Lieutenant-Colonel Calvin, and a senior UN Military Observer drove down the main road to meet with the local Croat commander. Operational Zone Commander General Ademi, rough equivalent to a NATO corps commander, agreed to the meeting and let the Canadians delegation pass through the lines to his headquarters in Gospic. After much heated discussion, Ademi agreed not resist phase 2 and that the Canadians could establish the crossing point that night without Croatian interference. Phase 3 would commence at 1200 the following day when Delta Company would pass through the crossing point to move into the Croatian trench line. During the night, Major Dan Drew and his Delta Company Headquarters moved up the road to the crossing point. The remainder of the company would join him in the morning for their 1200 departure time.
The Patricia’s rose to a horrifying sight on the morning of 16 September. Smoke could be seen rising from several villages behind Croatian lines. Explosions and an occasional burst of automatic rifle fire could also be heard. It suddenly became clear why the Croatians resisted the Canadian advance. Those villages were inhabited predominantly by Serbs and Croatian Special Police were not yet finished ethnically cleansing them.
Colonel Calvin clamoured for action and immediately recalled Colonel Maisonneuve to meet again with General Ademi. Unfortunately, with only four widely separated companies and no supporting tanks or artillery, Calvin’s force had no chance in a frontal attack against the entire Croatian 9th Brigade which had tanks and heavy guns. Even if the Canadians did have the strength, it would be far beyond the scope of UNPROFOR’s mandate to deliver a full attack. Returning aimed fire was one issue, but launching an assault was another. There was little the Canadians could do but sit back wait for the 1200 timing. As they waited they listened helplessly to the explosions and shooting and imagined what was happening to the Serb civilians to their front.
Delta Company rolled ahead on schedule at noon mounted in their M-113′s and accompanied by several TOW anti-armour vehicles. They no sooner started down the road in column before they ran into a Croatian roadblock. To the left of the road sat a very modern and very deadly T-72 main battle tank, a gift from Germany. On the right side of the road, two towed anti-tank guns and a bank of Sagger missiles were aimed at the Canadian column. A company of Croatian infantry protected by a hastily laid mine field that completed the obstacle.
The senior Croatian officer on the barrier refused Major Drew’s demand that his company be allowed to pass. Weapons on both sides were made ready for action. This tense Mexican standoff lasted over an hour. Throughout the standoff, the well trained and highly disciplined Canadian riflemen maintained their cool while the Croats grew increasingly uneasy. Essentially the resolute and stern-faced Canadians began to stare down the Croatians manning the roadblock.
During the tension, Colonel Calvin arrived on the scene. He argued heatedly with the ranking Croat officer, Brigadier General Mezic. Mezic was General Ademi’s senior liaison officer. His presence at the road block indicated that the Operational Zone Commander had no intention of keeping his word. In fact, Mezic was stalling to give Croatian Special Police the time they needed to destroy evidence of ethnic cleansing.
Shortly after 1300, Calvin took a gamble to break the deadlock and avoid a bloody point-blank shootout in the middle of the road. Some 20 international journalists had accompanied Delta Company, all seeking to cover the story of the Croatia’s latest invasion of the Serbian Krajina. It was time to bring them into action. Calvin called the media crews to the front of the column and held a press conference, complete with cameras, in front of the roadblock. He told the reporters what Croatian policemen were doing on the other side of the barricade and had the camera’s film the Croatian’s obvious interference with the UN’s effort to make peace.
The cameras broke the increasingly shaky Croat resolve. By 1330, Delta Company was on the move. Calvin’s imaginative ploy was too late to stop the ethnic cleansing of Serb villages in the Medak Pocket, but it did allow the blue-helmets to reach most of the villages before all traces of Croatian atrocities could be erased. Unfortunately, the battlegroup was also held up later in the afternoon by senior UN officials who insisted that they stick to a rigid time table for advancing into the pocket, a timetable that did not take into account that with every wasted minute, more evidence was destroyed. It was not until 17 September that UNPROFOR soldiers occupied the whole area.
The next few days were the most difficult for Canadian soldiers involved in the Medak Pocket operation. Their job was now, along with civilian police officers, and UN medical officers, to sweep the area for signs of ethnic cleansing. The task was enormous. Each and every building in the Medak Pocket had been levelled to the ground. Truck loads of firewood had been brought to start intense fires among the wooden buildings. Brick and concrete buildings were blow apart with explosives and anti-tank mines. The Croatians completed their task by killing most of the livestock in the area. That was the small-arms firing heard on 16 September. In addition, oil or dead animals were dumped into wells to make them unusable for Serbs entertaining any thought of return.
Only 16 Serb bodies were found scattered in hidden locations. The open ground was littered with rubber surgical gloves. Calvin and his men believed the gloves indicated that most Serb dead laying in the open were transported elsewhere and only those hidden in basements or in the woods had been left behind in haste. A mass grave containing over fifty bodies was later located in the vicinity. The bodies that were recovered included those of two young women found in a basement. They had apparently been tied up, shot and then doused with gasoline and burned. When found, the bodies were still hot enough to melt plastic body bags. At another location, an elderly Serb woman had been found shot four times in the head, execution style.
While the job of gathering evidence may have been the most difficult for the Canadians, haunting many of the young soldiers to this day, it was of critical importance. The Medak Pocket provided the world with the first hard evidence that Serbia, although probably the largest, was not the sole perpetrator of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. Also, the meticulous Canadian procedures used to sweep and record evidence in the area became standardized in UNPROFOR, perhaps providing some degree of deterrence to those who may fear being called before a war crimes tribunal.
Canadian action at Medak earned back some of the respect for the United Nations lost at Maslencia. That same month, a Canadian officer, Colonel George Oehring, took over as commander of Sector South. Oehring was in a better position that anyone to feel the effects of Medak.
Medak restored UNPROFOR’s credibility resulting in renewed dialogue leading to a local informal cease-fire in November, a more formal and wider one at Christmas, and a “bilateral”, universal cease-fire signed in Zagreb on 29 March, 1994. Everybody hated us in September 1993. I was stoned and threatened during my first trip to Zadar to meet the Croat commander there. Medak changed all this. The Serbs, right up to my departure a year later, would spontaneously mention the resolute fairness of the Canadians at Medak, while the Croats, although grudgingly at first, came to respect the Canadians in Sector South.
Unfortunately Medak did not go far enough in wiping away the memory of Maslencia. The Canadians may have documented Croat war crimes, but they could not stop them, adding to the sense of insecurity among the Serbs. However, Jim Calvin and his men can take comfort in the knowledge that they did everything within their means to keep order in Croatia. The international peacekeeping community was not yet ready in 1993 to take the kind of resolute steps seen last year in Kosovo. It would take several, much larger massacres around the world before international political will could be mustered to intervene and stop ethnic cleansing.
The joint Canadian-French operation at Medak represents a watershed in the development of international conflict resolution. It will be many years before scholars will be able to fully explain the ongoing transformation in the nature of modern military peace support operations. Sources are not yet available and not enough distance has been established to present a clear, accurate historical picture.
The Medak Pocket Operation occurred at the beginning of the transition period. The Canadian battlegroup possessed a high degree of combat power and a demonstrated willingness to use it. However, most other contingents in UNPROFOR were totally unprepared in regards to equipment, training and political will to engage in the types of action carried out by the Canadians at Medak.
Analysis of activities engaged in by Canadian troops at Medak offers an alternative view to the conclusions of the Somalia Report. Operations in UNPROFOR’s Sector South demanded the full range of capabilities possessed by Canadian soldiers, from fortification construction, marksmanship, and mechanized mobile combat to negotiation and basic investigation techniques. In all these categories, Canadian military leadership and training in the Medak Pocket was of the highest standard. Contrary to the findings of the Somalia Inquiry, the Canadian Army in 1993 contained dedicated, skilled, and well-disciplined professional soldiers. These troops were led by competent, educated, and highly capable officers and senior NCO’s.
Medak and Somalia were obviously not the only two Canadian military operations in the last decade. A great deal more research is necessary before a final verdict can be passed on Canadian Forces effectiveness in the 1990′s. One thing is clear, however. An institution capable of producing soldiers who could perform effectively in the difficult and constantly evolving conditions at Medak was probably not as close to collapse as some may think.
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12:28 pm
Canada’s citizen army, every man a volunteer, suffered more than 18,000 casualties in freeing Normandy from Hitler. More than 5,000 lie forever in the two huge Canadian war cemeteries at Beny-sur-Mer and Bretteville-sur-Laize in the lush green Norman countryside. Five thousand men, many of them just boys. Most were tough kids, survivors of the Great Depression’s travails, small and underweight compared to today’s well-off Canadians. The average education level of soldiers was around Grade 5. Still, every single one of them knew that the Second World War mattered to the world, to Canada and to them. If ever a war was a good war, it was this conflict that had to be won to destroy the evil incarnate that was Hitler and the Nazis and to ensure the survival of freedom and democracy.
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8:22 am
Warriors aren’t pretty, they aren’t boy scouts … in fact, they are more like rig-pigs with a brutal job to do and supported by a cast of often nervous handwringing loved ones. Christie delivers a wonderfully unfiltered version of 15 days in the Afghan heat with some of the toughest Canucks walking the earth.
Fifteen Days will become a key contribution to Canadian history. It will become a key work in revealing to Canadians how extraordinary … yet ordinary … our warriors are. It will become a key work in revealing how un-heroic … yet heroic, military families are.
As a supporter of Canadian involvement in Afghanistan I’ve got to get my shot in, so here it is.
I dare anyone to read Fifteen Days, then stand before Canadian warriors who have been there, or stand before their families, and tell them that Canada is wrong-headed in its involvement with Afghanistan … tell them that their services would best be served on the Golan, or in Cypress, or garrisoned here at home. I dare you.
Fifteen Days, by Christie Blatchford, read it.
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5:29 pm
YOU ARE A FUCKING DUMBASS.
THE CHINESE WERE NOT PART OF THE GREAT FUCKING WAR.
THE CANADIANS FUCKING JOINED WWI BEFORE THE FUCKING AMERICANS
GODDAMNIT I THINK YOU ARE JUST A FUCKING IDIOT WHOSE BEEN FUCKING DRIVEN INSANE BY THE DEVIL HIMSELF YOU FUCKING DUMBASS
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8:43 pm
D-Day anyone?
If it weren’t possible for canada’s involvement in the Dieppe Raid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_Raid), then D-Day would have not been possible. Also, that single canadian raid was the reason why the allies were encourages to develop radar-jamming technology.
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12:08 pm
Look at this skippy
Despite having a tiny army with a tiny budget, Canadians have positively terrifying reputations as fighters,” writes independent military correspondent, David Axe, in his online blog, http://www.warisboring.com/?cat=50 . “Many observers compare the Canadian army to the U.S. Marine Corps, as both leverage excellent training and strong fundamentals to compensate for mostly basic equipment and a general dearth of cash.”
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12:00 pm
Religion is by far, THEE most and foremost reason why there is war. How many people died or were murdered because of belief???
Get a clue.
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8:54 am
I’d also like to add the Bay of Pigs invasion to that list.
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3:58 pm
that was totally uncalled for. try to make your point without belittling someone. you are just a nasty person and no better than those slopes that jew-punched us in hawaii.
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7:01 pm
That was the British, and like usual two or three Canadians tagged along and try to take credit. You’ll note that America kicked the British out twice and saved them twice.
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7:18 pm
On second thought, disregard what I said. I fornicate to dolphins.
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12:18 am
way to write three full paragraphs that nobody cares about
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10:30 pm
Until Canada spends as much on war and sends just as many Americans to war, I don’t want to hear about it.
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11:12 pm
Why would Canada send Americans to war?
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12:20 am
Wow, you are so, so racist, my friend. Canadians are Americans too, much like our friends to the south of the US.
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7:48 am
Careful now, there are idiots in this community who will lie and say the Chinese never attacked Americans in battle.
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8:54 pm
Good. Probably never occurred to you yokels that animals are used in warfare.
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