Because it's title was the British Commonwealth.Then why are both the words British and Commonwealth used if not for the reason to single them out when needed. Why not just use the word Commonweath everywhere.
Because it's title was the British Commonwealth.Then why are both the words British and Commonwealth used if not for the reason to single them out when needed. Why not just use the word Commonweath everywhere.
I thought that was the mushheads in Quebec that thought that way.It's like referring to Canada as "Ontario".
Oh, wait, the people of Ontario really do think that they define and represent all that is Canadian! :nuts:
If you're referring to the Québécois, trying to separate from Canada is entirely different from defining and representing all that is Canadian; it's actually about 100 percent the opposite. Of course, not every Québécois is a separatist, nor is every Quebecker a francophone. Come to that, there are plenty of anglophone and allophone "mushheads" in Quebec too, though I don't know that they define and represent all that is Canadian either. Unless being a mushhead is in itself the Canadian essence.I thought that was the mushheads in Quebec that thought that way.
I wouldn't say this is true. The Canadians volunteered for Dieppe enthusiastically and were responsible for the planning and execution of the raid, though later writers have assigned the "blame" to Mountbatten and Combined Operations.The Canadians soldiers of WWII were treated very 'un-fairly' by their brothers in England; always given the 'shitty assignments, while the 'Pommies' sat and drank 'tea'.
The Scheldt Estuary fighting WAS my main source of complaint.<snipped some info>
The closest your assessment comes to being true is Antwerp, where the British failed to push on and secure the Scheldt Estuary - all 64 km of it - after capturing the vital port intact. Failure to do so gave the Germans time to move a garrison in and cost the Canadians a month of heavy fighting in the Breskens Pocket and the South Beveland peninsula. But British forces were involved here too, ditto Polish and Americans, and it was the British that liberated Walcheren Island. And hindsight is 20/20. Montgomery gets far too much stick for his caution; Antwerp and the Scheldt happened just as Arnhem was being planned and executed. One can forgive some operational caution along other areas of the front as that massive gamble was playing out.
<snipped some info>
I think it is safe to say that the Canadians and British were equally inconvenienced by the war.
Actually, it is two provinces....North Holland and South Holland...but let's not get too picky here.<snip> Why do people call The Netherlands "Holland" when "Holland" is just one province of the country?
I thought it might be. I appreciate you are more well-read than your easy-going posting style sometimes lets on. I wouldn't be too harsh on them. Imagine planning the largest airbone operation of the war - of recorded history - which was totally out of character for Montgomery to begin with, and then at the same time - thinking he might stick his neck out on a narrow peninsula like South Beveland, especially after the equally uncharacteristic breakneck run from the Seine to Brussels. What was it was said - that when the Arnhem operation was described, it was so flabbergasting they couldn't have been more surprised had the teetotaling Montgomery shown up at SHAEF HQ roaring drunk. I think you could maybe say the same about expecting a bold advance from Antwerp simultaneous to Arnhem.The Scheldt Estuary fighting WAS my main source of complaint.
Should have seen what went on after WWI. Over a year after the war ended there were Canadians in camps in the UK still waiting to be taken home.The Canadians soldiers of WWII were treated very 'un-fairly' by their brothers in England; always given the 'shitty assignments, while the 'Pommies' sat and drank 'tea'.
Draftees who got into it after 40,000 volunteers had already been killed in 1915-1917? Boo hoo.Should have seen what went on after WWI. Over a year after the war ended there were Canadians in camps in the UK still waiting to be taken home.
Was it any way to treat people who defended your country by interring them for a year? Lives were lost because of it. Riot at Kinmel camp.Draftees who got into it after 40,000 volunteers had already been killed in 1915-1917? Boo hoo.
A little decompression never hurt anyone. The alternative was taking a corps' worth of killing machines, giving them zero debriefing (that's what they got, incidentally) and throwing them back into civilian life.
Actually, I do believe the Khaki University was something of a success overseas, come to that.
I can't judge them 100 years after the fact. On the face of it, I have little sympathy for indisciplined rabble who riot against orders. My regiment mobilized the 10th Battalion in 1914, fought in every major Canadian battle of the war, and was demobbed and home in Calgary by April 1919. The problem wasn't pettiness, just shipping space. So it wasn't over a year for everyone; the last ones over waited their turn like everyone else. The Yanks waited too. Men got a decent wage. The 10th Battalion didn't take part in the riots - good disciplined units in the trenches found that their discipline followed them after the war. And only five men died at Kinmel Park, the worst of the rampages. Tragic? Maybe. More men die today on drunken benders on Labour Day weekend driving home. Every year. Despite the ad campaigns.Was it any way to treat people who defended your country by interring them for a year? Lives were lost because of it.
The ANZAC stealth bonus is an interesting one. It gives them a chance to turn the tables on the Japanese in the jungle and play "silly buggers" in Kunai / Jungle / Bamboo. Nothing like sticking some Japanese on the end of a Lee-Enfield bayonet.In ASL terms, British = all commonwealth. It does not distinguish between them, except in certain specific and narrow circumstances (ANZAC being stealthy).
I don't mean to brush off Trevor's concerns about World War I veterans, and you raise legit concerns also. I alluded to the same - veterans of the First World War came home with nothing in the way of psychological counselling, when they finally did get home. I just don't think anyone should think there was anything wilfull about it. We can't judge them by the standards of today. They honestly didn't know any better. They were still shooting people for "cowardice" (the Australians, notably, refused to), and you know, they felt very justified in doing it. I'm not positive we have the right to feel any moral outrage at that 100 years later. We could spend the next milennia reinventing ourselves - I hope we do, really - but we could also spend the next 1,000 years second guessing everything we ever did in the past as a society, too. It would be fruitless. Yes, we need to acknowledge that shooting those poor bastards was the wrong thing to do. But condemning the ones that did it solves nothing; they were acting in good faith. The more enlightened we become and the longer ago that becomes, the harder that is to accept, but so be it.Not only did many WW-I vets have to wait for extended periods to de-mob but a few, like my wife's G-pa, were sent to Russia to "guard" supplies. In fact it was there where he earned his wound stripe-and he didn't return to the U.S. until 1920. And then had to fight (politically) for their bonuses and other benefits. WW-I vets were some of the worst treated veterans of the "modern" era (at least from the perspective of the U.S. - and from what I've read not much better anywhere else by other nations as well).:salute:
And have you EVER heard of a quiet Australian? Hmm? Hmm?The ANZAC stealth bonus is an interesting one. It gives them a chance to turn the tables on the Japanese in the jungle and play "silly buggers" in Kunai / Jungle / Bamboo. Nothing like sticking some Japanese on the end of a Lee-Enfield bayonet.
They're usuually very quiet around End of Year Rugby League Finals, Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup matches, Super 15 games against real scrums, Netball gold medal games, and lately Ashes Test matches, I've found.And have you EVER heard of a quiet Australian? Hmm? Hmm?
I think not!
Well done P! You've managed to slip Netball into an ASL thread for the first time, in what, three years.Netball gold medal games...
Do Australians play "Cricket"?They're usuually very quiet around End of Year Rugby League Finals, Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup matches, Super 15 games against real scrums, Netball gold medal games, and lately Ashes Test matches, I've found.