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Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸

@CAFinUS

31 Oct

He evacuated troops near Dunkirk. He rescued survivors of ships torpedoed by the Nazis. While at sea, he slept standing up.

He rode a torpedo.

Now, Harry DeWolf is circumnavigating North America.

1940. Near Dunkirk, HMCS St. Laurent is rescuing soldiers when a German bomber appears.

The ship’s gunners are ready. They wait for the order. The bomber rakes the ship with bullets. Bombs land ten feet away.

DeWolf: Why the hell didn't you fire?

Gunnery Officer: Sorry, sir.

July 1940. The SS Arandora Star leaves Liverpool bound for Canada carrying more than 1600 Italian and German prisoners of war. A German U-boat torpedos the ship.

In waters teeming with enemy submarines, DeWolf and the crew of HMCS St. Laurent rescue 857, including these sailors.

Read 16 tweets

Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸

@CAFinUS

30 Sep

They tried to kill his language, his culture. Canada tried to take everything. Still, he signed up to fight for Canada.

Checker Tomkins became a secret weapon.

England, 1942.

The Americans are looking for Canadian soldiers fluent in Cree to create a new means of transmitting secret messages.

Armed with the words of his grandparents, Checker implements a code never broken by the Nazis.

Attached to U.S. Eighth Army Air Force, Checker transmits messages about troop movements, supply lines, and bombing runs.

Some words didn’t exist in Cree, so he improvised.

Spitfire = iskotew "fire"
Mustang = pakwatastim “wild horse"
B17 = amo tepakohposâp “bee"

Read 9 tweets

Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸

@CAFinUS

22 Sep

On D-Day, he wrote to the families of men killed by his side. In July, he stepped on a mine, earned the Legion d'honneur. He jumped into Arnhem, swam across the Rhine to escape.

He never forgot the liberation, the letters.

Charles Scot-Brown died Saturday.

Please remember him.

Charles was one of 673 Canadian officers who volunteered for service with British regiments.

He was a fresh-faced 20-year-old officer staring at his Sergeant who had three medals for bravery.

How would he win him over?

By darning socks. Obviously.

Read 10 tweets

Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸

@CAFinUS

10 Sep

They were halfway to America when the pilot made an announcement.

“We’ll be landing in Gander, Newfoundland.”

What? Why? Where’s Gander? Newfoundland?

They were on their way home from family trips or military deployments. Others were heading to fashion shows, make-a-wish trips, or business meetings, some to new lives in America.

6,700 people from 95 countries.

The Plane People.

Imagine that moment over the Atlantic.

You don’t have a smartphone or in-flight WiFi. When you land in Gander, information trickles in.

U.S. airspace closed. Planes hijacked.
New York City. The Pentagon. Pennsylvania.

What next? Where next?
You look around. Who next?

Read 14 tweets

Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸

@CAFinUS

2 Sep

September 2, 1945.

Officials gather aboard the USS Missouri to sign this document and end the Second World War.

Canada’s signature is missing? No. Look closely. We signed on the wrong line.

Everyone was watching.

It was quite the scene.

Who would make such a blunder?

Well, it could've been anyone, really. We've all done it. Okay, maybe not on an Instrument of Surrender.

This blunder's all Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave.