D-Day: Montreal had a part
Lots in the media Thursday for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Metro has a piece on Montreal’s part in the war effort, both from a military and an industrial point of view.
The Journal has a summary of the massive battle in numbers, with almost as a footnote the reminder that a lot of Hitler’s forces were tied up on the eastern front while this went on. It’s easy to forget, while the west pats itself on the back, that Russia did at least half the work.
Tim S. 14:07 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Well, the Soviet Union did. It’s interesting to watch Russia claim the memory of the war while simultaneously bullying the ex-Soviet states that also fought and suffered.
And the Valentine tanks that were built in the Angus shops were sent to the Soviet Union, so it’s not like they were fighting single-handed anyways.
Douglas 14:20 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Russia did a lot bin ww2, arguably the most. But we won’t give them a lot of credit because of all the immediate suffering they imposed on surrounding countries for decades afterwards.
Raymond Lutz 15:08 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
It’s nice that the Soviets are mentioned. On this french site
you’ll see nice inforgraphics showing that USSR is the nation which most contributed to Hitler’s demise. Particularly the second one where military losses on the eastern and western fronts are illustrated independently (from 39 to 45) . They did more than half the work.
“But we won’t give them a lot of credit because of all the immediate suffering they imposed” Cough, cough… Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki… En temps de Guerre (et des décennies plus tard) la première vicitime est la vérité.
Douglas 16:47 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Fighting against Nazism and Imperial Japan (who started this entire WW2) is 100% morally right. Dresden, hamburg, horoshima are consequences to the pearl harbor and nazi germany. Unless you are “one of those” that believe we should have laid our guns down against Nazis and Japanese.
You have nice historical quotes, but you misapplied them completely. Soviet Union isn’t going to get any praise and thats too bad for them. Thank Stalin.
Douglas 16:57 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
And 1 more word about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My grandfather in his village in Asia lived through WW2 and talked about how the Japanese came and bombed all the rice fields in order to starve the populace and collapse the country they were trying to conquer. Grandfather walked over dead bodies every single day and had to eat bark off the tree in his backyard to survive.
You want to talk to me about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how we should reflect about how the Japanese were treated during this time? The audacity.
Oui, la vérité est définitivement oubliée.
Bill Binns 17:02 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
What Douglas said.
Let’s also not forget that The Soviet Union was fighting it’s own ally who they had recently handed Poland over to. They simply got stabbed in the back. They eventually won by throwing enough slave soldiers into the meat grinder to gum up the works. They then rewarded their heroic army by throwing any soldier who had so much as seen a German into the Gulag for a short life of forced labor.
US soldiers came home to the G.I. Bill and fueled an economy that was able to rebuild the battlefields of Europe…but yeah, the Soviets don’t get enough credit.
Myles 17:41 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
I fail to see what the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had to do with all of that. They didn’t deserve to get vaporized.
Douglas 18:04 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
What did my people have to do with WW2? Our citizens weren’t the ones sending airplanes and troops unprovoked into neighbouring countries trying to conquer them.
Someone had to take Japan down. Absolutely had to. The Atomic bomb was horrific but it was used to end the most horrific war ever fought.
By the way, the US helped rebuilt Germany and Japan post WW2. Communist Russia turned their “satelites” into destitute slaves. Japan and Germany are extremely militarily close . I can assume the Germans and Japanese understand the American actions during WW2 and found it ‘understandable’. Ask any Polish person today what they think of the Soviet Union…. won’t be any love there.
ottokajetan 18:35 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Out of curiosity to the naysayers, how much credit should the Soviets be given then? And why can’t they be both commended and criticized?
Bert 18:42 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
While the USSR did give its fathers, mothers and children as cannon fodder, perhaps part of the reason they are not always considered is that they started the war on the other side of the fence?
qatzelok 18:51 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
I won’t disagree that the Nazis were evil, because they attempted to genocide a nation of people. The USA successfully genocided 110 nations, so if the Nazis “deserved what they got,” the same can be said about some future nuking of North America.
Canada genocided both the Acadians, and later, the Metis. Hitler’s Germany was a student of the Scientific Racism that had been perfected in the USA, Britain and France. To much colonial success.
We’re no better, and you should always remember that as well.
Douglas 18:59 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Today I learn Canada is equivalent to Nazi Germany. Canada isn’t perfect in its history but saying we are like Nazi Germany is quite idiotic.
Nice attempt to be ‘edgy’.
Adam Pasha 20:10 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Speaking of Russia and WW2, everyone knows Nazis’ atrocities, but not many people know the Red Army’s atrocities in Germany and Eastern Europe during and after the war. Particularly the mass rapes that took place. Its estimated that 1-2 millions German woman were raped after the war, mostly in Soviet controlled areas.
Kate 21:43 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Wow, this discussion went sideways in a few directions. However, it remains true had the Nazis not been occupied on two huge fronts at the same time, D-Day might well not have been the success it was. Which was all I wanted to say.
Chris 22:54 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
Douglas, Canada is committing genocide *today*, don’t you know? 🙂
Raymond Lutz 23:45 on 2019-06-06 Permalink
“The Atomic bomb was horrific but it was used to end the most horrific war ever fought.” Surely I am not alone having read the war against Japan was _already_ won when the US dropped their two atomic bombs… For those reading french, I recommend this text from an Ancien officier canadien de la Royal Air Force who actually SERVED during that war (so he probably doesn’t talk through his ass): Effrayer les soviétiques, commencer la guerre froide.
“By the way, the US helped rebuilt Germany and Japan post WW2. Communist Russia turned their “satelites” into destitute slaves.”
{rolling eyes} By the way, rejecting Keynes’s Bancor proposition (at Bretton Woods conference in 1944), the US made the ENTIRE WORLD its destitute slave. Again, contrary to most commentators here, I’m sourcing my claims: Keynes is innocent: the toxic spawn of Bretton Woods was no plan of his.