The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "HE TIMES” GISBORNE, THURSDAY, NOV. 2, 1944. CANADA AND THE WAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21551, 2 November 1944, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "HE TIMES” GISBORNE, THURSDAY, NOV. 2, 1944. CANADA AND THE WAR

There was a time early in the war when little outlet could be found for the unbounded energy of the Canadian land forces. The tide of fortune did not go well with the Allied armies which established themselves in France and Belgium shortly after the outbreak, and the Canadians stationed in Britain had no immediate opportunity of following in the footsteps of the older generation of soldiers who made a name for themselves at Vi my Ridge and Ypres and in many other sectors of the 1914-18 front. The young Canadians of the new army were keen to play their part and it was not surprising to hear that they were chafing under the "comparative inactivity” of what most people would have deemed particularly strenuous training. It was not long, however, before they were given a chance to prove then courage and skill in the commando type of raid, culminating in the adventure at Dieppe which, at considerable cost in life and limb, provided valuable experience and lessons in warfare for the high officers already planning the final invasion of French soil. Later, in Sicily and Italy, the Canadian land troops were given another and bigger chance to show their worth; and this they did. Still later they came into their own as a fullyfledged army in France —the First Canadian Army, which, shoulder lo shoulder with British comrades, has been making distinguished military history in the assault on Germany from the west.

In the course of the hectic fighting at Caen and Falaise and in the subsequent pursuit of the Germans into Holland through northern France and Belgium, including strongly-held Channel ports, the Canadian Army has given service which is too recent to need recapitulation. What is not so widely known is the full story of Canada in the war at sea and in the air. It may be surprising to some people, for instance, to learn that the Dominion has supplied nearly onethird of the fighting strength of the air forces grouped under, the various R.A.F. commands and that its airmen have suffered nearly 16,000 casualties during the war; besides which, as is more generally known, many thousands of young men from all over the Empire have received their air training—the most efficient training possible —on Canada’s hospitable fields. Then there is the Navy—every wltil as silent as the Royal Navy. Its activities, extending right across the broad Atlantic, have been a telling factor in the defeat of Germany’s prowling U-boats and have thus helped in no small measure to keep the British Isles reasonably well fed and to build up the huge island arsenal from which the invasion of Hitler's fortress was successfully launched. The Royal Canadian Navy has suffered approximately 2000 casualties. All this will not be the final chapter in the story of the Canadian war effort. The senior Dominion is beginning to turn its attention west to the Pacific. An old score has to be paid off against the Japanese; many Canadian soldiers were murdered after the hopeless fight to save Hongkong, to which troops had been hurriedly rushed in the fateful days of late 1941. But there are much broader issues than that. A full part by the side of the United Nations in the Far East war is to be claimed, and, just as Canada has been a valued terminal for the Atlantic aerial ferry service, so she is destined to occupy a similar role in the speedy swing of mighty forces across the Pacific. As an air centre in war and later in peace she occupies a strategic position without parellel in the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is small wonder that Montreal was chosen as the venue for the talks on civil aviation. Air transit makes Canada more than ever the hub of the Empire, '■