Posts with the Remembrance Day tag

Barris Beat

Get some. Miss some.

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Firefighters in the Blitz, 1940.

The public-speaking appearance was half done. At intermission, last Friday night in the central-Alberta city of Camrose, I sat at a table signing books and listening to feedback from members of the audience.

A woman approached; with her British accent she offered her take on the subject of my evening talk, the Battle of Britain. She was a child in London during the Blitz in the summer of 1940, when she said her father had served in the London fire brigade fighting fires German bombers ignited each night.

“When he came home in the morning after fighting fires all night, I remember his face was completely black with soot,” she said, then drawing imaginary circles around her eyes, “except the white around his eyes where he’d warn protective goggles.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Canada’s veterans would not be amused

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Grace MacPherson put her pride of country above all else in the Great War.

Grace MacPherson had all the credentials she needed to become an ambulance driver in the Great War. The first woman in Vancouver to earn a driver’s licence. The first woman to purchase a car in that city. When war broke out in 1914, she even paid her own way to Britain offering her skills as a driver to the Red Cross ambulance corps.

When she gained an audience with Sam Hughes, Canada’s minister of militia and war in 1917, to plead her case, however, he turned her down.

“I’ll stop any woman from going to France,” Hughes blustered.

“With your help, or without it,” Miss MacPherson said, “I will serve.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Remembrance from witnesses and moviemakers

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Commander Ericson (Jack Hawkins) makes life and death decision in “The Cruel Sea.”

Commander George Ericson is crouched on the bridge of his corvette warship. He’s peering through a sighting device, lining up his counterattack against an enemy he can’t see, a submerged U-boat in the Atlantic waters directly ahead of him.

“What’s it look like now, Number One?” Ericson calls to his first officer, who is on a sonar device.

“It’s the firmest contact we’ve ever had,” the sonar operator shouts back from below deck.

There’s sudden consternation on Cmdr Ericson’s face. Merchant sailors whose ship has just been torpedoed are thrashing about in the water. They’re shouting for help. “There’s men in the water just about there,” Ericson says.

“Well, there’s a U-boat just underneath them.”

(more…)

Barris Beat

The forgotten of the forgotten

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HMCS Shawinigan, corvette torpedoed off the East Coast in 1942.

I almost missed her. I’d finished a presentation to the Tillsonburg military historical club. In fact, I thought I’d answered all of the questions from the audience. Then, I noticed a woman in the back row with her hand raised. Even when she stood, I could only see her head and shoulders above the seated audience. Diminutive though she was, however, her voice was strong.

“My father was in the Battle of the Atlantic,” she announced. “He went down with HMCS Shawinigan. All hands were lost.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Visits are my vaccine

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“Lest We Forget” banner for Alex Barris on Uxbridge lamp post.

She seemed kind of nervous. It was Remembrance Day week. She stood at the base of a lamp post on our main street. A “Lest We Forget” banner above her acknowledged the Second World War service of her great-grandfather. There was a camera pointed at her and the editor of this newspaper making notes and taking photos. Then, she got the go-ahead to tell the story.

“My name is Layne and above me is a picture of my great-grandfather, Alex Barris,” she said into the camera. She was more relaxed now because it was a story she and I have shared a number of times.

“He was born in 1922. In 1942, he was called up by the U.S. Army. They made him a medic. And in the Battle of the Bulge he saved four members of his medical team. He received the Bronze Star.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Grim era of demonization

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Among flags flying at the Caen Museum in France (during a tour of Canadians I led) was national German (black, red and gold) flag, during 2004 D-Day anniversary. observances.

We arrived in Normandy that spring in time for the anniversary observances of the liberation of France. Street posts, balconies and memorial parks were festooned in patriotic bunting, streamers and the national flags of France, Britain, America and Canada. And Germany!

“Why is the German flag with red, gold and black included?” I asked our tour guide on the trip.

“New theme this year,” she said. “Remembrance and reconciliation.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Truly virtual Remembrance Day

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This year’s Remembrance Day presentation recorded at St. Thomas’ Princes Avenue Playhouse.

Normally, I’d be feeling a bit nervous. But not this time. Last Tuesday morning, I just walked up a short set of stairs and onto a theatre stage, in St. Thomas, Ont. Unlike many times before, however, there was no audience, just the empty Princess Avenue Playhouse. Then, from the darkness in front of me, I heard the only other person in the theatre call to me.

“Camera’s rolling, Ted,” he said. “You can start anytime.”

And I began my annual Remembrance Day presentation for the Township of Southwold, this year with no audience, just a video camera. (more…)

Barris Beat

What’s a Family Day worth?

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In 1951  film A Christmas Carol, Scrooge (Alastair Sim) ridicules Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) about expecting both a day off and full-day’s pay.

In the canon of English literature, it’s not the zenith of composition. It doesn’t resonate like a Shakespearean soliloquy, or crackle like Jane Austen dialogue, or whisk you away like a magical J.K. Rowling passage. But, for my money, the exchange between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, in A Christmas Carol, says everything about our times.

“You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?” whines Scrooge, anticipating his clerk’s desire to have Christmas Day off.

“If quite convenient, sir,” pleads Cratchit.

“It’s not convenient and not fair,” snorts Scrooge, “You don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Squeezing Grapes out

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Don Cherry has offered his opinion on everything during editions of “Coach’s Corner.” (cbc.ca)

This past Tuesday – the day after Remembrance Day – I rose to speak at a Probus club gathering in Bradford. I was still wearing a poppy on my jacket lapel. As I was about to speak, when someone asked if it was still OK to wear a poppy on Nov. 12. I nodded, suggesting that it’s still Remembrance Week and I was offering stories and reflections on the experiences of veterans, so why not still wear my poppy?

“Besides,” I added, “this is my ‘You People’ poppy.”

That got a few moans and a couple of laughs from the audience.

“No laughing matter,” I added quickly. “You see, I’m the son of immigrants to this country. And I’ve worn poppies proudly since I was a teenager in high school.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Ted Zuber’s lesson of war

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Ted Zuber. Courtesy Zuber family.

It was getting late. I’d been interviewing him for several hours. He’d given me such illuminating stories for my research of the Korean War. But this veteran had one last lesson for me. And I stumbled on it unsuspectingly. I asked the former sniper with the Royal Canadian Regiment what sort of emotions he’d felt during his time overseas.

“No such thing,” he told me. “Emotion was a luxury we had learned to give up in the army.” (more…)