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WWII vets returning to Italy

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WWII vets returning to Italy
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA
27th November 2009

A small group of veterans is returning to Italy where they waged one of the longest, fiercest campaigns of the Second World War.

During a kick-off event today at Sunnybrook hospital, home to about 500 war veterans, Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson called the trip to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Italian Campaign a "journey of honour and remembrance."

"Together, our unique delegation will walk on some of the same streets where Canadians fell," he said. "We will walk among the headstones belonging to the youth of another generation. And we will remember them by reading their names aloud; by running our fingers over letters carved in granite, by thinking of dreams unfulfilled, by remembering lives lost. And by remembering families torn apart by their sacrifice."

The group of veterans, youth ambassadors and politicians will visit war cemeteries and monuments and take part special ceremonies.

Thompson said while most Canadians know about D-Day and Normandy, many don't realize the scope of Canada's efforts in Sicily.

Students from Toronto's Leaside high school were at Sunnybrook to hear stories from some of the veterans and ask questions about the war.

Donald Stewart, who served as a gunner in the war, said word made its way home that he had been killed. His father was surprised when he showed up on leave.

"He said, 'You're supposed to be dead,'" the 85-year-old told the group. "Then he gave me a hug."

Stewart called the campaign "long and tedious."

Almost 6,000 Canadians were killed in Italy—Canada's greatest loss in any one country during the Second World War.

Those who survived endured oppressive heat, tough mountainous terrain, rampant diseases and bitter, hand-to-hand combat.

Ottawa's Betty Brown, a 92-year-old nursing sister who served in Italy, told a group of students about her role helping "the boys" during the war. The Winnipeg native noted it was the first time nurses landed with the troops on an "assault beach."

The landing at Sicily was the largest amphibious invasion yet. Three Canadians earned Victoria Crosses in Italy.

Nolan Hill, a 16-year-old Calgary student and youth delegate, is looking forward to meeting the veterans and hearing their stories.

"You can only learn so much from a text book and when you hear it from a person it's much more informative and real," he said.
 
Remembering 1943

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA
27 Nov 2009
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/canada/2009/11/27/11956736.html
Amid the mud, blood and misery, Betty Brown found cause for pure joy.

The Second World War nursing sister, whose younger brother was believed killed in action, overheard he may be alive. The next day, Brown and brother David Nicolson had a teary reunion in the war zone of Sicily.

Now 92, she remembers that day in 1943 like it was yesterday.

While her brother looked “so thin and so dusty ... this was my highlight overseas, as you can imagine.”

Nicolson, a Royal Canadian fighter pilot whose plane was shot down seven times, had survived yet another attack.

The reunion was a rare day of celebration among many of trauma and bloodshed. Brown, who tended to the sick and wounded during the Italian campaign, arrived in Sicily from the U.K. to find the hospital supply ship had sunk.

Through the campaign, Brown worked under a canvas tent that served as a mobile hospital, helping patients with everything from gunshot wounds to malaria.

“We accepted the boys as they came in. The worst cases (went) straight to the hospital ships,” she recalled. “We wanted to help as much as we could. We were certainly necessary, not only in the nursing capacity but the fact the boys liked seeing us. I remember how thrilled they were even when they were sick, to get in a cot under canvas. It was very wet, muddy and cold. Miserable, miserable. So they were glad to get in to see Canadians to talk to.”

After landing at Sicily, Canadian troops pushed their way up the peninsula, enduring tough terrain, extreme weather conditions and intense combat, especially house-to-house fighting in Ortona. Of the 93,000 Canadians who took part in the 20-month Italian campaign, there were about 26,000 casualties, including 6,000 who were killed.

This campaign is often called “The Forgotten Front” because most attention was focused on France.

Bill Rawling, a historian with the Department of National Defence’s Directorate of History and Heritage, said the spectacular landings at Normandy on D-Day overshadowed the Italian Campaign. Even though Canadians were fighting some of the strongest German units, they didn’t get the equipment or reinforcements they needed.

And after the war, the fierce campaign did not feature prominently in books or movies.

“People who are interested in history will study the Italian campaign, but I don’t think it has resonated with popular culture in the same way as the Normandy landings have,” Rawling said.

But he added the significance of the campaign and the role of Canadians should not be underestimated. They waged some of the fiercest fights in some of the toughest conditions.

“In Italy, you have all the conditions imaginable; you land in July 1943 over beaches and rolling hills into a malaria-infested region. Rivers flooding and temperature dropping and you are fighting over mountains,” he said. “They covered almost every possible climate except possibly jungle and the Antarctic. The conditions covered the entire scale.”

Military historian Desmond Morton said the campaign was tough due to steep hills, swift streams and stone-built villages creating fortress after fortress with a strong German enemy that didn’t give up easily.

“One of the things we learned was that the simple principles of house-to-house fighting didn’t work,” he said. “The enemy did not fold up as it began to lose space, it just got meaner and tougher.”

In the end, Italy became “yesterday’s story” after the Normandy landings, Morton said. But history recalls the period as a significant but violent one.

“There were tough campaigns and battles and there were significant casualties in the end, but we gradually built up to it and got a feeling for what fighting Nazis was,” he said.

“We were there, we got involved in some of the mistakes, we learned as we did.”
 
Veterans commemorate 'our nation’s great loss'
Canadians honour fallen soldiers of Italian Campaign
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF, SUN MEDIA
29 November 2009
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/world/2009/11/29/11970741-sun.html

CASSINO, Italy — Veterans, youth and politicians gathered at a sprawling cemetery here today to honour 855 Canadians buried under neat rows of aging white gravestones.

Heavy fog lifted to reveal bright blue skies as the special ceremony paid tribute to Canadians killed in action during the Italian campaign, a brutal 20-month offensive of the Second World War that claimed nearly 6,000 Canadian troops.

"The horror and tragedy of war seems very far away as we gather here in the silent beauty of this sacred place," said Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson. "And yet, this morning we can feel our nation’s great loss as fresh and deeply as when the 855 brave Canadians were laid to rest here."

Thompson is leading a delegation of veterans and youth from Canada who are commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Italian campaign by retracing the steps of the soldiers, visiting war cemeteries and laying wreaths at memorials to the fallen.

Thompson praised those who gave their "precious young lives" fighting to break through tough German defensive lines. He also paid tribute to Italy's losses, noting 60,000 died in heavy fighting and bombardment that destroyed Cassino.

The town's Mayor Bruno Vincenzo Scitarelli said a "holocaust of youth" took place on their soil.

"Their lives were given in the name of ideals that unfortunately are still hard to pursue today: peace and freedom," he said. "These ideals are intimately tied to Cassino and to its history and will certainly be part of its future."

Scitarelli said freedom must be strengthened and preserved "jealously as our most precious belonging."

Two Canadian youth, Nolan Hill and Melanie Morin, told the stories of two fallen soldiers they had researched before the trip. Hill laid a plastic container of Albertan soil and a provincial flag at a memorial to honour Pte. William Gair, a fellow Albertan killed in action during the Italian campaign.

"William never made it back home, so it only seems fair that he be reunited with his homeland again," he said.

Gair's brother Russell was in the same regiment and just 100 yards away when he was killed.

Historian and professor Gianni Blasi said while there is lingering resentment among the population for both German and Allied troops, Canadians are seen much differently.

"Civilians in this area saw the Canadians as people who were fighting, they were fighting seriously, but they had not forgotten they were human beings," he said. "They were not brutal. And to this day I have never heard anyone who speaks negatively about a Canadian."
 
Tribute paid to Quebec soldier in Italy
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA
2nd December 2009
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/world/2009/12/02/12006231.html

ORTONA, Italy - A retired Italian army colonel paid special tribute today to a Quebec officer who earned the Victoria Cross for valour in his backyard.

Col. Lanfranco Berardi was just five years old when the Royal 22nd Regiment arrived at his family's country homestead near Ortona. At first he was afraid of them - but he soon warmed up to them when they shared their chocolate and oranges from Sicily.

Honour to have been a witness to the humanity, kindness and true brotherhood shown at this time by the Canadian soldiers.

"In 1943, thanks to them I learned to smile again, and with the hot soups and the chocolate I forgot my hunger," he said through the translation of his grandson.

Berardi paid tribute not only to the kindness, but to the courage of Canadians - especially Capt. Paul Triquet.

At the time, gaining the key road junction to Ortona depended on securing the hamlet of "Casa Berardi." It was a German stronghold heavily defended by infantry and tanks.

It is where Triquet of Cabano, Que. earned a Victoria Cross.

On Dec. 14, 1943, his company was tasked with crossing the gully and securing the Casa Berardi. The last platoon to try was wiped out.

But Triquet's group, supported by tanks, managed to get across to the Berardi property despite heavy casualties.

The spawling property now includes vineyards and a plaque attached to the side of the home honouring Triquet and the Royal 22nd Regiment.

Today, Berardi joined a group of veterans, students and politicians commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Italian Campaign laid wreaths at a special monument also erected on the site.

"It is a small token that represents a great moral achievement," he said.

After the war, Berardi's parents were accused of being spies and would likely have been shot if the Canadian military police had not provided proof they had supported the Allies.

News reports from London in March 1944 said Triquet was awarded the Victoria Cross for "showing the most magnificent courage under heavy fire."

"Wherever action was the hottest he was often seen shouting encouragement and organizing the defence," the report said. "His utter disregard of danger, his cheerfulness and tireless devotion to duty were a constant source of inspiration."

The Victoria Cross if the British Commonwealth's highest military decoration for bravery.

Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson thanked Berardi for his dedication to honouring Canada's sacrifice.

"You and your family have preserved this solemn land and its stories for generations to come," he said. "And you have done so as more than the custodians of our shared history. You have been true friends to Canada - and you have been like family to every Canadian who passes this way."
 
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/world/2009/12/04/12040726.html

WWII vet was taken prisoner in Italy
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA
4th December 2009
ROME, Italy - A large sign promising adventure and kisses from girls lured a young Henry Beaudry to the war.

Four years later, he returned home a man - with wounds from Ortona and a frame frail from months as a German prisoner then a malnourished escapee.

Beaudry, an aboriginal Second World War veteran of the Italian campaign, staged the escape with a Mongolian fellow prisoner who didn't speak a word of English. The pair managed to communicate through signs and gestures, travelling together for two months in a determined search for their allies.

They slept in haystacks and marched mostly at night to avoid detection.

"I was wondering if I'd ever make it home, but I just kept going," Beaudry said.

Eventually, the weary pair met up with American allies.

Now 88, Beaudry is making his first trip back to Italy since the war ended nearly 65 years ago. Memories have been flooding back in the last week as he has gazed in astonishment at the serene landscape that was once blood-drenched rubble.

He was "jumpy and not quite well" after the war ended. One image that haunts him still today is of a baby crying as his mother, an Italian civilian, was shot dead on the street.

Beaudry wasn't thinking about the horrors that awaited when he was drawn to enlist by a sign that called out: "Join the army - see the world and kiss a girl in every port."

"It kind of attracted me," he said.

He joined in 1941 and landed in Sicily in July 1943. He was shot in the hand in the Battle of Ortona and was later captured on Dec. 13, 1944. At the time, his group was holed up in a building - out of ammunition, with no radio communications and many wounded men suffering in pain.

"We couldn't get any messages out, and we couldn't go out there - the Germans were just packed, waiting for us to go out," he recalled.

Beaudry hid under a table. When the Germans finally burst in, he cleverly dodged their questions.

"Me no speak English," he lied.

Just before he was taken prisoner, Beaudry lost an eagle feather an elder had given him before he left for the war along with a cross that the Germans eventually seized. In 1949, he received a parcel from Ottawa returning the cross without any explanation.

As Beaudry and other veterans wrap up an emotional pilgrimage to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Italian Campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement honouring those who fought and died in "one of the longest and fiercest struggles of the Second World War."

"The values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law for which they fought in Italy's mountains, flooded rivers and rubble-filled streets are the same values our military men and women continue to protect today," he said. "The legacy of our veterans lives on in the brave Canadians who are serving today in places such as Afghanistan. Veterans demonstrate time and again that they rise to any challenge."
 
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