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An Unsung Canadian Hero, Front Page New York Times Today - Quebec Dishonors WWII Heroes

JBG

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A One-Eyed Québécois ‘Rambo’ Captures Imaginations in Canada. According to today's New York Times, Léo Major tricked German soldiers occupying Zwolle, a picturesque Dutch city with a population of about 50,000into thinking that they were surrounded. He roused a sleeping German officer.

Quebec is better at honoring Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who rode with Nazi motorcycle gangs in Montreal, then supporting true Canadian heroes. Canada has a proud military tradition. Quebec should be ashamed of itself. Excerpt from article:
New York Times said:
“What Léo did is larger than life and sounds like something even greater than an action movie. But until now, few Canadians knew who he was,” said Bruno DesRosiers, director of the documentary, “The One-Eyed Ghost.”

Why Mr. Major’s audacious wartime feats are only belatedly entering the popular imagination here, historians say, partly reflects Quebec nationalism and a lingering discomfort with French-speaking citizens fighting for the British Crown. During the war, conscription spawned loud opposition in Quebec and returning Québécois servicemen didn’t always receive their due.

“Joining the army was seen as a taboo by many, and so men like Mr. Major didn’t like to talk about the past,” said Éric Marmen, the director of Musée Le Régiment de la Chaudière in Lévis, Quebec, a museum devoted to the Canadian Army Reserve infantry unit to which Mr. Major belonged.
 
A One-Eyed Québécois ‘Rambo’ Captures Imaginations in Canada. According to today's New York Times, Léo Major tricked German soldiers occupying Zwolle, a picturesque Dutch city with a population of about 50,000into thinking that they were surrounded. He roused a sleeping German officer.

Quebec is better at honoring Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who rode with Nazi motorcycle gangs in Montreal, then supporting true Canadian heroes. Canada has a proud military tradition. Quebec should be ashamed of itself. Excerpt from article:

Quebec has much to be proud of.
The Van Doos...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_22nd_Regiment
 
A One-Eyed Québécois ‘Rambo’ Captures Imaginations in Canada. According to today's New York Times, Léo Major tricked German soldiers occupying Zwolle, a picturesque Dutch city with a population of about 50,000into thinking that they were surrounded. He roused a sleeping German officer.

Quebec is better at honoring Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who rode with Nazi motorcycle gangs in Montreal, then supporting true Canadian heroes. Canada has a proud military tradition. Quebec should be ashamed of itself. Excerpt from article:

Pierre Trudeau was a training officer in the Canadian Army during WW2. He did not ride with Nazi motorcycle gangs in Montreal.
He was very unpopular in Quebec when he was Prime Minister because of his strong federalist views.
Saskatchewan also had a strong anti-war movement in WW2. In Canada, during WW2, the government policy was that if you were conscripted, you did not have to serve overseas. They were called 'zombies.' By 1944, the Canadian Army in Europe was so short handed, the Generals warned the Prime Minister that they would take drastic action if conscription policy did not change. General Pearkes later said they were going to resign, but MacKenzie King told St. Laurent, Minister of Justice, that he believed they were threatening a Coup. King reverse the policy and ordered conscripts overseas.
A unit of Saskatchewan zombies stationed in Terrace, BC, mutinied. They placed their officers under arrest and installed artillery to cover the approaches to the city.
At the outbreak of the war in Sept. 1939, the threat of anti-war sentiment was strong enough to set up a machine gun emplacement on the steps of the Union Hall in Vancouver. Quebec was not alone in its division over the war.
 
Le Regiment de la Chaudiere was a fierce lot who distinguished themselves from the Napoleonic period until today. Many heroes came from Quebec like Leo Major. Before his two-man coup (along with William Arsenault, who did not survive the coup) at Zwolle, Major had already distinguished himself in the hard fighting of Operation Wellhit on Mont St. Lambert near the channel port of Boulongne, in the canal-crossed and heavily fortified Breskens Pocket - where he single-handedly took more than 90 German prisoners despite heavy enemy fire by German Army and SS troops at he and his prisoners, and in the brutal and muddy fighting of the Hochwald.

Many distinguished names from Québécois fighting in the Canadian Army come to mind. Jacques Dextraze of Les Fusiliers de Mon Royal at Beauvoir Farm on Vernieres Ridge is one. Major Griffin leading the ill-fated Blackwatch (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada) in their noble but futile attack across the same Verriees Ridge. Major Radley-Walters of Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke, a tanker of great repute. While it is true that some Quebecers resented conscription and fighting in foreign British wars, many, many Québécois voluntarily enlisted and distinguished themselves making a real difference in the great and terrible struggle of WWII.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.
 
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