Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Welcome, Colin!

Looking forward to your contributions, but if you are new to Blogs see the FAQ. It is based on problems we have experienced. We are still learning every day.

5 Comments:

Blogger Tomcann said...

Would add my welcome to Colin alongside that of Peter as I know of his efforts to follow the Canadians throughout the Sicilian Campaign and his personal pilgrimages to that land in search
of truth and the last resting places of so many.
I understand that he will be off shortly to follow the strange journey of the US 7th Army under their intrepid leader Patton, of which we have had a surfeit in this past month on TV to counreract the Iraq and Afghanistan reverses.
No doubt he will unfold - as we did at the time - Patton's lack of support to the 8th army when they were needed to circumvent the
German strength before Catania, in his rush to "liberate" Palermo - which no one needed at
the time and his subsequent "winning" of the race to Messina.It's not surprising he wa fired as he should have been after the comedy of Gabes in Tunisia.
Welcome Colin.

Tuesday, 07 March, 2006  
Blogger Ron Goldstein said...

Hi Colin
I usually manage to finish up as 'little sir echo' but nevertheless, welcome aboard and we look forward to some good input.
All good wishes

Wednesday, 08 March, 2006  
Blogger Tomcann said...

Well Ron -
I don't think that the term "little Sir Echo" is for you as an echo merely repeats the words of others - and as we have seen and heard - you are an original !

Wednesday, 08 March, 2006  
Blogger Ronmac said...

When I heard you had an interest in the Canadians during the Sicilian campaign I decided to chip in. My dad served with the 1st Cdn Div landing in Sicily on the first day with the West Nova Scotia Regiment. He had time to hardly dry his feet when he was transferred to th Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment that same day.
That, according to his service records. He was a bren carrier driver. I guess some of the ships in the invasion convoy was torpedoed and a lot of the bren carriers went down. So anyways they reorganized a lot of the bren carrier personel after landing. I was reading this in one of the Canadian Military Historical documents linked on this site. My dad was wounded three weeks later on July 29, 1943 in the Asora-Nicosora region a few weeks later.

Thursday, 09 March, 2006  
Blogger Tomcann said...

Ronmac -
Not only did the 1st Div lose a bunch of Bren carriers but also a whole hospital and the tales of the dauntless nurses rowing towards safety after being torpedoed the night before the landing,is a legendary tale, of which Colin has verse and chapter. By borrowing and otherwise "aquiring" supplies these same nurses opened a full hospital inside three days of landing. Tough gels !

Thursday, 09 March, 2006  

Post a Comment

<< Home