.

We were fortunate to be able to locate maps which show all of the locations which were allied targets in Europe during World War II.

Some of the historians centered around the University of Toronto continue their tirade about the immorality of the bombing campaign.  I thought you might like to see these maps which show how Germany provided the many targets.  A study of the maps appears to indicate that if German civilians were killed or injured only their own Government is to blame.

The following letter was sent to those daily newspapers which published a column from Peter Worthington.

Peter had written that Canadians did not follow the practice of the Germans in shooting unarmed prisoners.

Lorraine Cornelius, who co-produced The War Amps documentary Take No Prisoners, was the author of the letter.   

Letter to the Editor

Peter Worthington in his recent column on Captain Robert Semrau of the RCR is absolutely correct in pinpointing the late Major-General Kurt Meyer who holds the chief responsibility for shooting Canadian PoWs in the beach head area in Normandy.  Meyer, as Worthington says, was found guilty, but his death sentence was commuted by a court of enquiry headed by the late General Chris Vokes on the grounds that a senior commander should not be given blame if his troops practice unwanton executions of captured soldiers.

In his searing documentary, Take No Prisoners, War Amps Chief Executive Officer Cliff Chadderton indicates that 18 members of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiments were murdered at the Abbaye d’Ardenne plus another 37 Canadians lost their lives to the rampaging Hitler Youth in the same battle.

Another German, General Wilhelm Mohnke ordered the deaths of 58 Royal Winnipeg Rifles (of Chadderton’s regiment) at the Chateau d’Audrieu.  The Western Canadian Battalion raised an inspiring tableau naming those who met their end at the Chateau.

Mohnke was never charged and spent most of the post-war years as a German prisoner in the hands of the Russians.  When the Iron Curtain came down, Mohnke still managed to dodge the military courts. 

Chadderton who produced the documentary in 1997 states emphatically that in his many months of direct combat leading to the surrender of the German troops he saw no further evidence of Germans shooting Canadians or, for that matter, Canadians shooting Germans.

Peter Worthington is probably correct in saying that the current case involving Captain Semrau will possibly put an end to this tragic and infamous practice.

Yours truly,

Lorraine Cornelius
Director, Audio-Visual Productions
War Amps of Canada

The Canadian navy veterans (along with hundreds of thousands of others) welcomed the news that the Canadian Government is going to erect a monument in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy.  This has been approved by Ottawa’s National Capital Commission and its Board of Directors.  The site for the memorial is historic RICHMOND LANDING on the Ottawa River just behind the new Canadian War Museum.  Completion is scheduled for 2011.

This initiative, in particular, is under the guidance of the Canadian Naval Centennial Project.

The Richmond Landing location will please naval historians as it was the traditional landing for boats from the Great Lakes as well as International Waters.

A pleasing part of the centennial project will be the presentation of a special centennial ship’s bell.

Those who were present at the 65th anniversary of the Canadian Navy’s operations in World War II will long remember the throwing of roses into Halifax Harbour accompanied by a sharp ring of the bell installed at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic at Sackville Landing, commemorating sailors and merchant seamen who had lost their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic.

The author of this blog was mighty happy to hear of the Government’s plan to commemorate naval veterans.  Their contribution has often been overlooked.

In December, I wrote about The War Amps fight to successfully gain compensation for Hong Kong veterans who were taken prisoner of war by the Japanese during World War II.

An article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen in early January regarding the Japanese Prime Minister’s admission that his family’s company used Allied prisoners as slave labourers during the Second World War. 

I felt it necessary to write a letter to the editor of The Ottawa Citizen in response.  My letter appeared yesterday and is copied below. 

Justice for vets

The Ottawa Citizen January 13, 2009

Re: Aso admits family used slave labour, Jan. 7.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s admission that his family’s company used Allied prisoners as slave labourers during the Second World War is timely, as it coincides with the recent 10th anniversary of the compensation paid to Canadian Far East prisoners of war (PoWs).

Japan had previously refused to admit it used Allied prisoners and had even refused to apologize prior to the statement by Mr. Aso.

In December 1998, the Canadian government, after prompting by veterans’ organizations, paid compensation of a lump sum grant of $24,000 to 700 Canadian Hong Kong veterans or their widows.

The complaint to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva was launched by The War Amps in 1987 and was based on the Geneva Convention, which prohibits Allied PoWs from being forced into slave labour, as the Canadians were during their 44 months of incarceration by the Japanese Armed Forces during the Second World War.

After newly discovered documents gave incontrovertible evidence that Canada had ignored and covered up an opportunity in 1955 to seek more compensation for Hong Kong veterans, the claim was paid in accordance with the provision of the Geneva Convention that PoWs who were forced into slave labour for Japanese industries are required to be paid at the same rate as Japanese workers.

Cliff Chadderton,
Ottawa
CEO, The War Amps