I am a Canadian, retired, and living in Cranbrook, BC. who has in recent years developed an interest in Canada's military record. Like many other Canadians it was ignited by author Pierre Burton, and the CBC, who between them have succeeded in waking many of us up to the fact that we do pretty well when the going gets tough.
In the last 3 years I have been on battlefield tours of Flanders, Normandy, and Italy, and found them really worthwhile. Never ones to bother much with fine print, a friend and myself signed onto the Italy tour only to realize at London Airport that it was intended for veterans! (The Heroes Return, I think they called it!) Even for us non-heroes I'm sure you can imagine how interesting it turned out to be. It would have been good to have spent a little more time on the Canadian, and especially the Ortona action, however we have no complaints at all.
If there is a Canadian company doing battlefield tours I'd be interested to hear from them.
My father was a chemical engineer during the war (PhD. Imperial College). He worked in technical development at ICI Billingham and was in his mid-to-late twenties. He was assigned periodically to follow the allied armies through captured territory examining factories for useful technical developments. For his final mission he was "embedded" with Russian forces in their final drive to Moscow. Unfortunately the experience was so gruesome he was never able to talk about it. I do have a photo that he took in Berlin of Hitler's bunker soon after he committed suicide.
Have enjoyed Tom Canning's stuff on the Canadians in Italy. I wonder if anyone has any interesting recollections of the Canadian Brigadier, or General, "Hoffy" Hoffmeister? As he was notably "upwardly mobile" his rank would depend on when and where you may have been in his area.
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