FOR A BRIEF WHILE, the CF-100 was the only all-weather fighter jet stationed in Europe for NATO.
About a year and a half.
Everyone else's fighter was a FAIR WEATHER fighter only.
Now, you know.
(The LARGE SIZE of this photo is…well…REALLY LARGE!!)
HERE!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/5186381677/sizes/o/in/photostream/
IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY at the women in this photo you'll see them saluting using Churchill's V for Victory sign. So the sign has double meaning for staff atop the Lanc!
OUR FREEDOM today in Canada was purchased with Canadian blood spilled all over the world in the two great wars, the War of 1812, UN peacekeeping, the Korean War, and Canadian NATO or participation all over the globe, during the Cold War years right up to the present.
Lest we forget.
But freedom is a joint effort between the airman, the seaman, the soldier…and the factory worker.
The ABOVE pictures an Avro Lancaster Mark X being rolled out of the Victory factory in Malton, Ontario, Canada that was ONCE located at the northeast tip of the YYZ property. Pictured here is a Lancaster being rolled out sometime in late1944.
By war's end a Lancaster a day was being turned out of the Victory Aircraft factory.
Today, the former Victory Aircraft of Canada Limited manufacturing facility spread across land that is partly in Toronto, AND partly in Mississauga. The Mississauga land portion is now barren.
Victory Aircraft, a federal government venture was closed down after the war.
The factory soon thereafter was purchased by A.V. Roe and became Avro Aircraft of Canada Limited.
But, back to the war.
World War II was a different sort of war for the nations involved. It was the first time superior technological power (Germany, Italy, Japan) would lose to superior industrial (the Allies) might! For instance, German tanks were way better than the lowly Sherman and Stuart tanks the Allies had in number, but we overwhelmed the Axis powers by producing so many of them.
Same with the jet fighters and V-1 rockets the Nazis produced.
They had better.
We had more.
As I was in a motorbike accident almost a month ago, getting around has not been easy with my leg in a leg brace.
Especially, on my motorbike!
Still, I went to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on Remembrance Day as any true Canadian would. As I was walking through the museum's displays, after the ceremonies, I came across this famous VICTORY AIRCRAFT of CANADA Limited photo that I had only ever seen in very low-rez.
I always hoped I'd see the large version one day, and today was that day.
The historic photo was stuck in a display case, encased at an angle…and it was large…about 3 feet long. There, dream come true. WOW!
So, as I was flopping about the floor, screaming in agony from knee pain, while contorting my body ridiculously trying to beat the reflected light that was blowing out parts of the photo…an alarmed woman approached me, and said first in French, then, in English,
"Before you hurt yourself further, why don't you ask someone if they'll just remove it from the display for you, so you can take a better pic?"
Oui.
Somehow, that felt like I was being scolded by my mom…even at my age…but soon enough I was being assisted by Caillin Kowalczyk, the Interim Curator of the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM, who allowed me to photograph their original photo, with the museum's kind permission, of course! Out of the display case. Did I mention Caillin's dutifully going through several key rings, to find the "one" that held the missing key?
Great guy.
While this retouched photo will suffice for now, I intend to redo the photo to get an even better, and more detailed result.
Thanks, Caillin!
AND REMEMBER, the original photo, and much other historical warplane related stuff can be found at the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM in Hamilton. CWH is home of North America's only flying Lancaster and Lysander!
Lt. Col. Allen West (US Army, Ret.) who I hope will be US Prez one day…is taking about Canadian Armed Forces Lieut. Trevor Greene.
Greene is still recovering from the Afghan insanity of that day.
Greene's STORY can be found here:
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/03/04/canada-afghanistan06030...
Note the intended attack upon the Canadians through this collaborated move,
"A few minutes before the attack, someone moved all the children about 20 metres away – but none of the Canadian troops noticed anything unusual, Schamuhn said."
Best West quote, sad but true, "This is the level of people that we're dealing with over there…"
Lt. Col. Allen West (US Army, Ret.) who I hope will be US Prez one day…tells it to us, Canadians, quite plainly.
The CANADIAN ARMY (Canadian Armed Forces-ground troops) has the will…but the Canadian Government hasn't provided the equipment. Don't blame Harper though, blame the Commie left…active in Canada through the Bloc, the Liberals, and the wacko NDP for the gutting of our Canadian military.
Blame that idiot Trudeau in the 60s and 70s. That's where it started. If we had St Laurent, a true liberal instead, through those two critical decades, our military wouldn't be in the poorly equipped shape it is in, today!
As West noted—CANADA could have gotten the job done in Kandahar province, Afghanistan…BUT we don't have fixed wing aircraft or rotary wing aircraft.
In other words Canada, we don't have A-10 tank busters, or helicopter gunships to smash the Taliban with. And finish the job.
The Lt. Col. recognizes the Canadians have the will…to fight (unlike some other countries)…but are without the necessary equipment to actually WIN the ground battle!
LIFE IS chock full of ridiculous ironies.
If you're a Canadian…here's one you should never forget.
This WW II CANADIAN ARMY VET from the documentary "D-Day - Canada's 24 Hours of Destiny" is complaining about Canada sending him off to war, with inferior equipment. He wished the Canadian Army had been outfitted with American rifles which were semi-automatics…not single shooters.
Do you think a Canadian soldier running into the heat of the battle, toward a slew of Nazis, has time to cock his gun before… EVERY. SINGLE. SHOT. HE. TAKES?
No?!
Seems kinda' crazy, right?!
Well, then you might be surprised to learn the Canadian government of WW II, expected, exactly that.
Are you sitting down Canada?
Are you sitting down America?
Is everyone, in the United Kingdom, also sitting down?
The American guns our Canadian vet is talking about…the ones he wished he'd had on D-Day in Juno, France instead of the inferior British designed Lee-Enfield bolt action rifles…weren't even American guns at all!
He's talking about the M-1 Garand, here, folks.
And the M-1 Garand was designed for the American Army, by a French-Canadian, from St. Rémi, Quebec, named John Garand!!!
How do you like them McIntosh apples?
A incredible, groundbreaking, general issue gun designed by a Canadian, certified for use in 1936, acquired and used by the entire U.S. Army that same year…but a gun…unavailable to enlisted Canadians during WW II.
Go figure—
Don't ever ask if your Canadian government knows how to wage a war. They don't.
The Lee-Enfields the Canadian Army used (No. 1MK-IVs) were made in Long Branch, at the Long Branch Arsenal in Toronto. Millions were made there!
WHY? Why…we weren't making M-1 Garands there, instead…I'll never know?!?!
The M-1 GARAND, lauded by General Patton as the "greatest battle implement ever devised" was historically the first semi-automatic rifle to be issued, as the standard service rifle, to the infantry of any nation, specifically the U.S. Army.
The M-1 replaced the immediately outdated bolt-action M1903 Springfield in 1936.
REGARDLESS of Canadian soldiers being ill-equipped for D-Day, how'd Canadians do on D-Day?
"Before dawn on D-Day, 230 heavy bombers from RCAF No.6 Group pounded German shore batteries with 860 tons of bombs. And in the daylight hours, RCAF fighter squadrons flew top cover for the invasion beaches. Fifty Canadian destroyers, frigates and corvettes assisted in covering the invasion, providing anti-submarine escort and bombarding shore targets.
14,000 CANADIANS STORMED ASHORE on Juno Beach and were the only force to capture all their initial objectives that day, at a cost of 1000 casualties, of which 350 were fatal." (© WWII.CA-CANADA AT WAR)
