The Forgotten Black Soldiers Of WWII - Black Liberators WWII - Full Documentary

Summary

This crucial and emotional documentary underscores the overlooked contributions of Black soldiers during World War II, focusing on the experiences of Black Canadian veterans. It delves into their bravery, struggle against racism, and ultimate sacrifices, revealing untold stories of racial prejudice in the military. Through firsthand accounts, the film highlights the valor and perseverance of these soldiers both during and after the war, advocating for their rightful recognition. It also touches upon the broader implications of their service, including the impact on societal attitudes back home, and how their fight for equality continued beyond the battlefield.

Highlights

• Black Canadian soldiers faced discrimination both abroad and at home. 🌍
• Their valor helped change perceptions, making it harder to dismiss Black contributions to military efforts. 🛡️
• Personal stories like that of Robert Bud Jones illustrate the complex realities of war and race. 🕊️
• Kathy Grant's interviews provide a much-needed spotlight on these forgotten heroes. 🎥
• Their service paved the way for future generations, challenging systemic barriers in and out of the military. 🔑

Key Takeaways

• Black soldiers made significant contributions during WWII, often facing and overcoming systemic racism. 🌍
• Firsthand accounts reveal the harsh realities and bravery of Black veterans. 🎖️
• Despite their sacrifices, many faced discrimination upon returning home, highlighting ongoing racial issues. 🏠
• Efforts to preserve these stories are crucial for a complete understanding of history. 📜
• The documentary showcases the triumphs and struggles of Black soldiers, emphasizing their impact on both the war efforts and societal change. 🔗

Overview

The documentary 'The Forgotten Black Soldiers Of WWII' by I Love Docs reveals the incredible stories of Black Canadian veterans who served during the Second World War. These soldiers not only fought bravely on the front lines but also battled racial discrimination within the military and society at large. Through detailed interviews and personal narratives, viewers gain insight into the lives of these courageous individuals.

Among the compelling tales is that of Robert Bud Jones, a young Black soldier who transitioned from facing racism at home to leading troops in battle. Stories like his underscore the resilience and determination required to fight not just for country but for equality and recognition. The documentary also covers significant events involving Black soldiers and their pivotal roles in various battles.

The film stresses the importance of remembering and honoring these veterans who have often been left out of history books. By highlighting their sacrifices and struggles, 'The Forgotten Black Soldiers Of WWII' urges a reevaluation of history, ensuring that the contributions of Black soldiers are never overlooked again. This documentary serves as a crucial reminder of the diverse narratives that have shaped our understanding of the past.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 06:00: Introduction to Black Canadian Soldiers This chapter, titled 'Introduction to Black Canadian Soldiers,' explores the experiences and sentiments of Black Canadian soldiers during their service. It reflects on the negative impacts of discrimination and prejudice, citing the narrator's fear and decision to fight abroad in Europe. The narrative highlights how widespread discriminatory attitudes across Canada made life and military service challenging for Black Canadians.
• 06:00 - 15:00: The Experience of Black Canadian Soldiers in Europe The chapter explores the pride and significance of Black Canadian soldiers enlisting in the military. Despite facing dismissal and prejudice, these soldiers became trailblazers, challenging societal perceptions and affirming their value and contribution to military efforts.
• 15:00 - 25:00: Homecoming and Continued Struggles The chapter begins with a triumphant applaud as something significant has debuted in the London skies and landed in England. This marks a moment of celebration, perhaps signifying a successful journey or return.
• 25:00 - 35:00: Contributions Beyond the Battlefield The chapter titled 'Contributions Beyond the Battlefield' introduces a scene from the summer of 1944 in London, England, under the attack of German V-1 rockets. The narrative is centered on a young black Canadian soldier named Robert Bud Jones, who is navigating the dangers of war as these rockets, nicknamed Buzz Bombs, fly over the city. Amid explosions and signs of destruction, the chapter sheds light on the soldier's experience and the broader contextual life of war beyond the actual battlefield.
• 35:00 - 44:00: Legacy and Remembrance In the chapter titled 'Legacy and Remembrance', the narrative describes the silence that follows after the mortar stops, emphasizing the calmness that belies the imminent destruction that these weapons bring upon descending and exploding violently on the ground. The impact on soldiers is profound as they witness the devastation firsthand, making the horrors of their reality strikingly palpable.

The Forgotten Black Soldiers Of WWII - Black Liberators WWII - Full Documentary Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I've seen this before I do not like what Dr ISM was doing to people never was so scared in my life I decided to go to Europe fight from over there I'm in these type of attitudes were across Canada this made it harder for black Canadians
• 00:30 - 01:00 to list in the Canadian military we were proud to beat the trained soldiers because I felt I was part of something these men were Trailblazers and people couldn't dismiss them anymore they couldn't dismiss us as a people [Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 [Applause] [Music] thank you made its debut in the London Skies landed in England it was there that I
• 01:30 - 02:00 first saw my first Buzz Bond flying over the top of the buildings summer 1944. London England is under attack by German V-1 box young black Canadian soldier named Robert Bud Jones fight of his life little Sparks in the sky and you could hear them in the air buzzing
• 02:00 - 02:30 once above the mortar stopped there was a complete silence that means to say that they were on their way down they would explode on the ground and they're devastating that we have a directed to a house or a building or anywhere soldiers when they first see what's going on out there it makes things real
• 02:30 - 03:00 it's not a make-believe enemy and they're there to kill you so but now realizing that you now have to get rid of the little boy that came from Canada he's now a man that is in the middle of a war before he passed away in 2021 Jones was one of the last surviving black Canadian veterans of World War II I learned slowly that death didn't
• 03:00 - 03:30 really bother me veteran John olby enlisted at 20. he is now 99 years old that's quite a young fella we had a Bravado about us and still of his verbal Travis and myself and right after the holiday was dressed up and went to it
• 03:30 - 04:00 we thought we were sharp and with the big hats you know and we walked in fella said what section of the army you wanted one yeah I want to go on the highway Court Southern glamorous you know same pictures the tanks running across the Prairie the Dust by it Orbeez from Chatham a town in Southwest
• 04:00 - 04:30 Ontario where the Underground Railroad delivered black Americans From Slavery to Freedom [Music] from the Gunners seat of a Sherman tank Obi fought to free others first six [Music] and then I seen a tank I think it was a piece here
• 04:30 - 05:00 guys didn't get out that one didn't see anybody get out that's the first experience I had then it was all hell these men were Trailblazers and they really had an impact on the military they came in and they said we're here and they were effective at doing their jobs then people couldn't just dismiss them anymore they couldn't dismiss us as
• 05:00 - 05:30 a people thousands of black soldiers served in the Canadian Army during World War II it's important to know about the contribution of the black soldiers because at many times their stories were not told in 2008 Kathy Grant conducted a series of interviews with as many black World War II Veterans as she could before they passed away she uncovered a lost Canadian history
• 05:30 - 06:00 is that we have collected started from me taking a look at the Veterans Affairs Canada website and noticing an absence or a void of black Canadian interviews the next certificate accepted by Bud Jones behalf of Clarence trim who was killed in action at 21 in World War II having them now is important because
• 06:00 - 06:30 most of these veterans have passed away and it is remarkable to see them sharing their stories it's like a living memory it's like living history it's important I was also keeping my promise to my dad Kathy Grant's father joined the Canadian Army in 1942. during World War II the German submarines were shelling all
• 06:30 - 07:00 the ceilings and many of our Caribbean islands were struck and be presidents being very patriotic to the Empire in fact you would like to come to Canada to obtain military training we're about to do our part in winning the war my father was a World War II veteran who volunteered to fight for Canada and he kept all of his pictures connections with his friends all of that
• 07:00 - 07:30 was very near and dear to him but before he passed away he said Kathy I want you to ensure that the Canadian government as well as Canada recognizes all of its black veterans that Don Canadian uniform I created my Facebook page black Canadian veteran stores to honor my dad and also to show some of the images that
• 07:30 - 08:00 he had captured over the years and also to get individuals to share their photos as well and their stories my family came to Montreal by the Underground Railroad in 1843 my great great grandfather William was a barber in Montreal and he treated his Barbershop at the station he would conduct the runaway slaves from
• 08:00 - 08:30 Lower Canada to the black settlements in an Upper Canada 1925 just prior to the Depression years I was born in Saint Henry she's a district of Montreal the depression impacted everybody especially within the black community there were no jobs and some of them had to go on a type of belief
• 08:30 - 09:00 my dad he was sporting six children just on a relief that he was what they call a standby Porter where if a porter who had a regular job was either sick or unable to make it his run that day he would replace him a lot of time the only jobs that were available were that of a porter they couldn't even go into a store and see someone of color serving them the opportunities weren't there
• 09:00 - 09:30 but the war created opportunities for black men like montrealer wellsford Daniels it wasn't so much that we wanted to go I was wearing about six dollars a week working six days a week but the Army was offering about nine dollars a week so four of my friends and I we decide well Gee let's join the Army I joined up in the Canadian Army
• 09:30 - 10:00 in the active Army what prompted me to do that well I don't know if it was because I wanted to save the world I was more interested in seeing the world at the time there was a mistake made in my birth certificate of one year where it said I was born in 1924 instead of 1925. and and I took advantage of that and joined the active Force
• 10:00 - 10:30 foreign sergeant major approached us informed us up and when he got to me he's looking down and and I'm looking up and the uh at standing at attention and he says young fella he says he says do you shave and I I proudly said no sir because I only had a little one little curly hair there and he says well start tomorrow and I think he became a man
• 10:30 - 11:00 initially I had some really very negative attitudes about Canada and petitioner because as a community we'd been kicked around we couldn't go places we couldn't go into restaurants we couldn't go into theaters uh we couldn't go into skating rinks there were just so many things that we couldn't do we were called all kinds of names and so on like that and so you come out of there with some pretty pretty negative
• 11:00 - 11:30 attitudes so with all of this in mind Bingo here's the war now do I join and do I you know do I go running overseas or what do I do World War II was an opportunity for us to be seen as a partner total in order for the system to change you need to have a visible champion and Champion emerged out of Cape Breton Nova Scotia
• 11:30 - 12:00 in 1940 a 25 year old named Sam estwick volunteered to join the war I was going to work the afternoon shift one day I saw people looking out over the ocean and I turned and looked and for an arc of about 170 degrees her eyes was filled with ships all safety ships I think I counted over 70 ships I came home that night and turned on the radio to hear the midnight news and over half of those ships were in the
• 12:00 - 12:30 bottom of the Atlantic now from our hosts the ocean was less than a quarter of a mile and realizing that the enemy out there will be more than likely shooting at the mines and calories my mother would be in between that's why I decided to get in let's go over to Europe and fight them over there my dad was very much a family man he
• 12:30 - 13:00 loved his mother and he wanted her to be safe and sound and when the convoys were leaving my dad could see them because you're seeing those warships going that makes it very real estwick a whiz kid set his sights on the Royal Canadian Air Force from the recruiting information that he would have seen was that somebody with his technology background mechanics and Mathematics and and
• 13:00 - 13:30 Engineering that sort of knowledge would be useful to the Air Force that guy's looking for fighter pilots and they wanted people who are small and muscular I've been boxing I've been into pretty good shape and I felt I'm small enough to fit in the cockpit of a fighter when estwick applied by mail the Air Force responded with open arms then recruiters met him face to face [Music]
• 13:30 - 14:00 so at that point in time they knew that he was black and he got a letter in response to his application foreign Scotia Dear Sir receipt of your letter of February 24th is acknowledged with thanks the fullest consideration has been given to your application and there does not appear to be any trade or category for which you would be suitable he had been rejected because he was
• 14:00 - 14:30 black [Music] 1941. Sam estwick is rejected by Royal Canadian Air Force recruiters he had been rejected it because he was black so that's when he took it upon himself to write to his Member of Parliament MP Clarence Gillis was a union man an MP for the workers I don't think for Clarence Gillis that color had anything to do with it
• 14:30 - 15:00 here's somebody who meets the mold of what you want for this job and needs a job why aren't you giving it to them as the War Began the Royal Canadian Air Force copied regulations from the Royal Air Force in Britain including its Europeans only policy once the Royal Air Force was formed on the 1st of April 1918 all visible minorities were barred from joining the Royal Air
• 15:00 - 15:30 Force these policies mirrored what was happening in British Society where they believed that only white people were capable of true military leadership and true capabilities in terms of being able to use the weapons that were given to them and if we look at Canadian Society these type of attitudes also were quite pernicious they were across Canada and this made it harder for black Canadians to be able to list in the
• 15:30 - 16:00 Canadian military people of color were welcome only in the Canadian Army both the Navy and the rcaf barred non-whites but history was about to change Clarence Gillis brought it up in the House of Commons and then there was a whole bunch of correspondents that went back and forth that my dad had to pass a test and he passed quite well then they asked him if he was interested in this new thing called radar and that's where he started his military
• 16:00 - 16:30 career Sam ashwick Actually joined a very elite group these were radar mechanics radar at that time was a big secret samastwick within space of a year goes from being rejected into a trade that was restricted the rcaf lifted the ban in 1942. until then only 10 black men had broken
• 16:30 - 17:00 the color barrier they were now joined by Sam ashwick pilot Allen Bundy Bundy was such a big deal that this picture was in the newspaper right for one close to the other The rcif Wanted to let people know that they had changed their policy and that they were being very very Broad close-minded the black men were able to be visible they volunteered to fight and people
• 17:00 - 17:30 could see them all over the place when you are in the face of people even if they don't like you they've got to recognize that you are there in the same year Owen Rowe left the Caribbean with a goal to join the Canadian military [Music] 300 people from the Caribbean from Barbados Jamaica Etc met up here and we blazed or thrilled by going to Canada and take our training there on his 19th
• 17:30 - 18:00 birthday he boarded the ship was called the George Washington it was an American ship and they were headed first to New York and then they were going to be taking a train to Montreal the first sight when they came into New York Harbor was the Statue of Liberty [Music] about the Statue of Liberty and freedom resonated very much with my father as
• 18:00 - 18:30 well as the other men so I enlisted formally in the Clinton Army and we had to make the transition to new culture than the in the military discipline that prepared then like Owen Rowe black volunteers and conscripts around the world put their lives on the front line for Britain Britain has
• 18:30 - 19:00 far-flung colonies all over the world and you would have found the racial makeup of the Allied Army at this time to be quite diverse with black and brown bodies serving in extensive ways [Applause] I did not like what did not hears them or what not to ISM was doing to people
• 19:00 - 19:30 I must tell you this stuff they had given you from the day you were born that you were British and Britain was at War and you had a moral obligation to be positive field defense being fired at sometimes that was a pleasant
• 19:30 - 20:00 but overall I didn't regret it they did whatever they had to do to make themselves available to go in defense of Britain as black men signed up to fight black women join the Canadian women's Army Corps [Music] civilian life other black women rolled up their sleeves
• 20:00 - 20:30 I worked at the nordynes aircraft which we did that worked on the plane the Nordin Factory near Montreal produce training aircraft for the rcaf and Britain's RAF we've ever said the wings all the way along the wings and all that sort of thing that's what we had to do we used to put little notes on on the wings sometimes to wish the fellows the world
• 20:30 - 21:00 we were just cheering tomorrow for the place and I worked on a night shift we got a better Towers than you did for the day shift then during the day I used to have a little part-time job minding children the black woman they really carry the Lord from an economic perspective the black woman now had to go out they had to make sure that they can actually take care of their family
• 21:00 - 21:30 oh it's very lonely knowing that he was going overseas and you're worried all the time about that everything would be all right with him [Music] Gertrude's boyfriend wellsford Daniels had a dangerous but critical job as a signalman foreign s were Paramount that their use of senders and receiving receivers were very necessary communication equipment
• 21:30 - 22:00 you had to learn how to operate their the morse code signals core is the part of the army that's responsible for radio communications telephone Communications and also had dispatch Riders people riding on motorcycles going from one unit to another carrying important messages [Music] operations move to Destiny The Invasion is on D-Day
• 22:00 - 22:30 June 6 1944. 5 30 in the morning Allied ships blasted German positions on the Normandy Coast then 156 000 Allied troops including 14 000 Canadians storm the beaches the advance lasted well into the evening
• 22:30 - 23:00 D-Day had already started and I was transferred to the group that is on their way overseas and now you're moved to the channel where you're going to be overseas we've had a very good view across the channel of the explosions that were happening on the coast of France on the UK side of the channel Robert
• 23:00 - 23:30 Jones had come face to face with war it's not natural for a person to want to kill somebody else it's not natural but he's now realizing that he now has to do the deed if required I wasn't afraid because I felt I was part of something that meant anything to anybody else always meant the same to you
• 23:30 - 24:00 when you have a common enemy that is trying to kill you then you don't worry about different races beside you all you know is we will fight together to eliminate that enemy and to make sure that we get out of here alive foreign 1944 Robert Jones John Colby and wellsford
• 24:00 - 24:30 Daniels land at Juno Beach as members of the second Canadian Corps their target the city of Khan Khan was an important Transportation Hub which were needed to be captured to facilitate the transportation of troops and goods the Germans have always had a good army and they had some fanatical units there like the the SS units which were first-tier Army
• 24:30 - 25:00 Obi was inside a Sherman tank nicknamed Lucifer by the crew I didn't know what was in store first we're only about 12 miles up oh hell broke [Music] German artillery and armor pummeled the Canadian and British forces didn't know what the hell was going on somebody said to me
• 25:00 - 25:30 I just couldn't see nothing yes I'm Derek I'm just scared today you're twice as alert as you would have been unfortunately the Infantry suffered so many casualties one infantry unit the Royal Regiment of Canada had come ashore on D-Day
• 25:30 - 26:00 but when Jones landed in July over 50 percent of the regiment was gone by the end of August of that 840 people who landed there was only 150 people left so they need to fill those spots they were low on infantrymen and we found ourselves being rebadged overnight so instead of being an armor Corps now we're Infantry and people like Bud Jones was a member
• 26:00 - 26:30 of a montreal-based armor unit and he was transferred into the Royal Regiment of Canada as an infantryman with no infantry training along with many other people that meant five foot five Jones would now fight on foot lugging the same pack as much larger soldiers [Music] I was always dominant if I was never a large person every everyone
• 26:30 - 27:00 that I knew was always bigger than I was and I wanted to be as tough as they he was a small guy he weighed somewhere between 112 and 118 pounds this Kent would have weighed almost as much as him just to keep up with someone bigger than him carrying all that weight is good admirable and he probably earned everyone's respect because of it in a few months Robert Jones would become a section Commander within his
• 27:00 - 27:30 platoon white soldiers will follow his lead he's only 19. this now takes but above the white man in his section he now has the authority of his command and officer to give commands to everybody under his command and they have to obey him that's massive that is absolutely massive
• 27:30 - 28:00 I had a little bit more training than the average recruit in a lot of cases I was a lot younger than they were at when you're saying an 18 19 year old and and the majority of the of the the the the men in your your platoon are in their 30s you can grow up in a hurry the fact that bud would be a section Commander would speak well of them that his leadership trusted him to have the
• 28:00 - 28:30 lives in other people in his hands when they look among his sections I'm sure most of them are white you have to be well above them in order for them to select him so it's a significant decision that they made in selecting Bud as a section provider because here you're the one that's going to make sure that all the soldiers implement the order that's coming from the most senior level and you are the guy that's going to make
• 28:30 - 29:00 them successful victory at Khan came on July 19 1944. and John olby confronted complete devastation [Music] gone the streets were full arrival there's a few snipers left in buildings
• 29:00 - 29:30 and this Street's blood climbing over the moon all day long some of the cities that we went through whereas this devastated my son or many dead cows and tanks that were full of uh dead sermons you could imagine that the palm of these areas were so serious
• 29:30 - 30:00 and you could only imagine the the effects on the surveillance that it lived there too [Music] [Music] we were proud to to be the trained soldiers and you're feeling quite big and for me uh you know with everybody taller than I was and I was right amongst them
• 30:00 - 30:30 [Music] as Robert Jones and the Royal Regiment of Canada chased the retreating Germans from Khan first Canadian Corps was fighting to free Northern Italy the regiment that I was in was infantry support regiment we did love most of our traveling and half tracks actually our primary Duty was to support the tanks twenty-year-old montrealer Calvin
• 30:30 - 31:00 Marshall was a light machine gunner with the Westminster regiment when it marched on Ravenna in December 1944. we were on a night March and the whole regiment was there the colonel and everybody and we were supposed to meet up with the Irish Regiment of Canada they were going to make an assault on Ravenna and uh the colonel ordered that we stopped
• 31:00 - 31:30 there's no lights everything is black and eventually we got separated from the main group we were lying around outside and we could hear the Germans coming up the road we didn't expect that they there were any Germans there at the time the Germans were always spouting about they were the master race
• 31:30 - 32:00 and the hate they had for Jews and for anything other than the Germans I was fearful that if I was taken prisoner what they might do to me and I'm gonna tell you something never was so scared in my life December 1944 machine gunner Calvin Marshall is part of Canada's longest Army campaign to drive the German Army out of Northern
• 32:00 - 32:30 Italy on a night march to Ravenna he became separated from his unit and stumbled into a German Patrol we didn't know how many Germans there was of them Nazi hatred for people of color was well known to Allied soldiers in 1940 when France fell at the Battle of France the Invaders executed between 1 000 and 1500 French African pows in a
• 32:30 - 33:00 series of isolated killings you had two parts of the German army that were marked which was the regular army but the SS were fiercely loyal to Hitler and they were Nazi fanatics to be captured by the SS was pretty much a death sentence especially if you're Jewish and uh I'd imagine it wasn't much better for their black troops either in the aftermath of World War One Hitler
• 33:00 - 33:30 was enraged by the French occupation force and the presence of twenty thousand African soldiers within it he made it illegal for Jews Roma and blacks to marry Germans in 1937 the Nazis sterilized biracial German children in World War II erupted Nazi Germany amped up its anti-black propaganda
• 33:30 - 34:00 if you're black you're in a heightened sense of awareness of everything around you and everyone around you with inherent Germans in the back of us calling out to each other and everybody started to run we went up into a farmer's Loft
• 34:00 - 34:30 [Music] and very very quiet [Music] we stayed there all night [Music] when daylight broke we looked out through a little thing and we seen Canadian soldiers there they had already had us lifting it listed as missing
• 34:30 - 35:00 black or white no Soldier would want to be in the hands of the enemy besides sent out capture Patrols to bring back enemy Soldiers with valuable Intel they have different targets and they want to capture the individual with as much information as possible [Music] signal men like wellsford Daniels Target on his back
• 35:00 - 35:30 often when one of our lines of communication broke down my job was to find out what the cause was and repair it and replace the equipment and also my concern was to travel from headquarters up to the front lines to report on what was going on when you've got to dispatch with the signalman you can always know that
• 35:30 - 36:00 they've got some sort of information that you could potentially use to find out what they the other side is doing and that would be by traveling by Night quite a ways back so it meant I'd be traveling over the years if we're not completely cleared out and only carrying a sten gun in the back the Warriors most dangerous environment a person can find themselves in
• 36:00 - 36:30 certain noises would come from the bushes or The Creeks or the ditches so there's no stop this is one of those times when it's not about the journey it's about the destination one time I recall being stupid by a couple of things falling along we Rodeway
• 36:30 - 37:00 these trees sort of Shield me from the aircraft lightning it has an effect on you which you'll never forget the job I would want to be doing you know I I like to be a part of a team I don't necessarily want to be that guy that's going to be riding all by myself through all the danger wellsford never missed a chance to write
• 37:00 - 37:30 to his girlfriend Gertrude back home in Montreal [Music] it's like this was just as interesting it's telling me all that was going on and what was happening so I look forward to them that's what kept me going really [Music] I'd write back a town with all this happened with all the others well why don't you tell me about you I he didn't believe that I would be working all the time you know he just figured I wasn't telling him what I was
• 37:30 - 38:00 doing unlike today where we've got text messages and we've got Facebook or whatever Back Then mail would come whenever it comes and seeing that letter it's like an adrenaline shot it just connects you to home they always wanted to know everything that I was doing it I couldn't tell him very much the exception because I was always working that acts as a motivator to make sure
• 38:00 - 38:30 that when they go out and they got to fight against the enemy that they focus on their BattleCraft right because it's about getting out of there and getting home because it's going to be a warm embrace from that that loved one when I get back but in the late summer of 1944 going home was only a dream the Battle of Khan had just been won now John olby in the second Canadian
• 38:30 - 39:00 Corps we're about to Corner the retreating Germans in a bottleneck in a small town called fellas [Music] I knew I was in a war Zoom fellets the Battle of Fella's Gap was a brutal Bloodbath the Battle of fillets Gap was important because the Americans had broken through
• 39:00 - 39:30 the German defenses in the west the British had broken through the German defenses in the North and the Americans also were pushing and pressuring the Germans from the south so this created pressure on three sides of the Germans they were withdrawing from this pressure the Germans had to escape this pocket through a gap that was about eight kilometers in width Canadian Army was assigned the task of closing that Gap the goal surround the
• 39:30 - 40:00 Germans and prevent them from Shoring up defenses in northeastern France Belgium and the Netherlands German troops they got wind are we coming this way [Music] after victory at Khan John olby is again on the move the Canadians and their allies Corner the retreating Germans in a trap near a
• 40:00 - 40:30 small French town called falets the perimeter that they were defending was collapsing as they were getting pressure on all three sides creating a pocket estimates vary but about a hundred thousand German troops trapped in this pocket and they had to escape so there'd be a few roads going through that eight kilometer Gap Canadian Army had been criticized for not closing that Gap quickly enough the Germans knew what was going on and resisting ferociously
• 40:30 - 41:00 we come up it's exclusively sweeping them out and the Moonshine every day it's not like the movies where someone is hit by a bullet and dies in his buddy arms and says you know tell Mom I love her it's you know body parts are being blown off heads are being decapitated people being cut in half Modern Warfare is horribly destructive to the human
• 41:00 - 41:30 body and we just kept coming coming the Air Force they sealed up from air and swooping up and down the road troops often call it the Tiffy was the a British warplane called the typhoon and it was a very powerful ground attack
• 41:30 - 42:00 but there was dead horse we were just a lot of horses dead man all molded up thinking right ditches are full the amount of death there was so great that the Allies put a cordon around it and wouldn't let anyone into it because of the the health hazard that all those corpses presented pilots flying over the Gap reported that
• 42:00 - 42:30 they could smell it from the air hundreds of feet up what the I could never forget that [Music] like that during the fighting 10 000 German troops were killed in that Gap and fifty thousand were captured
• 42:30 - 43:00 some of them escaped but they left behind 500 of their tanks while doing so which is a big hit in terms of their their capability the front fell back towards Germany by October 1944 The Liberation of Belgium had begun for Robert Jones The Battle of the Shelt was ahead one of the difficulties that any army
• 43:00 - 43:30 faces is resupply so the port of Antwerp was captured by the British army the approach to it was along the Estuary of shelf River going through land that was dominated by the German army the Germans could easily sink the shipping from their land-based forces so that shelf estuary needed to be clear to the German forces and that fell to the Canadian Army to do it
• 43:30 - 44:00 over 6 300 Canadians were wounded missing or killed [Music] reinforcements arrived and a war weary Robert Jones became Pals with a red-haired rookie from Brantford Ontario Henry red Jeanette my good friend Jeanette read Jeanette he taught me to play guitar all the way through good friends that's what it's about at this point
• 44:00 - 44:30 because you know that if racism kicks in Trust departs you don't worry that I'm a white man having an indigenous person to my left and a black person to my right you don't think about that because all you're thinking about is we're all train as Canadians right to fight against that enemy that's over there that's trying to
• 44:30 - 45:00 kill us infantry is a very intimate part of the army when you're fighting you're fighting on foot with people very closely that bond of friendship that develops transcends everything and after a while everything goes out the window except your respect and friendship for your fellow Soldier [Music] Jeanette and Jones fought side by side
• 45:00 - 45:30 the regimental diary recorded their bravery this is what our history book says about Bud Jones Bud Jones was a member of that platoon and remembered the vicious little fight that ensued when the Germans attacked and drove his platoon back into a house a brand Gunner Jones took up a firing position at a window and decided that this would be the last house we would ever see the enemy seemed to be all around us after several attempts to Route us out
• 45:30 - 46:00 over there the enemy began tossing grenades Through the Windows one hit my buddy read Jennette on the shoulder and when he picked it up and threw it back we all started doing the same thing as fast as we could performance were routed from the shout plylines were established by April 1945 France and Belgium were liberated Canadian soldiers were welcomed as Heroes [Applause]
• 46:00 - 46:30 the regiment and all the other Allied armies receiving tremendous support and and love from the liberated countries there's one point the soldiers were kidnapped and I put that in quotation marks and willingly so by the citizens and the the Army just kind of just said let's forget about it for the day let these guys have fun because the civilians are so jubilant at seeing their liberators show up
• 46:30 - 47:00 [Music] I was quite comfortable particularly in a hallway and when I went through Holland it seemed like every time we stopped they would wave to you and and in my case every family that I met seemed to want to adopt me and to this day I still have friends over there that I visit it was fantastic it was a case where you
• 47:00 - 47:30 almost forgot about the fighting but the war was still on April the 3rd of 1945 we were at a place called Flint canal in Holland the 20 Canal was the last series fighting that the regiment did and it was actually the last battle honor we earned during the second world war the battalion uh endured and beat off 15 attacks by
• 47:30 - 48:00 the Germans on that one day 15. running across the canal there was a large barn and we occupied and then we attacked the house and drove and we have the house and that was my platoon that did that so we Consolidated around the outside of the house that night Jones's platoon dug in
• 48:00 - 48:30 I usually uh like to to sleep early because firstly if you're going to get a counter-attack is usually when the the enemy usually attack at first light rich in it was shaving and I was getting ready to change over with him whenever Germans threw in a counter-attack bread grabbed his rifle
• 48:30 - 49:00 and run out the front door and I'm calling him back [Music]
• 49:00 - 49:30 April 3rd 1945 Eastern Netherlands Robert Jones and red Jeanette are caught in a surprise attack red was lying there shot they killed him right off I didn't know whether to leave him there or whether to get the rest of them out we were getting yelled at to withdraw so I got the rest of my
• 49:30 - 50:00 but at the same time red was left there but was very protective of vet and but felt responsible the flat white friendship that bud and red hat was much more the norm than people would believe that deep Battlefield Bond lasted only six months 60 kilometers South and Diesel Germany
• 50:00 - 50:30 wellsford Daniels witnessed his last big battle that afternoon the sky was just literally parachutes laying fruit this was just part of the battle that we had been seeing so often take place so it was just one more battle one more battle and this was the last Bridge
• 50:30 - 51:00 after that the war was over today is Victory in Europe day long live the cause of Freedom May 8th 1945 VE Day I'll never forget it I can still remember that day when they said it was over a little bit with many memories and thank goodness that we were on The Winning Side
• 51:00 - 51:30 if I had to do something like that I wouldn't go back yes because we were fighting for democracy of equality of all people all for one and one for all everybody was so happy and people you know more or less adopted the Canadians we got along very good [Applause] Europeans embraced their liberators [Applause] anticipation and joy in their hearts
• 51:30 - 52:00 tempered by the memories of the friends they have lost the Canadians who have survived from their returning home to Canada I believe that the future of Canada rests in their hands it will be a grand future should they be given the opportunity in peace to prove and practice the admirable characteristics they have demonstrated in war shaken relieved Canadian soldiers began to return home
• 52:00 - 52:30 they gave us the amount of money that when you arrive back in Montreal they would cash and I remember everybody's on the boat haphazardly gambling playing poker I remember when I got back here I was putting hair broke we didn't get home until sometime in uh in January after three years apart Gertrude and wellsford reunite
• 52:30 - 53:00 I was down there waving and he was waving back at me we got together and we went to his mother's home and then spent the day there and talked it was quite something just glad to see him back safely it was the main thing [Music] for many Canadian soldiers the war had created Battlefield friendships seemed
• 53:00 - 53:30 to transcend race we've interviewed many many many veterans and coming back to Canada was where they experienced the most racism the black men coming back knew that when they came back to Canada that the unity that they had as a member of the military would be gone so one fight ends and you go back to the original fight the fight for civil rights continued in
• 53:30 - 54:00 places like Dresden Ontario two black soldiers dressed in their uniforms walk into McKay's restaurant which is interesting Mr McKay himself was returning vet and refused those two young men service in a 1949 referendum Dresden residents voted against a bill that would have made local shopkeepers
• 54:00 - 54:30 serve Black customers I hadn't got anything against the colored people and they've made a mess in their own list yeah do you think they have a lot of support or not I'm backed by the by the people from outside yeah what who who are these people do you think well there's the the colored people from from some of the big organizations in the states
• 54:30 - 55:00 there's the Communists they're looking for trouble all the time and there's the Jews if we can't come out of battle unified and having that solid relationship when are we going to do it after the war you things would change they remain the same it certainly didn't improve the racial tension in this community
• 55:00 - 55:30 they knew they were accepted and loved but they certainly were not given what the white soldiers were given I don't think they were given enough credit when the factories they were good enough to shove a broom but they were never good enough to run those machines John olby returned to Chatham today at
• 55:30 - 56:00 99 years old he's one of the last surviving black Canadian veterans of World War II tell him what your last job was if it's a mail right yeah I took a correspondence course to be a male right it was a long journey but I passed and I got a job at the American can company and I was there for several years
• 56:00 - 56:30 Lolly and I lived with my parents and now we got on our own piece by piece we stayed in the same building in fact we're there now and there's been kind to us and whooping kind of a great family there with the military they did offer event
• 56:30 - 57:00 with benefits so a lot of men who might not have been able to afford to go to university or what have you they took advantage of those benefits and went to further their education some of the most iconic to me Stanley Brazil and Lincoln Alexander Lincoln went into politics changing the system by becoming an individual who
• 57:00 - 57:30 became a part of the system I look at Stanley fought to improve the system and the system rewarded him for hard work by becoming a judge so your individuals who came through the war right and they were able to become influencers and decision makers in their own right Sam astwick remained in the Air Force
• 57:30 - 58:00 my father's experiences when he got back to Canada after the war were defined by his uniform I found that what we now call Raider we were so far advanced in electronics that some of the friends I met who had lecture engineering degrees didn't know as much about Electronics as I knew astwick was among the Canadian experts who set up the first early warning system designed to detect a Russian Air Attack on North America
• 58:00 - 58:30 I don't think at the time he recognized how significant his actions were being at the Forefront of positions in the military [Music] twig tired with the rank of flight lieutenant he passed away in 2008 at the age of 92. at his funeral the volume of people who showed up in
• 58:30 - 59:00 uniform they said we are here to recognize what your father did for us to allow us to be in the jobs we're in today and I thought that was a really strong message that really really moved me they laid poppies on the memorial there was a really really moving recognition
• 59:00 - 59:30 at any point in the war anyone in the Army at the front lines in a combat zone was at the risk of of death wounding or capture and you know anyone who fought their participated in their certainly deserves our respect the history of Canada is the history of everyone in it there are individuals throughout history and I do believe my father is one of them who have made significant moves and
• 59:30 - 60:00 done something of significance that that changed the country he said by far not the only one there's hundreds of them these men formed their chain Nick and put poor people up with them so that they're saying hey come on up to the next level and see what's possible and then all of a sudden we're seeing the community is growing because these men dared to dream
• 60:00 - 60:30 [Music] after the war Robert Jones struggled to return to normal life well it's hired my mother-in-law father found that out of because I actually came back suffering from post-traumatic stress at the time and didn't recognize what it was [Music] I've spoken to the families of veterans of the second world war whose fathers dealt with horrific conditions in battle
• 60:30 - 61:00 and survived and came home after the war and said that their father was always angry I was difficult to deal with impatient and it created a stressful situation for the family for years after the war every person is going to handle it differently some people don't handle it at all I got myself into boxing I was that told by the doctor to find
• 61:00 - 61:30 something strenuous to do it I tried it it turned out pretty good so I thought I could beat anybody in the world the first thing I did was one of the Quebec Bowling Club Championship and then in 1948 I I was Dominion champion what I look up but I I I I I I see the metals all over his chest you know the left side the right side that soldier that you would want to emulate
• 61:30 - 62:00 all my friends called me buddy when I was young but now that I got older it's but having a name sir or a nickname like that it forms your character 60 years after the war Jones returned to the Netherlands with politicians and Veterans to remember soldiers who'd made the ultimate sacrifice like red Jeanette
• 62:00 - 62:30 I was more or less under the auspices of Veterans Affairs we went back and I visited his grave [Music] they have this record and everything in the Branford Library but it had to be me to go online and dig it out and get a picture of it they don't know what his history all they know is that he went overseas and he was killed at in Holland
• 62:30 - 63:00 foreign [Music] 1975 Jones retired from the Army as a sergeant he passed away on September 2nd 2021 at a nursing home in Ottawa he was 96. [Music]
• 63:00 - 63:30 Owen Rowe retired from the military after the war he devoted his life to Social Work and became a diplomat for the government of Barbados experience in the Canadian military remained his Guiding Light this mission to share the story of my father as well as the veterans that fought for Canada in the second world war and Beyond is very important to me
• 63:30 - 64:00 it's a promise I made to my dad before he passed away and it it makes me a little emotional Roe passed away on April 16 2005. two months later the Canadian war museum honored his wish and unveiled a plaque recognizing the service and sacrifice of West Indian World War II veterans
• 64:00 - 64:30 they got the job done they went over with a task the task was one to be a part of a team to to seek out clothes with and destroy the enemy three to come back home alive they did it all forever there are other challenges that that they face on top of all of that but they were still able to come back and then to change society oh
• 64:30 - 65:00 they got the job done [Music] when we think of Remembrance Day we often think of that poem in Flanders field but will you share a poem that you wrote okay it's called soldiers farewell and these were the words land of my birth or there's Earth beneath whose shining sky as I toil
• 65:00 - 65:30 I must now leave thy sacred soil and risk my blood on foreign lands to safety from the harsh demands which tyrants heartless would impose if none the freedoms call a rose I go with warm tears in my eyes for I shall miss thy smiling Skies the Rapture of thy Myriad stairs those festive nights of salt guitars my love
• 65:30 - 66:00 and all that I hold dear which just in dreams can now be near land of my birth so filled with mirth I go and I may not return but fires of my love shall burn for thee bright as thy noon to his son I am sure as a victory to be one