| Subject: Re: To Commemorate D-Day's Heroism! |
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Good morning Ziners - I too have been watching the coverage of the D-Day
ceremonies on the BBC. My 84 year old Dad is a Canadian war veteran
wounded in the invasion of Sicily - he was with the Canadian Signal
Corps in the first wave of troops who went in. I am always so touched
when I see these elderly gentlemen proudly wearing their medals and
marching (sometimes in better unison than their younger counterparts in
today's forces and militia). My father never traveled back to Sicily
and rarely talks about his experiences. He has however been greatly
affected throughout his life by his war experiences and to this day some
60+ years later, he still has a great deal of difficulty sleeping and
has terrible nightmares. I'm sure he suffers from what today is
referred to as post traumatic stress syndrome. Some of his comrades
were killed when he was wounded - they were strafed by German
Messerschmidts. Dad was wounded in the leg and spent 6 months in
hospital in north Africa and still has shrapnel in the affected leg.
I also feel fortunate that I made it with my mother through the North Atlantic in March of 1944 on the troopship "Andes" while the war was still being waged - my mother was one of half a dozen warbrides with their children who were brought from Liverpool to Halifax and she was only 22 years old leaving her family to go to a new family she didn't know. How brave they were during those years and we owe them much. Pat, Ontario |