Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Great Escape

 Two fronts of the war today. The Canadian military served in the Pacific theatre as well as the European theatre, primarily naval and air assets, but also ground troops. Panels and exhibits look at the story here.


This is a portion of the fuselage of a Canadian Dakota that crashed in what is now Myanmar and was found decades later. I mentioned this flight in posts covering the Forever Changed exhibit.


Here we have one of the crew members


Drop Zone- Taungoo, Burma is the title of this painting by Robert Bradford.


Back in Europe, a section looks at the experience of Canadian POWs. Canadians were among those who took part in what was later dramatized in the film The Great Escape.

34 comments:

  1. Just as well to be reminded of daring deeds and heroism from those who were part of an alliance found in very far-flung battle fronts. The Great Escape was replayed the other day including the popular motorcycle sequence plus those classic actors. Cheers from Newcastle au.

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    1. It is a terrific movie, albeit dramatized. There was only one American in the breakout, and there were no motorbikes or airplanes involved in its aftermath.

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  2. The title of the painting is meaningful too.

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  3. I hope many lives were saved by the great escape.

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    1. Of the 76 who got out, only three made it to freedom. Of the seventy three recaptured, fifty were murdered by the Germans.

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  4. ...my father was in the Pacific and he never talked about it and we never asked.

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  5. The bravery and what they endured, bless them.

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  6. It must have felt like war was never going to end.

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  7. They were so far away from home.

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  8. What I still miss a bit in all this is the many people who were active underground in occupied European territory to hide crew members of crashed bombers and to help them back to safe territory.

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    1. The Resistance would be an ideal subject for a special exhibit.

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  9. We are blessed that all was won and wonderful tribute to those who served ~.

    Wishing you lots of loving moments,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  10. Canadian forces went through some very challenging and scary times.

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  11. We hear hear as much about the War in the west.

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  12. The Great Escape is one of my favorite movies. I have the book the movie was based on.

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  13. I know so much less of the Pacific than the European theatre. (And I loved that movie!)

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    1. We seem to gravitate towards the European theatre, but the Pacific theatre was a big war, and certainly not a sideshow.

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  14. Canada certainly helped make a huge difference in the war.

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  15. I remember seeing that film in the mid sixties, actually early mid 60s IIRC — 63, I am guessing.

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  16. I can remember watching the film 'The Great Escape'.
    A good film and good cast too.

    All the best Jan

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