This is a C2 105mm Howitzer, standard issue for Canadian military reserve units.
The path ahead features faces of the last decade of the Cold War- Reagan, Thatcher, and Gorbachev.
Canadian officer uniforms by the 80s were looking much as they do today.
This Warsaw Pact tank, along with some of the side arms, stands along the path.
1989 was the year of momentous change, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in eastern Europe. A section of the Wall stands here.
The Canadian government hosted a conference of foreign ministers to work out the process of German reunification. Germany presented this section of the wall to the Canadian people. Its place here makes sense. What has always surprised me is that it's not that thick.
It was a time of optimism, the ending of tensions and of new possibilities. It didn't turn out that way.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein sent Iraqi forces into neighbouring Kuwait. President George H.W. Bush built a coalition of international forces to drive him out. Canada sent military forces into the Gulf, in what became known as Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
With the Canadian military was a commissioned war artist. Ted Zuber had fought as a young man in Korea. He painted Night Run in 1991.
Hi william just letting you know that I've changed my blog name it's here at https://blue-day3.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteWow on your banner.
ReplyDeleteYes. A 25 minutes walk and I see a piece of Berlin wall here, too. And I have some really nice friends from former "DDR". All the stories, too!
I was 17 when the wall fell and was close by. I had no idea Canada was a part of it all! Thank you!
Well and now.. Ukraine... If they fall, Europe falls and Berlin... maybe taken over fully...
Things both change and stay the same.
DeleteWeapons of self defence/mass destruction. Matter of perspective.
ReplyDeleteThat is true.
DeleteNice with that piece of the wall. Reading an old novel about Berlin a decade or so after the war at the moment. The innovent, by Ian McEvan.
ReplyDeleteThe wall makes an impression.
DeleteInformative exhibit '~ thanks'
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteIt is good to show that piece of wall to remind us what might happen again.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
DeleteThe Cold War was a nervous time in history when we all wondered if mutual destruction could happen at any moment.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we're back in it.
DeleteWell I can honestly say I have been up close and personal with the Berlin wall, I went to see it when I was working in Berlin at the time
ReplyDeleteIt must have been ver different seeing it intact.
DeleteI would not want to be on that Night Run.
ReplyDeleteTake care, have a great weekend.
Thank you.
Delete...I remember it well and was amazed to see it come down.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite a time.
DeleteLike Tom - I remember it well and was amazed to see it come down - goodness that was in 1989!
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Time flies.
DeleteThank you for sharing this information, 🙏 William. I love your blog header 💗
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteThank you for such an interesting post! When I was 13 years old, I visited my grandparents who lived in Berlin and my cousin and I walked to the Berlin wall and he was very cautious about how close we got to it, and the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing. I remember the guards with their rifles up in the wooden tower looking quite well!
ReplyDeleteQuite a memory.
DeleteIt is and one I'll forever hold. My mother's aunt, Tante in German at the time was still alive and living on the East side of the wall during our visit there.
DeleteOne of my grandfather's brothers married a German woman before the war.
DeleteI stood at the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie and I've been to East Berlin a few times. They weren't pleasant experiences.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine.
Delete