Courage Under Fire

 We begin today with the Wasp Flamethrower, a vehicle that was a mainstay of Canadian troops during the Scheldt, the Rhineland campaign, and through to the end of the war.

As the name suggested, this cast fire a long distance into the enemy- certainly the sort of thing that would terrify your adversary.

Alongside other Allied forces, Canadians would push into the Rhineland. It was just a matter of time. On both west and east fronts, Nazi Germany was dying.

There are stories here of individual courage and audacity. Lt.-Colonel Denis Whitaker had led men at Dieppe, and led them through the Rhineland to the end of the war. Sergeant Aubrey Cosens won the Victoria Cross posthumously for his bravery under fire. Major Fred Tilston won it too for his leadership, losing his legs in the process.

One of my favourite artifacts in the Museum. This German pistol was taken by the wounded Private Terrence Kaye, who forced his captors to take him back to Canadian lines. That is pure audacity.

Field medical kits had advanced with the times.

Field hospitals had improved from the First World War. 

Organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army worked tirelessly, at home and at the front.

Their work, in many capacities, would be the sort of thing that would lift morale, reminding men of what they were fighting for.

The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion landed behind German lines in March 1945 and went to work wrecking havoc on them. They penetrated deeper into Germany than any other Canadian unit, and ended the war meeting up with Soviet soldiers.

This is the medal set and cap of one of them. Corporal Frederick Topham won the Victoria Cross during the Rhineland campaign.

Canadians who had been prisoners of war in Europe were waiting to be freed. Some of them were in the worst POW camps behind German lines, such as in the camp that later became known as the site of the Great Escape.