First Canadian Parachute Battalion!

[Johnny_H]

My Apologies if I have left anything out or my post seems a bit general but I am not a historian with a lifetime of knowelege but a guy in his 20's with a huge interest in the second world war.

The First Canadian Parachute battalion was concieved in 1942, and they took thier training for jumping out of aircraft at Fort Benning GA, Some were also trained in the british method of jumping using no reserve chute. Training was soon moved to Camp Shiloh in Manitoba along with another group of paras already training in England. This unit jumped into Normandy on June 6th 1944 and fought through the following campiegns. This was intigrated with the British 6th airborne Divsion.

* Another interesting note, the Canadian parachute battalion after VE was almost immediatly called back to Canada and were among the first fighting men to set foot on Canadian soil ( Halifax Pier 21 to be exact ). They were suprised to find out that they were to be dispanded due to the fact they were not infact part of the Canadian army but although Canadian were part of the British army ( 6th Airborne Division ).

# Normandy Landing
# Dives Crossing
# The Rhine
# Northwest Europe 1944-45

As with any Parachute unit, the casualties were very high, and in small towns in france and across Europe there are plaques and monuments dedicated to those men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion who fell on thier soil, as well as a tribute to those who fought and returned home.

I thought I would share a few Images, Videos and a link to a documentory I picked up for next to nothing at a local walmart which covers this unit in explicit detail.

A proclaimed Authror of four memiors about his service in 101st airborne div 506th PIR Acoy Mr. Donald Burgett has made mention of Canadian troops (Road to Arnhem ) in his books, giving them slightly more credit then the popular author Stephen Ambrose ( who although is a great author and historian often seemed to misplace blame on British and Canadian units for moving to slowly in the DDay campiegn )

So with no further rambling from yours truely, I present most of the information I could dig up on the First Canadian Parachute Battalion

( FYI there was a second Canadian parachute battalion but during its construction/training period it was dispatched to the US to make up the Canadian contingent of the First Special Service force which later earned the distinguised nick name "The Devils Brigade" )

CBC Documentory Dated june 6th 1994 Interview with two 1canpara vets
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-1317-78 ... -day/clip3

Link to a Excellent Documentory about the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion
http://www.kochcan.com/05_catalogue/vid ... NW-DV-5000

The Shoulder patch worn on the battledress jacket underneath the British style parachute smock
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... canbat.jpg

* It should be noted that only the Shoulder patch ( worn under para smock ) and a Badge worn on the upper right breast of the smock showing Parachute wings with a Maple leaf in the center distinguished them from thier British counterparts.

They also wore a Maroon Beret ( a darker red ) with a Differant badge.

Photos * searched using Google.ca
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... orbert.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... june_5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... canbat.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... n_1945.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... macdon.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... per5wn.jpg


The First Canadian Para's to hit france
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... 1stcan.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... stcana.jpg

The Paratroopers Creed as it was handed out to Canadian Para's befor DDay
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/JohnnyH/creed.jpg

1 Can Para Vets at a gathering * Pictured second from the left Jean De Vries who is the President 1CanPara Preservation Association
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/J ... union2.jpg

This link shows Jean on wildbillguarnere.com ( if anyone knows the story on this image please tell )
http://gallery.wildbillguarnere.com/sho ... ll&page=30

On a Further note, Americans, are fortunate to have the kind of coverage they recieve film and media wise, same could be said about the british who have countless famous war film depicting and showing people thier accomplishments.

Canada's contribution has sort of faded into the back pages of history ( at least in Canada to some degree ), a good example is that in high school we spent a total of 1 day on the second world war and that one day we only briefly covered Canada's contribution ( all be it my History teacher wasnt really keen on military history so it got side tracked allot ) But believe it or not allot of people in Canada never knew we had Paratroopers in the second world war, most Canadians couldnt even tell you what beach they landed on.

I dont believe its that we dont remember, but in Canada there seems to be a PC sugar coated theme for rememberance in which we dont remmeber individual units accomplishments, actions won and lost, rather a general perception of large events such as Juno Beach, and the Poem "In Flanders Fields" it was said that there was a time that the words VIMY RIDGE were known to every Canadian ... this simply isnt true anymore. So we do honor our vets every year but with every year they pass on thier actions, valor and bravery fall deeper into obscurity.

Its part of what drives me to read, research and find out more.

So I figured I would share a Little information with this forum

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed Posting it.

Thank you

- John H

[Wm. Harris]

Hi John,

Thanks for your post

I had the chance to interview a 1 Can Para veteran last year for a special D-Day commemorative edition my newspaper did, which included interviews with area veterans. He was quite a colourful fellow - short and dependant on a walker, but still full of gusto. I've reproduced the story below. Because it was written for a broad audience, I didn't overload it with the kind of details a military historian might look for, but I hope you still find it interesting.

The first of many
Gord Milburn was one of the first Canadians to fight in Normandy

By William Harris

As Gord Milburn sat crammed in a tiny transport airplane on the night of June 5th, he thought he was just on another training exercise.

For months, he and his comrades in the elite 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion had been training in England. They had practiced daytime jumps, night-time jumps, weapons training, close combat tactics, physical conditioning and just about anything else the army could throw at them, without any letup.

As gruelling as the training regimen was, it was all done to prepare these men – Canada’s contribution to the famed British 6th Airborne Division – for the inevitable day when they would parachute into Nazi-occupied Europe. But as Milburn sat shoehorned in his aircraft, he had no idea that that day had arrived.

The 6th Airborne Division formed the extreme left wing of the D-Day invasion. Their task was vital – to seize and hold bridges spanning the Orne River and prevent the Germans from reinforcing the beaches under attack by the British and Canadians. By protecting the beaches, they would ensure the safety of the main invasion force; by holding the bridges, they would help the Allied armies get out of Normandy and liberate France.

The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was one of the first units from the 6th Airborne Division to go into action. Milburn’s ‘C’ Company would be the first Canadians to land in France, tasked with securing the drop zone for subsequent airborne landings. They then had to destroy a radio transmitting station at Varaville, demolish the town’s bridge over the Divette stream and link up with the rest of their battalion at a crossroads near the town of Le Mesnil.

The Canadian Parachute Battalion would then join the rest of the 6th Airborne in aiding the advance of the seaborne invasion forces.

The plans had all been meticulously drawn up to give the best chance of success. During wartime, however, the best laid plans are often the first to go completely awry.

‘C’ Company departed England at 2230 hrs on June 5. They were ferried to Normandy in converted Albemarle bombers – although these aircraft weren’t designed to carry paratroopers, they were equipped machine gun turrets for defence against German fighters.

The ‘Paras’ flew as part of the bomber stream pounding the beaches in preparation for the invasion. Milburn remembers the sky being “lit up like Christmas” with German anti-aircraft gunfire.

Jumping out of an Albemarle was easier said than done; most of the Canadian paratroopers had never even seen the elderly bombers before, let alone jumped out of them. In contrast to other transport aircraft, which were entered and exited from the side, the Albemarle had to be departed from a hole in the floor. Upon exiting the aircraft, Milburn’s parachute opened and he descended gently to the battlefield below. He linked up with other members of his company and set off for their D-Day objectives.

For Milburn, the next few hours are a blur, but history record that ‘C’ Company achieved their tasks on schedule, due in no small part to the complete surprise with which they took their German opponents. By the afternoon, though, there hadn’t been any contact with the seaborne invasion forces.

In fact, it would be another three months before the 6th Airborne Division was relieved by the advancing British army. Holed up in abandoned buildings and slit trenches, and under constant shellfire, they had only the Germans to keep them company.

“They kicked the hell out of us with their artillery,” Milburn says. “If you shot at any of them, they’d call back to their artillery and they’d start shelling you. During lunchtime, they’d shell our kitchens.”

“They knew exactly where we were, and they wanted to let us know that they were still in the vicinity!”

Frustrated by their situation, some Para officers wanted to take a more active role in assisting the invasion. Milburn well remembers one incident when he and a handful of other paratroopers were ordered to cut off and destroy German reinforcements heading for the beach-head.

“They wanted to attack six tanks that were going to attack Juno, and they came to us for volunteers,” Milburn recalled with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. “Well, that was one brilliant operation, attacking tanks with rifles and grenades. We fought them all night, and they kicked our butts. Most of our guys were killed or wounded.”

Milburn still holds a grudge against the British and Canadian governments for not better equipping their airborne troops. While American and German paratroopers were liberally supplied with automatic and semi-automatic weapons, most Commonwealth paras went into action with bolt-action rifles, which were slower to load and fire.

The battalion’s light anti-tank weapons, particularly the spring-loaded PIAT, were also ill-conceived and impractical, Milburn added.

“That was criminal,” he said.

Bleak situation
The see-saw offensive and defensive battles throughout July and August of 1944 took their toll on the paratroopers. Those who weren’t killed or wounded gradually started slipping into despair – at the ground level, nobody was sure how the invasion was proceeding or how much longer they would have to hold out.

“When you spend three months in a place you only thought you’d be in for a day, it starts to get you down,” Milburn says.

“It wasn’t all roses and sunshine, that’s for sure.”

Finally, after months of sheltering from German shells, defending bridges, and attacking strongpoints, Milburn and the rest of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion were taken out of the line and sent back to England. Their casualties had been severe – 113 on D-Day itself – but the battalion had achieved their objectives and helped ensure the success of the invasion.

Bill H.

[Andreas]

An Off-topic post by Landser was removed.

Landser - the joke is not particularly funny,it is flame bait, and I have heard essentially the same told with a BA plane and Frankfurt airport tower. Yawn. Keep 'humour' like that for the lounge.

All the best

Andreas