Picture of the day

That's quite the piece, Tony. Thanks for that.

We tend to have a measure of "gee whiz" appreciation for the tools of war. It's impressive technology. War drives innovation and advances the species, but it's still one of the most loathsome things we do.

Right now in Gaza, people are dying horrifically. A month ago, people in Israel died in ways awful enough that I don't like to think about them. Every one of those people would have liked to have seen 2024, but they were denied the chance by people who thought killing them was not just correct, but moral and in line with what their scriptures are telling them. God's on everyone's side, apparently. Or more likely, neither.

In the meantime, I had a good Christmas close to people I love. I'm confident I'm going to see tomorrow. Chances are good, anyhow. Seems unlikely someone's kicking in my door and shooting me, or blowing my house down around my ears. I've eaten well today. My people are in good shape physically. I'm going to wake up warm and clean and perhaps a bit hungry tomorrow morning. Lotta folks can't say the same.

The fact that we're relatively safe, fat, and happy here is something we should all think about as 2023 finishes up. Many of our brothers and sisters out there don't have the level of luxury we do. A couple hundred or so have died since I started typing this. The least we can do is think of them and see if there's anything we can do or say to help put an end to it.

Happy New Year, boys. Let's hope sh!t gets better soon.
 
It's by Joseph Brodsky. Must have cut off the entire paste last night sorry.

Charles_Comfort_Painting_in_Italy.jpg


Charles Comfort, creator of the awe inspiring artwork, 'The Hitler Line.' It reminds me of Hell opening up and letting loose war demons in a moonscape of burning wreckage interspersed with carnage. He captured the black soul of the Italian Campaign.
 
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May as well
charles-comfort-the-hitler-line-1068x886.jpeg


Charles Comfort, “The Hitler Line,” 1944, Oil on canvas. Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.
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https://niagaranow.com/arts.phtml/eye-for-art-the-hitler-line/

Penny-Lynn Cookson


November 17, 2022


The façade of the Court House of Niagara-on-the-Lake was festooned this month with red knitted and crocheted poppies made by loving local hands.

Poppies wrapped around poles guided us along King Street to Castelreagh and to the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum, where more poppies tumbled from tower to ground.

On the lawn were white cards stuck in the earth, like mini-gravestones with the names, rank, birth and death dates of the fallen from Niagara-on-the-Lake in the First and Second World Wars.

The majority were young, in their early twenties, and while we may feel anger that so many youths were sacrificed to the political global ambitions and decision-making of men who would never experience war in the trenches, at sea or in the air, perhaps we can put ourselves in the place of those who enlisted and consider the “why” of why they wanted to go to war.

Adventure? Joining pals and siblings on a lark? Seeing the world? Getting off farms and out of small towns? Leaving restricted social or economic lives? Patriotism? Sincere belief in a just cause?

Whatever the justification, many Canadians volunteered, taking the risk, leaving lives and loved ones behind. Yes, we feel compelled to remember them but let it not be solely for their sacrifice, which diminishes their choice, their beliefs, their heroism.

It isn’t about jingoism. It is about the decision-making of two generations who believed in their communities, their country, their institutions, their faith and one another.

When we wear our poppies, let’s think about not only why they went and fought so bravely, but if they survived, the consequences they bore for the rest of their lives. Many could never speak of what they saw and endured.

For years, veterans could take refuge in the companionship of others in the Royal Canadian Legion branches across the country. Many Legions now struggle to survive.

Our very own Niagara-on-the-Lake branch thrives where much more is on offer than the Thursday fish fry.

Soon, three of us will again judge this year’s children and youth entries to the Legion’s Remembrance Day Poster and Literary Contest. Our panel is often touched by the creativity and sensitivity of these meaningful art works and essays submitted from schools in NOTL, Virgil and St. Davids.

The entries often relate to Second World War cemeteries, poppies and loss as names such Ypres, the Somme, Vimy, Hill 70 and Passchendaele are so frequently intoned during our Remembrance services.

Less celebrated, overlooked, but equally important, were the battles leading up to D-Day such as those of the 1943-1944 Italian campaign. Also, less heralded but essential to our understanding of the Second World War battles is the artwork created by Canadian official war artists, dug in, witnessing, slogging through rain, mud and ruins to document the action.

Charles Comfort (1900-1904), painter, sculptor, teacher, was assigned to accompany the First Canadian Infantry Division and the First Canadian Army Tank Brigade. Both would play a vital role in the liberation of Italy as they advanced up the Italian peninsula toward Rome.

Sicily was taken after fierce fighting by Patton’s 7th U.S. Army and the Eighth British Infantry, including the Canadians, under Montgomery in July and August 1943.

Mussolini and the Italian government had fallen. The Germans were in control. Christmas 1943, the Canadians took Ortona after vicious “mouseholing” house to house battles.

The battle-hardened Germans constructed two major fortification lines of defence: the Gustav Line and the Adolf Hitler Line which ran east to west, coast to coast, across the Apennine Mountains.

Inland, they held the high vantage point of the Abbey of Monte Cassino with its sweeping view of the rivers and landscape to the south and its vital position between Naples and Rome.

The Canadians were part of the fierce four-day battle for Monte Cassino, which fell on May 18, 1944. Next, they were to breach the Hitler Line. Under heavy mortar and machine-gun fire they succeeded in defeating German defences, forming a bridgehead across the Melfa River and securing the Liri Valley on May 23.

Rome fell to the Americans on June 4, 1944. Less than 48 hours later, the D-Day invasion began with Canadians landing under blistering fire on Juno Beach and moving on to ultimately defeat Hitler.

Charles Comfort would also go on to great achievements in the Canadian art world, including being the director of the National Gallery of Canada and the formation of the Canada Arts Council.
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Looks like three M4 tanks and what looks like another Panther - Sturm in the background. Maybe a Churchill? Up to five tanks in the background.

The turret and structure in the foreground is what is left of a Panther - Sturm after our guys sent it into orbit.

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Fat Tony - its unfortunate that most of the local historians in Niagara on the Lake have no idea that the units of the First Canadian Infantry Brigade (RCR, Hasty P's, 48th and Lorne Scots) actually trained and recruited in Niagara before embarking in 1939 for UK. and subsequently Sicily, Italy, Holland and Germany.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
That's quite the piece, Tony. Thanks for that.

We tend to have a measure of "gee whiz" appreciation for the tools of war. It's impressive technology. War drives innovation and advances the species, but it's still one of the most loathsome things we do.

Right now in Gaza, people are dying horrifically. A month ago, people in Israel died in ways awful enough that I don't like to think about them. Every one of those people would have liked to have seen 2024, but they were denied the chance by people who thought killing them was not just correct, but moral and in line with what their scriptures are telling them. God's on everyone's side, apparently. Or more likely, neither.

In the meantime, I had a good Christmas close to people I love. I'm confident I'm going to see tomorrow. Chances are good, anyhow. Seems unlikely someone's kicking in my door and shooting me, or blowing my house down around my ears. I've eaten well today. My people are in good shape physically. I'm going to wake up warm and clean and perhaps a bit hungry tomorrow morning. Lotta folks can't say the same.

The fact that we're relatively safe, fat, and happy here is something we should all think about as 2023 finishes up. Many of our brothers and sisters out there don't have the level of luxury we do. A couple hundred or so have died since I started typing this. The least we can do is think of them and see if there's anything we can do or say to help put an end to it.

Happy New Year, boys. Let's hope sh!t gets better soon.
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So true. We love to ##### about the things that are wrong in Canada but in really we have it VERY good. Our problems are trivial compared with the lots of other parts of the world.
 
bearhunter said:
Keep on voting for fringe parties, splitting the vote so Trudeau/Singh can form another WARPED WOKE SOCIALIST Government and you will soon be seeing just how bad and similar the issues third world countries are experiencing right on your own doorstep.
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In the last federal election Voters for People’s Party cost the Conservatives a fair number of seats , hopefully Maxine Bernier wouldn’t run again in the next election
 
Guys, can't we have one thread on this whole forum that doesn't turn ugly and political? Please?

I'm sick of the gang of schmucks in charge too, but Jesus, "Trudeau Blows" everywhere all the time is feckin' tiresome. Enough already. That's what the OT is for, no?

Anyone got any pictures?
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Guys, can't we have one thread on this whole forum that doesn't turn ugly and political? Please?

I'm sick of the gang of schmucks in charge too, but Jesus, "Trudeau Blows" everywhere all the time is feckin' tiresome. Enough already. That's what the OT is for, no?

Anyone got any pictures?
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You're absolutely right, my apologies. I will delete my post.
 
woodchopper said:
416053740_383710464036442_6797987852983984945_n.jpg
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C84, I remember the first pics of its flights being broadcast on the CBC, back when it was a legitimate news source in the mid sixties.

I believe they tried to market it in the US, but it was prone to mechanical difficulties and the most of the test planes crashed or wouldn't fly.

It was reportedly the forerunner of the Osprey or that type of aircraft.

The plane was mainly developed as a VTOL cargo carrier and they tried to adapt it for attack roles, as per the pic, and it failed miserably in that role.

I seem to remember that it was powerful enough to lift a cargo from a short take off run that was equivalent to the weight of the plane.
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-84_Dynavert

How typically Canadian to sh-t-talk the home product, particularly when it's a good one. No orders? Yeah, just like no orders for the Avro Jetliner or the Arrow.:HR:

Of course a surprising number of "Canadians" are really just wannabe-Americans who can always be relied on to carry on like this.

Between that type and the knee-jerk American haters you have the few Canadians that actually have enough knowledge to maintain a sense of identity. :rolleyes:
 
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