RIP Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters - Canada's greatest tank ace.

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grelmar

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grelmar said:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tank-ace-captain-radley-walters-began-stellar-career-at-normandy/article24093726/?fb_action_ids=10152936594023789&fb_action_types=og.shares

I'd read about him in passing a couple of times over the years, only read about him in depth within the past year or so. Pretty amazing guy. Like so many other Canadian heroes of the two wars, it's a crime that they're never talked about in schools.
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I never knew Canada had a greatest tank ace, let alone who it was. We cheat our young of their history.
 
Radley- Walters was a very impressive man. I got to have a one way discussion with him when he was Commandant of the Armoured Corps School in Borden in 1965. I was on parade with heels locked while he gave me a pretty intimidating blast of sh$t for failing to be properly shaved. I had shaved, but forgot a patch. I've always been properly shaved since that time.

There is still an ongoing debate about whether it was one of Radley-Walter's Sherman Firefly tanks or one from a Brit regiment that KO'd Michael Wittman's Tiger at Cintheaux along the road from Caen to Falaise. Radley-Walter's comment on this was along the lines of, "it didn't matter who got Wittman, but it was good that somebody did". Next month I'm going to be in Normandy again and plan to retrace the course of operations Totalize and Tractable which were the Canadian efforts to close the Falaise Gap. I'm going to re-visit the Cdn War cemetery at Bretteville where the troops who were killed in these attacks are buried.
 
purple said:
Radley- Walters was a very impressive man. I got to have a one way discussion with him when he was Commandant of the Armoured Corps School in Borden in 1965. I was on parade with heels locked while he gave me a pretty intimidating blast of sh$t for failing to be properly shaved. I had shaved, but forgot a patch. I've always been properly shaved since that time.

There is still an ongoing debate about whether it was one of Radley-Walter's Sherman Firefly tanks or one from a Brit regiment that KO'd Michael Wittman's Tiger at Cintheaux along the road from Caen to Falaise. Radley-Walter's comment on this was along the lines of, "it didn't matter who got Wittman, but it was good that somebody did". Next month I'm going to be in Normandy again and plan to retrace the course of operations Totalize and Tractable which were the Canadian efforts to close the Falaise Gap. I'm going to re-visit the Cdn War cemetery at Bretteville where the troops who were killed in these attacks are buried.
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If you can obtain the DVD "Battlefield Mysteries" by historian Norm Christie, his presentation will probably convince you that Rad got off the killing shot.
 
He (and his wife) were both gracious and unpretentious; he serves as an example of what a Canadian Officer should strive for. Unfortunately increasingly uncommon in the senior ranks over the last 40 years where arrogance, discourteous and egotistical behaviour is the norm ... not the exception. It will be good if all Canadians know of him and remember him.
 
AP said:
He (and his wife) were both gracious and unpretentious; he serves as an example of what a Canadian Officer should strive for. Unfortunately increasingly uncommon in the senior ranks over the last 40 years where arrogance, discourteous and egotistical behaviour is the norm ... not the exception. It will be good if all Canadians know of him and remember him.
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I work at RMC, this type of arrogance and entitlement is maybe not taught, but it is definitely NOT discouraged. my opinion after 27 years of service.
back to the point, how many tank kills is he credited with?
 
RIP, thanks for all you did. You need a bit of arrogance to destroy 18 German tanks and to command a Regiment at 25.

Edit:
ht tp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arrogate
From Latin arrogātus, perfect passive participle of adrogō, arrogō (“ask of, adopt, appropriate, assume”), from ad (“to”) + rogō (“ask”).
This why one "assumes command".
 
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infideleggwelder said:
I work at RMC, this type of arrogance and entitlement is maybe not taught, but it is definitely NOT discouraged. my opinion after 27 years of service.
back to the point, how many tank kills is he credited with?
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18 Tank kills, numerous armoured vehicles, self propelled guns, tank destroyers, unarmoured vehicles.

18 isn't a high number, when compared to the scores racked up by both sides on the Eastern Front. But he was actually the Ace of Aces among the Western Allies, with more kills than any of the Americans, Brits, or other western allied tankers.

He also has the distinction of getting two tanks shot out from underneath him - on the same day. The first time, he hiked several miles to the rear to get a replacement. The second time, he evicted the crew of another tank in his squad, because he was too tired to walk all the way to the rear to get another, but too ornery to stop fighting.
 
I attended a mess dinner Thursday night and he was memorialized and toasted by all. He was not well known outside the Armour Corps, judging by the questions after the dinner, but the Div Comd did describe meeting him to one of our members.
 
Juster said:
RIP, thanks for all you did. You need a bit of arrogance to destroy 18 German tanks and to command a Regiment at 25.

Edit:
ht tp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arrogate
From Latin arrogātus, perfect passive participle of adrogō, arrogō (“ask of, adopt, appropriate, assume”), from ad (“to”) + rogō (“ask”).
This why one "assumes command".
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Yes and a centurion is not a tank it's a soldier. In modern use don't mistake the word arrogant for audacious. The man we are speaking of was the later not the former.
 
recce said:
I attended a mess dinner Thursday night and he was memorialized and toasted by all. He was not well known outside the Armour Corps, judging by the questions after the dinner, but the Div Comd did describe meeting him to one of our members.
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Radley-Walters made a special effort to keep in contact with the military and for years attended and met with students at the Staff College in Kingston. I met he and his wife there and at other times/locations. I can say that he was well known to all combat arms officers at that time AND he in turn (as did his wife) knew very well many of the people we talked about - most of them infantry - including my father. He was equally interested in speaking with those of us in the infantry as he was gunners and of course armored officers. Perhaps things have changed but at one time I knew (as did all my acquaintances in the other combat arms) all of the highly decorated and skilled gunners (last year for example we lost Brigadier Ted Brown - a well known gunner who was at Monte Cassino) and armored ("cavalry") officers etc ... the Army wasnt that big and the battlegroup was the basic training (as well as operational) organization so you were constantly coming in contact with all the arms - and their hero's!

It is sad to lose him - but it would be even sadder if we also lost the qualities he represented to those who had the great fortune to meet him. Even the guys that couldnt shave properly! (been there - done that too! Except that I was roundly insulted by a Warrant Officer that I will never forget and for whom I have great admiration and appreciation for what he taught me!)
 
that is not the type of arrogance to which i refer. i refer to the unfortunate false and ignorant arrogance, that many OCdts and junior officers seem to be infected with. that type will undermine their own authority with disrespect from their troops. i fully support and advocate commanders such as Radley-Walters, and did have the opportunity to meet him several(25ish) years ago, although i didn`t really know who he was.
Juster said:
RIP, thanks for all you did. You need a bit of arrogance to destroy 18 German tanks and to command a Regiment at 25.

Edit:
ht tp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arrogate
From Latin arrogātus, perfect passive participle of adrogō, arrogō (“ask of, adopt, appropriate, assume”), from ad (“to”) + rogō (“ask”).
This why one "assumes command".
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I know he was a regular presenter at the college and, RMC I presume. I should have clarified that it was the Snr NCO's and WO's that didn't know who he was.
 
RIP... Many of Canadas true Heroes are overlooked for American propaganda of their own. Its so important that ours and the next Generations "Remember"
 
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