Scudrunners

Try not to think of Don Cherry today.

My father’s father and his brother flew biplanes in War One. My great-uncle Tim didn’t come home.

My mother’s father spent War One in the trenches. He was wildly underage. From O’Connor Township where he was from, outside of Thunder Bay, 32 young men went to fight in War One and 30 of them died. Fatality rate of 30/32. Almost as bad as COVID.

My Grandfather came to Canada because of WW1, Scottish soldier tired of being used as Cannon fodder for some snobby English ass hats plan for glory. So he had enough of Europe for good reason and wanted to get as far away from their after the war as possible.

Him and a fellow soldier from his home town had fought along side some Kiwi thought they seemed like an ok bunch. So they hatched a plan and figured New Zealand was about as far from Europe as they could go. The plan went something like this, work their way across Canada during the summer then down then down the Pacific Coast of the USA as winter approached then book passage from California to New Zealand whatever they could manage to find.

Then while working to bring in the crops at a farm in Saskatchewan he met my grandmother at some church dance. He lasted about 2 Canadian prairie winters before heading to farm on Vancouver Island. , smart move. He never set foot in Europe again and that didn't bother him.

My Great Grand Dad was a cheese maker in Ontario. Signed up at the start of the war, went up Vimy Ridge, got decorated twice. One of the citations was for attacking an enemy patrol his group came across while doing a recce. Great Grand Dad’s squad were only carrying revolvers, but managed to kill several of the enemy, capture 2 of them and “put the remainder to flight). He was a 22 year old Sgt. I never met him, but family lore is that the war really took its toll on him. He was an alcoholic and died at age 45.
I look at the way the world is heading and it pisses me off. I signed up, and I’ll go where I’m sent; but I’ve got an 18 year old son and I’m scared as hell the ass hats in charge are going to get us into a mess that’s going to suck him into it.

Awesome.

Two of my grandmother's (dad's mom) older brothers served in the Great War, the only record I have of them are their equipment books, apparently one of them lost his rifle in action and had to draw another from stores.

My grandfather, dad's father served in the served as a superintendent of runway maintenance in the BCATP. Didnt leave Canada, could tell me all the triangles he worked at, and where he bulldozed the masses of wrecks into pits from the training. Had an interesting story about how some of the gunner trainees led the target too much and shot down the tug, and tbe pilot crashed near the gun pits and started punching all the trainees.

My other Grandfather (mom's side) served in the RASC (Royal Auxillary Service Corp) attached to the Canadian 1st infantry division, in Sicily and Italy. Two notable things happened to him that his paybook notes. The first being an action off the coast of England where the ship he was on rescued survivors from a u-boat attack, the second, being on the SS Santa Elena when it was sunk by a torpedo bomber (either a He111 or a Ju88) in the action off Cape Bougaroun.

His brother also served, though the only thing i have of his was his commision papers in the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment.

Amazingly all of the relatives i know about that served overseas survived their ordeals. Though all of them came back changed men.

The wars as it were was how i came to be, My Mom's mom, was a mail truck driver for the base at Regina where she met my grandfather. Dad's mom met his dad while working as a cook at one of the work camps while they were constructing one of the triangles.

This part of your story is epic!

Had an interesting story about how some of the gunner trainees led the target too much and shot down the tug, and tbe pilot crashed near the gun pits and started punching all the trainees.

Partially explains why you share my love of those triangles.

My grandfather and his brother both served in France even though their parents were against it. My dad’s older cousin said, “Uncle David didn’t like talking about the war.” but told us one story he told him, I was mesmerized. I was named after both of my grandfathers.

David MacRay wrote:
Partially explains why you share my love of those triangles.

I didn't know what my Grandfather did during the war until he saw a CFS I had and he pointed out all of the triangles he worked at (almost all of the ones in Alberta and Saskatchewan). He basically said that he was never sent overseas beacuse he knew about pouring concrete and how to drive a bulldozer.

I always wonder if you went digging around the old runways with a metal detector if you could find some of the old wrecks that he said they just buried to get them out of sight.

Ive also thought that a cool project would be to dig up old pictures of those triangles and try to match them with what those areas look like now.

My Uncle was a teenager in The Netherlands during WW2.

He was taken to Germany and forced to work in a Labour Camp. He was liberated by the Americans.

My Uncle did not like Germans (understandable) and every once in a while he would let something slip about his experiences.

He passed away 15 years ago.

I've realised since that he probably wanted to tell his story to somebody - my regret is not sitting down with him and recording it.


In The Netherlands we have May 4/5 as our Rememberance Day (the day the last Germans surrendered). This is still a very important date for Dutch people.

Most of The Netherlands was liberated by Canadian troops.


Saddens me deeply that we have learned nothing and our idiot leaders are once again pushing us towards war.