https://nationalpost.com/news/squadron-leader-john-hart-battle-of-britains-last-surviving-canadian-pilot-dies-at-102
On a similar note Randy On 23/08/2019 6:11 PM, Meade Dillon via Mercedes wrote:
Also, I was hoping that your "aardvark" word document was another story from your career, miss those and I'm too frugal to buy the book. Reminds me, this summer we traveled to Italy again, and one of the museums we visited was in Castelforte, and covered the impact of WW2 in that area. Very fierce fighting there between Germans and Allies (U.S. Army, Brits of course, and French forces) along the Gustav line. Reportedly more civilian deaths caused by land mines than all casualties on both sides caused by the hostilities. A lady we know there in Italy was only about 3 months old when her mother was killed by a mine, her father was already dead, and there were no living relatives to care for her so she was raised an orphan. She visited the museum with us, and really enjoyed it. The museum is run by a non-profit, all volunteers from the local community, and they still are finding artifacts from the war. While we were there, they showed me a U.S. helmet that was remarkably well preserved, found that day in a nearby river, where some GI had probably dropped it nearly 80 years ago. The French forces were mostly recruited from their colonies in Africa, IIRC they were Moroccan, and they had a terrible reputation for very fierce and brutal fighting vs. the Germans and unfortunately also abusing the civilians when they weren't fighting. Abusing is putting a very kind face on it. They wore stripped tunics and white turbans, and the French officers paid them a dollar per ear taken from a German. More than a few pictures of these soldiers on display, and they did indeed look pretty rough and fierce. There were pieces from a Spitfire that had crashed, which they traced back to the pilot who had been flying at the time, pilot had bailed out safely and continued fighting the rest of the war and just died about ten or fifteen years ago. They also had found the remains of a German solder, which they returned to Germany. The guy was just 17 when he died. They had pictures from the German officials who came to retrieve the remains, and pictures from his burial ceremony in Germany, and some letters and such around that episode. German dog tags back then didn't have a name, just a serial number, and were made to easily break in half. This was so that when a soldier died, one half was collected for recording his death and the other half stayed with the body. This set of remains had the complete dog tag, so they knew he was a MIA that could now be recognized as a KIA. The place has a facebook site, but I don't know what that is. They really need a real website, but run on a shoe-string budget. One section of the museum displays how the locals used the war refuse to make things they needed. Helmets got a hole punched in the top and made into a hanging lamp, or had a handle riveted on and made into a pot. Brass shells from artillery made into flower vases or watering cans or decorated to commemorate some event. Uniforms where turned inside out so the liner was displayed instead of the military pattern on the outside (German mountain troop uniforms were best for this, they were designed to be reversible, one side was a grey / black camo pattern, other side was white to blend into snow). There was a wedding dress using the white from that type of uniform. ------------- Max Charleston SC
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