FERGUS – While the locations, cultures and weapons of war have changed since the First World War, the courage of soldiers has remained the same, said Bob Stubbings, historian for the Fergus Legion Branch 275.
Stubbings was up against it on Oct. 29 as his talk at the Legion was during Game 5 of the World Series and only a handful of people came out.
Still, during his hour-long talk entitled “A Century of Courage: 1914 to 2014,” Stubbings brought his listeners to the trenches of the First and Second World Wars, the terrifying night patrols of the Korean War and the completely new improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
And up until fairly recently, the stories we heard about these wars were from a military perspective, Stubbings said – the strategies, the famous battles, the generals and the numbers of soldiers who died.
“But now we trace the personal history of soldiers and the character qualities of these individuals,” he said.
Stubbings offered a bird’s-eye view of the wars and looked at the changes on the battlefield and advancement of weaponry over those 100 years, from the First World War in 2014 to Canada pulling out of Afghanistan in 2014.
His research also brought him to letters written by soldiers, which shed more light on the notions of courage, valour and honour. Snippets of letters written by soldiers were peppered throughout his talk.
Canadian soldiers who signed up for the First World War did it out of a sense of duty and obligation to Britain and a sense of honour for Canada, the fledgling new nation.
Soldiers were trained to advance on the ground with bayonets, to carry out orders and to act with discipline and honour.
They were fighting for a just cause and it was believed that fire power, not will power, would bring victory. But the war turned out to be brutal.
Soldiers lay in trenches within earshot of their enemy in abysmal conditions.
After Vimy Ridge, “they had not the same enthusiasm,” Stubbings read from a soldier’s letters.
And after Passchendaele, “It was only discipline orders that took them there,” Stubbings said.
But within each regiment, there was a camaraderie and a sense of duty and responsibility for each other that took hold. The band of brothers became the motivator and reason to keep going.
While at home the war was portrayed as romantic – the war to end all wars – returning soldiers were disillusioned, disenchanted and many carried to their graves the horrors of what they saw and what they did.
When Adolf Hitler started to gain power in Germany, Europe didn’t want to see what was happening.
“In Canada there was little enthusiasm for this fight,” Stubbings added.
But when Britain was in, Canada followed and many First World War vets signed up again for the Second World War.
Younger men and women did too, some to escape the lives they were living here, some for adventure, “but most came because of honour and pride,” Stubbing said.
The First World War was largely fought on the ground. By the Second World War, there were new weapons, submarines and planes.
“If you ruled the skies, you ruled the battle below,” Stubbings said.
But for the foot soldier, “it was as tedious and treacherous as ever.”
The Italian campaign is overshadowed by the Normandy campaign and D-Day, but in Italy, the Battle of Ortona was a “slug fest” for soldiers on the ground.
This house-to-house fighting was new, and soldiers didn’t have the training for it. But they persevered, eventually winning the town. The liberation of Holland proved to be a similar, “piecemeal, water-slogging barrage of shells,” Stubbings said.
Canadian forces proved to be tenacious but paid a big price in lives lost. Some 66,000 soldiers died in the First World War; 45,000 in the Second.
Sandwiched between the Second World War and the Cold War is the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953, often called “the forgotten war,” Stubbings said.
It was called a “police action” and not a war and was a battle between communism and capitalism. Canada had downsized its army by then but formed the Canadian Army Special Force – naval and air forces only – and sent them to Korea.
“It should have been an easy fight,” Stubbings said as Canada had a strong air force.
But the Chinese made night attacks on the ground, and so began the deadly hide-and-seek night patrols. The deadly Battle of Kapyong is perhaps the best known.
“Like the First World War, soldiers dug deep trenches and at night would search for the enemy,” said Stubbings, who noted the constant fear and danger became a burden for soldiers.
The war didn’t garner much attention in Canada and the soldiers, isolated in a strange land, formed strong bonds with each other.
Once home, they wondered if they and their service would ever be remembered by Canadians. More than 500 soldiers were killed in Korea.
Canada was involved in the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2014 and deployed 40,000 troops.
This was also framed as a just war – a fight against terrorism. But once there, many soldiers became disillusioned and felt betrayed by the government.
This was warfare like never before, with the enemy mingling with local residents soldiers were sent to protect. And the Jihad, or Holy war, had soldiers for the Taliban fighting without concern for their own survival.
“You could not tell the enemy from the general population,” Stubbings said. “There was no clear front or rear zone. Canadian soldiers were subject to attack, IEDs, and suicide bombings.
After 13 deadly years, Canadian troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. The government was embarrassed, and the war didn’t impact Canadians at home.
“They (soldiers) did what was asked of them but there was no celebration at home. The soldiers cared but the nation didn’t. They weren’t respected or honoured,” said Stubbings.
He noted 158 Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan, but 1,800 were wounded and a great number died by suicide or became homeless after returning home.
The words “bravery,” “valour” and “courage” will be spoken on Remembrance Day and are often used interchangeably. But Stubbings sees them as different.
Bravery, he said, is a spontaneous, instinctive reaction to a life-or-death situation and valour is great bravery. That is, doing remarkable acts in the face of danger. But courage is acting for a cause or value despite your fears. It’s making a conscious choice to fight when death or defeat are imminent.
During the First and Second World Wars, ordinary people stepped up to fight. Korea and Afghanistan sent career soldiers to battle.
They all displayed courage though, fighting for a cause, fighting for their country and fighting for their comrades in arms.
No matter how mighty the weapons or how clever the strategy, soldiers still need courage, Stubbing said.
So on Remembrance Day, it’s important to acknowledge and appreciate the courage of these soldiers – men and women who overcame their fears and found the inner strength to carry on.
Taking pride in our armed forces and respecting the courage it takes to do their job helps restore a soldier’s own courage and commitment to the job – even if we don’t support the cause or the war ourselves.
“The sources of fear have changed but the sources of courage are loyalty in battle,” Stubbings said.
