On Remembrance Day, we remember the sacrifices of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who regained the peace and preserved our freedoms that were being seized by the enemy. Civilians also served. They made it possible for those in uniform to protect our land and freedoms, and to eventually win the wars.
How? Let me count just some of the ways. Farmers toiled and sweated in the fields to harvest wheat, corn and potatoes to feed us. Cannery workers prepared the K-rations that fed civilians and the military. Loggers felled trees for the lumber that was used to create the BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan) hangars at places such as Picton, Gananoque, St. Eugene and Brandon. Miners and steel mill workers wrested ores from the dark tunnels and refined the iron, steel and aluminum to make tanks, munitions, warships and aircraft. Seamstresses created uniforms for those in the trenches, corvettes and Spitfires. Factory workers put in many an overtime hour to rivet, weld, cut and assemble components for the armed forces. Shermans and 4x4s went ashore at Normandy to deliver the essential supplies of fuel, rations and ammunition to the front; Lancasters bombed the Nazi bunkers and U-boat pens at St. Nazare. Corvettes and mine-sweepers escorted the lumbering supply ships that braved the dangers of the North Atlantic.
Mansions were stripped of their ornate wrought iron gates and fences to supplement what the mines were able to provide. Children went door-to-door to collect rags and bundles of newspapers to be reprocessed. We acknowledge the mothers who wear a Silver Cross, whose sons were laid to rest in foreign fields such as Nijmegen, Bény-sur-Mer, Arnhem, Bergen-op-Zoom and Groesbeek. Journalists and photographers sent images in word and film that brought awareness of what was happening abroad. Yes, civilians also served.
L’article Lest we forget, many civilians served during wartime est apparu en premier sur Cornwall Seaway News.
