November 11th

OTTAWA —
Canada marked Remembrance Day on Tuesday — 80 years after the Second World War ended and 72 years since the end of the Korean War.
Only a few thousand Canadian veterans of those conflicts are still alive.
Veterans Affairs Canada provided these estimates based on the 2021 census:

First World War (1914-1918)
650,000: The number of Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served.
66,000: The number of Canadian service members who died during the conflict.
172,000: The number of Canadian service members who were wounded.
0: The number of surviving Canadian First World War veterans.

Second World War (1939-1945)
1.1 million: The number of Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served during the conflict.
45,000: The number of Canadian service members who died during the conflict.
3,691: The number of Canadian Second World War veterans still alive in 2025.
3,024: The number of surviving veterans who are men.
667: The number who are women.

Korean War (1950-1953)
26,000: The number of Canadians who served in the Korean War.
516: The number of Canadian service members who died during the conflict.
1909: The number of Canadian Korean War veterans still alive in 2025.
1,702: The number of surviving Canadian Korean War veterans who are men.
207: The number who are women.

248,000 were killed or wounded in WW1 out of 650,000. That's less than a 1 in 3 chance of coming home unscathed.
 
The average age for a bomber pilot in WW2 was early twenties. More than 40% didn't come home. I think the only group that fared worse were German uboat crews.

And they lied about their age to get in!

No effing way that at 20 I was ready to lead 5 or 6 of my peers to our possible death night after night.
 
I wonder what the political and geographic landscape would look like in Europe had those conflicts not taken place .
We lost family in the first and second big war . My dad would never speak about his experiences and my father in law never stopped talking about it . Every man fought a different war for a common goal .


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timtune said:
The average age for a bomber pilot in WW2 was early twenties. More than 40% didn't come home. I think the only group that fared worse were German uboat crews.

And they lied about their age to get in!

No effing way that at 20 I was ready to lead 5 or 6 of my peers to our possible death night after night.
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At the war plane museum in Trenton they have a restored Halifax bomber that was recovered from a lake in Norway. The entire crew perished in the crash.

If I recall correctly, the oldest member of the crew was the captain. He was 22 years old.
 
xrljoel said:
At the war plane museum in Trenton they have a restored Halifax bomber that was recovered from a lake in Norway. The entire crew perished in the crash.

If I recall correctly, the oldest member of the crew was the captain. He was 22 years old.
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I went to see it decades ago while they were working on it. Cool plane and a great group of people doing the work.
 
timtune said:
The average age for a bomber pilot in WW2 was early twenties. More than 40% didn't come home. I think the only group that fared worse were German uboat crews.

And they lied about their age to get in!

No effing way that at 20 I was ready to lead 5 or 6 of my peers to our possible death night after night.
Click to expand...
My Dad signed up for the Canadian army, underage in late `40. He fought in Italy and Holland. My Grandfather was at sea on freighters world wide, pre-WW2 and served on freighters sailing from Halifax to England for several years. He lost friends to the U-boat packs. He ended up training British sailors in the Royal Navy, later in the war on seamanship. He was the real deal, built like a tank, an actual Popeye. When I listen to The Who`s "I`ve known no war", it chokes me up. " In an out of reach loft, the medals are lost, they belong to a lone broken sailor. His provinces now are the bars of his town, his songs and his poems of failure. For his own kids are bored with the story, and his grandkids can`t see the glory, but for him they`d have burned behind netting, from the brink they were grabbed. And I`m sure, I`ll know no war". Never forget.
 
Our neighbour when I was a kid back home was in WW2, he would get drunk and sit in the kitchen floor and curse the Germans to no end.

He was also shot in the hip and left on a river bank for dead for two days.

Man was always running from his demons
 
ToSlow said:
Our neighbour when I was a kid back home was in WW2, he would get drunk and sit in the kitchen floor and curse the Germans to no end.

He was also shot in the hip and left on a river bank for dead for two days.

Man was always running from his demons
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I met both a German airman and a German soldier that emigrated to Canada and after the war both were good people. The soldier mentioned in a sad voice that he served in the front line along with twelve-year old boys, crying for their mothers.

I too often reflect on political extremism here in Canada and how our abuse prone system is tolerated by die hard party loyalists.

45,000 Canadians died fighting in WWII but 4,500 die here annually in Canada because of suicide. That's 50% of the WWII rate and continuing.

How many of the 4500 suicides were victims of misguided government policies?
 
nobbie48 said:
45,000 Canadians died fighting in WWII but 4,500 die here annually in Canada because of suicide. That's 50% of the WWII rate and continuing.
How many of the 4500 suicides were victims of misguided government policies?
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I would posit that there are a lot more people suffering from things like mental illness, spousal, sexual abuses and other mitigating social factors than any direct governmental influenced ones.
What they called shell shock in WW1 and WW2 we call PTSD now - police, fire and EMTs are prime candidates.
Please, this post was not meant for political opinion, there are other sub-forums for that.
Lest We Forget.
 
TK4 said:
I would posit that there are a lot more people suffering from things like mental illness, spousal, sexual abuses and other mitigating social factors than any direct governmental influenced ones.
What they called shell shock in WW1 and WW2 we call PTSD now - police, fire and EMTs are prime candidates.
Please, this post was not meant for political opinion, there are other sub-forums for that.
Lest We Forget.
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I didn't mean to get political but wanted to point out the magnitude of the problem. Agreed, specific complaints should be addressed in the political forums.
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