A rchive Date
[ 09-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mansur_london.html
Of the finest generation
By SALIM MANSUR - For the London Free Press
November 9, 2002
Burbank Thomas Taggart is 82 years young and a veteran of the European campaign during the Second World War. His friends call him Tom and he lives in Dorchester. He is handsome, walks erect with firm steps and is as alert as a hound dog.
We met a short while ago and became friends. He invited me to his home and shared stories with me about his parents, his youth, his going to war, his marriage, the family he raised and the wisdom he acquired.
Taggart gave me an understanding that no textbook would provide of the sort of women and men, such as his father, who built this country and from whose labour, love and sacrifice we, as a nation, continue to profit without much thought.
As we mark another Remembrance Day in our calendars, and in the midst of our insignificant quarrels, hastily pause to remember those who went to defend freedom in distant lands on our behalf and those who never returned, we are reminded how inexorably the Grim Reaper is thinning the ranks of Taggart's generation among the living.
The American news broadcaster and author, Tom Brokaw, called his father's generation, those who went to war in Asia and Europe following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, as America's "greatest generation." For us, Taggart's generation is unquestionably Canada's "finest generation."
Taggart was born in Calgary in 1920. His father, also named Thomas, came from Manitoulin Island and after the Great War of 1914-18, moved west.
He recalled his father for me. "Dad joined the Canadian army in 1914. He went overseas. He was at Vimy Ridge in 1917."
While recollecting his thoughts, he admitted his memory was slowly fading. Yet time and distance had not dimmed his pride in the story of his life.
"There is a little story about Vimy Ridge," Tom said. "Vimy Ridge was held by the Germans and it had to be taken by the Allies at all cost. Several armies had tried to take Vimy Ridge and they all had failed. There was one army left and that was the Canadian army. They had to take the ridge and so they gave the job to Canadians. And, I think, having served in the Canadian Army, Canadians like me must have said, 'You want the Ridge. Fine. We will take it for you. But just leave us alone.' And however unorthodox they were, the Canadians took the ridge. That's what brought Canada on the map, as the saying goes. My Dad was there. He was one of those who took Vimy Ridge. He was wounded there. He lost his left leg."
Taggart went to school in Grand Fork, B.C., where his father served as a sheriff for a short while. Taggart dropped out of school during the Depression, joined the militia and went to camp in the Okanagan.
The war in Europe against Hitler started in 1939. He did not give it much thought until some militia officers came looking for him at home. "I was Dad's oldest boy. I said I will go. I put on my uniform and reported."
He joined the Royal Canadian Corp. of Signals (RCCS). For the next 18 months, he trained and operated the wireless stations around Vancouver.
In March 1941, Taggart turned 21. He was placed with the 5th Canadian Army Division as a signalman and sent to Europe. He was based for several months in England, trained in warfare and light weapons and then in 1942 was shipped to Italy.
Taggart was attached to a squadron of the 12th Canadian Armoured Regiment, also known as the Three Rivers Regiment. It was a tank regiment and his assignment was to look after radio communications and batteries for the tanks.
He served with the 12th Canadian through the Italian campaign, beginning at Ortona on the Adriatic coast. The regiment moved north to Germany and ended the campaign in France. He visited Vimy Ridge in 1945, stayed in Holland briefly, then England, from where he was shipped back to Vancouver. In England he met his future wife and later became father to his only child, a daughter.
Tom remained in the RCCS after a short break in service on returning home from war. He built his family a home in Dorchester, while posted in London. He returned to live there on retirement in 1969, after 30 years of service to his country in war and peace.
The story Taggart told me was not unique. But his story, in being part of a larger narrative, that of his generation and his father's, becomes special. Their stories bring alive the immense contribution Canada made as a relatively small country, in terms of population, to secure the promise of freedom and democracy around the world.
In the First World War, Canada sent more than 600,000 men to fight in Europe. One-tenth of those who went, 60,000 soldiers, never returned. In speaking about the bravery of Canadian men, the British wartime prime minister, Lloyd George, said, "The Canadians played a part of such distinction (at Courcelette on the Somme) that thenceforward they were marked out as storm troops; for the remainder of the war they were brought along to head the assault in one great battle after another."
Twenty years later, Canada was again at war to save Europe from Hitler. This time, more than one million Canadians, including women, served in the Armed Forces. The casualties of the Second World War, though fewer than that of the previous war, were still high at more than 42,000 killed in action.
I asked Taggart if he thought about the war, or about his comrades, after he returned. He said, "We didn't like to talk about our war service. We liked to leave it behind. Too much destruction, too much death and too much pain."
His words made me recall the English war poet, Siegfried Sassoon, speaking of war's brutality and wastefulness in grim verses. Sassoon wrote, for instance, "Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land," and that "Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win/Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives./Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin/They think of fire-lit homes, clean beds and wives."
When I asked if he thought of himself as a warrior, Tom replied "a patriot."
"I went to war," he said, " for I felt it was a duty I owed to my country, as did my father."
He shared with me the wisdom he acquired as a soldier. "We were taught to be a killer, or be killed. Now every coin has two sides. The other side of our training was learning to remain alive. To live. And I learned the meaning of living. Remember yesterday, dream of tomorrow, but live for today."
"Do you read?" I asked.
"Not much," he said. "I work with my hands."
Then Taggart showed me the results of his hobby. He learned the art of scroll-sawing after his wife died, when he was 70.
There in the meticulous details of wood-carving was evident Tom's passion to live.
And there, too, was evident the source of Canada's great strength in the quiet resolve and sacrifice that were the hallmarks of its finest generation.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Wednesdays. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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