family history

My dad's discharge papers. Note the date of enlistment: 12th December, 1941. He was born in 1926 (which you can half see in the ripped part at the top below the word ARMY.) Do the math... he was 15. He lied about his age. On August 19, 1942, at 16 years old, he was at Dieppe. After that he was in North Africa and Italy. They found out, the age at the time of his discharge in 1945 on the form, 19, is correct.

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Big map of the Russian front centred around Warsaw on the first page.
• Germans are taxing flour sent from the United States as relief for Belgians, and
• in the same article, concern that starving Belgian civilians may attack German garrisons for food...
• A ship load of wheat will be sent to Belgium from Halifax, via Rotterdam.
• Two spies caught with British troops in Codford, England.
• Germans cut telegraph cables in the Baltic...
• Editorial speculating on the duration of the war. "The war will last until 1917."
• Belgians living abroad are asked to return to serve in the military. Travel costs will be paid by the Belgian military.
• Not actually news, but an ad. The Bank of Montreal prints their annual statement for 1914...
• The magazine section war technology page this week is on horse-drawn artillery [!!]
• Essay on "The Origin of Life" on the "Hour with the Editor" page...
• And finally, the usual excellent summary of the week's events in the children's section.

#dailycolonist1914 - News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

At this point in 1914 the war is 3½ months old and virtually no one has any idea that there will be another four full years of absolute horror to come. Remember that we are talking about 16,000,000 people dying and another 20,000,000 being injured, many horrifically, for the sake of a handful of cousins using the excuse of 2 murders to steal land and resources from each-other and everyone else. Remember the gory truth not the "glory" and ask yourself "what for?", lest ye forget.

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

• News from the war against the Ottoman Empire
• Washington state elections (prohibition passed and other news)
• The Ukrainian Internment starting, railway sabotage and more...

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

• Antwerp has fallen to the Germans.
• London instituting blackout order and taking other preparations in case of a Zeppelin attack
• C.P.R. executive predicts a very busy tourist season in Canada in 1915.
• Imperial Order Daughters of Empire to provide Thanksgiving dinner for troops in Victoria
• Pantages Theatre to show a theatrical recreation of the wreck of the Titanic.
• Half-page map showing the locations of all fighting in the war thus far.
• The usual summary of the week's events in the children's section of the Sunday magazine
• My usual collection of ads that caught my eye.

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Things are downright horrible in Antwerp now. Fighting is back behind the second line of forts now...
• Meanwhile in Brussels, people are starving because the Germans are appropriating all the food for themselves.
• British aeroplanes bomb a German Zeppelin shed
• Indications are very strong that the Ottoman Empire will enter the war on the side of Germany
• A photographer's account of trying to photograph the destruction of Antwerp.

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Assurances from "Tokio" that "Japan has no intention of retaining the Marshall Islands."
• Siege of Antwerp is the main news. City is being shelled and bombed by Zeppelins.
• Editorial on the arrival of the first Canadian expeditionary force.
• Account of German shelling of Tahiti

#dailycolonist1914 - News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Details of the German cutting of the trans-Pacific cable at Fanning Island emerge as the ship dispatched to fix cable arrives in British Columbia
• Map of Antwerp's defences [Wilrijk is directly between the forts marked F6 and F7 on this map.]

http://www.britishcolonist.ca/dateList.php?year=1914

#dailycolonist1914 - News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

Antwerp is the big news today. The Germans have been attacking the outer defences for days now. Refugees from surrounding villages have been streaming into the city and also trying to escape north to the Netherlands. My maternal grandparents are living through this, my grandmother would have been 10 and my grandfather 14 at the time.

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

• Aeroplane over Antwerp, "escaped in the direction of Wilryck"
• Government of Britain decides to cancel pension to cousin of Queen Victoria living in Germany.
• Mention that "German's Trenches Are Formidable"
• Notices for Germans and Austrio-Hungarians to register are multiplying.
• Ads that caught my eye.