Canada and the cold war

[axeman]

Well lets see there was the OP REFORGER in Germany
ARRAY ENCOUNTER in Norway
and others all this was done in the NATO
umbrella. Canadian Forces were deployed to Europe as part of NATO :fifty:

 

[Roger]

The Canadian brigade was on 24 hour notice at all times, you had to have your ruck ready to go when ever there was an alert called, the alert was called "snowball" all the sirens on the base would go off and you would hear "snowball, snowball" over the loud speakers, You then got dressed and ran to your track vehicle, formed up and went to a hide to prepare for the Soviet invasion. Our job was to slow the Soviet advance until reinforcements would arrive and also to give time for all of the NATO country’s to mobiles. This was also was practiced every year on a fall exercise called “reforger”; a whole US division would be transported to Germany. I was told that the Canadian Brigade was given a life expectancy of 24 hours.

 

[Art Johnson]

Huh, that‘s not the story I got from my buddies who where there. What tracked vehicles are you speaking of, Oxford Carriers? They did things the Old Fashioned way trucks and shanks mare. You are right about the exercises a friend of mine broke his leg walking across a railway tressel. Eventualy had to have his leg amputated, never did get a pension for it. I don‘t know about sirens and snowball but a US Engineering Unit camped across the road from the Highland Battalion onone of these exercises and couldn‘t stand the Pipe Band playing "Johny Cope" for revalle, they got used to it. Then one morning the Pipe Band didn‘t play "Johny Cope" and the Engineers all slept in. The band was away in England playing at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, apparently the CO of the Engineering Unit was quite upset.

http://dileas.mapleleafup.org

 

[Strath]

There are 2 books that I know of that have been published on Canada‘s Nato Bde in Germany. The 1st one was a limited edn published by 4CMBG in 1983, entitled "Canada‘s NATO Brigade: A History." It is not a scholarly work & has lots of pix. The 2nd one is "War Without Battles: Canada‘s NATO Brigade in Germany 1951-1993" by Sean Maloney published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1997. It is an excellent work, covering all aspects of the 4 Bde‘s existence from start to finish, with particular reference to the Bde‘s role in the Cold War. The many maps are particularly good at illustrating the Bde‘s job.

 

[Roger]

Originally posted by Art Johnson:
[qb] Huh, that‘s not the story I got from my buddies who where there. What tracked vehicles are you speaking of, Oxford Carriers? [/qb]

Well your buddies are a lot older than me because I do not know what an Oxford is, we where in M113‘s. And I was talking about the 70‘s. My life there was not at all like your buddies and I never saw any bagpipes unless it was a special ceremony. My message was quite accurate of my time, sounds like it was more of a party when they were there.

 

[logau]

You want this book

Canada and UN Peackeeping: Cold War by Other Means 1945-1970
Author: Sean M. Maloney, Sean Maloney
Published By: Vanwell Publishing Ltd,
Trade Paperback
ISBN:1551250888
Published: November 2002

Our first peackeeping msns were to help scout out recovery airfields for returning bombers after they had nuked the Soviet Union. One of these airfields was in SURPRISE! Kabul Afghanistan.

Canadians were up to their noses in the COLD WAR and we did very well.

We were NUKE capable in ARTY - Honest John Missle and air to air missiles aka the GENIE which were phased out when the CF 18 came in. I believe we also had NUKE depth charges.

See

DAM The Torpedoes
Author: Paul T Hellyer
Published By: Chimo Media Limited
Hardcover
ISBN:077104061X
Published: July 1990

He was Minister of DND in the Pearson Government and he talks briefly how we had the slectable yield NUKEs on the CF 104 in Germany.

Originally posted by Nick1stJ:
[qb] Thanks guys,that truly helped me out.

But
I‘d just like to know if canada have participated in any peacekeeping missions that had any real impact on the cold war(or at least against communist expansionism).

Hearing about the canadian contribution to the european defense and the role of canada‘s navy in the cold war would be nice too.

have canada had any role in the nuclear scene?Did we ever get the bomb? [/qb]

 

[East Side Soprano]

Were these Canadian developed and manufactured nukes, or did we buy them off the Americans. I‘m asking because I never knew Canada had any nuclear capability and would be surprised if we even had our own nuclear program.

 

[Danjanou]

Trap,

From the sounds of it Art‘s buddy was there in the 1950‘s-early 1960‘s when the brigade was up north near the Brits. From pictures I‘ve seen they didn‘t have the M-113s in the 1950‘s and looks like they used 3/4 trucks as training APC‘s (any old timers out there onfirm or contradict that?). The 1st Highland Bn (composite militia bn later redesignated the Black watch) went over in the 1950‘s so the pipers makes sense.

I have less than fond memories of snowballs too, but some fairly good memories of Hugelsheim (sp?)

Getting back to the original question. It seems to me that as East-West tensions rose the alert level of the 4CMBG went up. I was there when the Iran Iraq war broke out in 1980 right at the end of Reforger and if I remember the number of snowballs seemed to increase. Played havoc with post ex drills and leave. :crybaby: