CANADA’S WAR DRIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 August 1942, Page 4

CANADA’S WAR DRIVE

AIRMEN TAKING. FULL PART IN ATTACKS ON GERMANY. CO-OPERATION WITH U.S.A. IN SPECIAL FORCE. OTTAWA, August 7. Canada is driving ahead to her maximum effort in the war. Overseas, Canadian air squadrons are battling almost nightly over Germany. Canadian crews joined in heavy attacks on the strategic centres of Bremen, Wilhemshaven, Duisberg and Hamburg. Over Malta a Canadian pilot destroyed seven enemy aircraft. Brief despatches relate how a Nova Scotian air-gunner returned to his unit after being reported missing, presumed dead. In the Essen raid on June 1 he had bailed out over enemy territory but escaped. Across the Dominion volunteers are offering for the new Commando Force of United States-Canadian armies. The first Canadian troops assigned to the force have already arrived at Helena, Montana, for training which will include parachute and marine landings, mountain fighting and desert warfare. The new unit is known as the First Special Service Force, under the command of Colonel Robert Frederick, of the United States Army, with Lieu-tenant-Colonel McQueen, of the Calgary Highlanders, as second, in command. Canadians and Americans will serve together in the force, which will have a distinctive uniform. At home, the Minister of Labour, the Hon Humphrey Mitchell, speaking at St John, New Brunswick, indicated new measures to regulate manpower. More shipping is needed, Mr Mitchell urged, to supply the fighting forces, adding: “Nothing can nor must stand in the way of this supreme necessity at this critical juncture of the fight.”