RCRM Speakers Series - Season 2

The 9th and last episode of the RCRM Speakers Series, Season 02, brings to light an extraordinary story of courage, heroism, and … fate. "Sterlin Castle: The Story behind RCR Lt. Mitch Sterlin's Gallantry in Italy in WWll" by Ellin Bessner. The episode was recorded during Remembrance week 2021 and is dedicated to the memory of Lieutenant Mitchell Sterlin, 16 platoon commander, during The RCR engagement on the outskirts of Ortona (Italy), in December 1943.

A very instructive talk from Dr. Tanya Grodzinsky about different burial practices for the Canadian Armed Forces fallen since mid-1800s. Changes in policy have triggered the transition from leaving the bodies near where the heroes fell to the complex repatriation ceremonies.

‘A Fitting Tribute’: Some Southwestern Ontario War Memorials is a talk about what has happened to these memorials, now that many years have passed since the end of those two conflicts. While most Canadians are familiar with the cenotaph, they are but one type within a range of memorials that appeared to honour soldiers in the years following both world wars. Others included public buildings and parks, as well as a variety of monuments. It was also common for schools, churches, office buildings, and even factories to enshrine a list on their walls of those students, parishioners or staff members who had volunteered to serve their country.

For the 6th episode of the RCRM Speakers Series Season 2, Brian McClure will explore the history of the wooden battlefield crosses, grave markers placed at the burial sites, the debates over their replacement with headstones, and the decision that saw them shipped across the British Empire to next-of-kin or units to which the dead were affiliated

When the Second World War ended, a major disposal crisis emerged as much of this material became surplus. These assets had all been acquired with public funds, so the government enacted a disposal strategy to divest its surpluses to the best advantage of the Canadian state. With shortages of new goods running rampant in 1945 and 1946, the assets accumulated to fight were often the only things available for reconstruction and rehabilitation. So, what happened to Canada’s leftover arsenals?

Sean Campbell follows the displaced soldiers of Poland who were on a personal journey of redemption. In the British Army, they found themselves contributing to the Allied cause on several fronts from Bomber Command's air war to the Invasion of Italy of 1943. This talk will chart the unique journey of General Stanislaw Mazcek’s 1st Polish Armoured Division, attached to Crerar’s First Canadian Army, during the liberation of Western Europe. It will highlight men such as my grandpapa who helped to redeem the Polish homeland as a member of the division's 2nd Motorized Artillery Regiment.

The legacy of the Battle of Hong Kong was shaped by bitter political clashes, allegations of a conspiracy to sacrifice Canadians in a far-off British colony, and a pattern of government negligence in the treatment of veterans combined with the rejection of the official commemoration for this battle.

Chad Martin shares his findings about Arthur Leith Ross, a “small-town kid” with aspirations of adventure and military glory.

This presentation explores the trajectory of and motives for the shift in the churches’ discourse between the two world wars (1919-1939). The presentation demonstrates that the shift in perspective was a result of a number of influences, a primary one being the unprecedented and traumatic losses experienced during the Great War. The familiar rhetoric of war simply could not stand in the face of such losses.