World War II

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Fear of a Soldier

There you are, walking down the street slowly at night. You approach a dark corner and become hesitant, your heart beating faster, your breathing quickening, mind racing. Every evil thought comes into your mind. What could be around that corner. With sweaty palms you slowly reach for the wall to get a grip on something so you don’t fall over, then carefully move your head first then your body to follow and turn to peer around the corner. You jump as you see a figure on the ground. However it is only a stray cat and runs away when it sees you. Fear took over your mind in this situation and made you take a safe scenario and turn it into a horrifying task. For most soldiers they went through the same thought process in World War Two, however for them it wasn’t a stray cat around the corner, but am enemy soldier ready to attack.

A few weeks ago we had the amazing privilege and opportunity to have a man named Helmut Lemmke, a World War Two veteran, come into our classroom and speak to us about his stories and experiences from the time when he was on the battlefield.

Helmut Lemmke 1944

Mostly in class we learn about the ally side of the war, stories from British, Canadian and American soldiers. However Mr. Helmut Lemmke is German and fought on the Russian front for the axis side. Hearing his point of view on the war wasn’t that different then from some of the stories of a Canadian during the war. They all had one great thing in common. Fear. 

Our class meeting Helmut, March 2017

We heard of many times where Helmut was scared as he was fighting in the war. This lead me to think about the concept of fear more and how it effected the soldiers fighting. I created the question, “In what ways did fear help and protect soldiers during the war?”

Gabi, Anatolia and I sat down together and discussed this concept along with Gabi’s concept of creativity in the face of danger. We talked about stories Helmut had told us, connected our two ideas and talked about the similarities of the two and put this discussion into a podcast for you all to listen.

Enjoy!

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Macbeth Movie Progress

“Fair is foul and foul is fair,” (Macbeth). This famous quote from the Shakespeare play, Macbeth, means things that look pretty (“fair”) will become ugly (“foul”) and things that are ugly will become beautiful, which describes exactly how this Macbeth movie project is going.

Our class is currently working on a collaborative project where we have to use the play of Macbeth and create a movie using that storyline but in a different setting. Since we were most recently learning about World War II, that is the setting where our movie will take place. The whole class is working together on this one movie, which when you think about it sounds like it’s going to be a disaster. Currently it is a disaster, but it didn’t start out that way.

When we first began the project everybody was bouncing ideas off of each other and for the most part everyone was really excited to get going. We were all given roles and were then set off to begin. The script writing went well and so did preparing the costumes and props. However, as soon as the filming started things started to go down hill. Since everyone in our class has very different personalities and ways of working we found it challenging to get anything done in a short amount of time. There was always one person who wouldn’t like the way we filmed a scene or wouldn’t like how the actors presented themselves so we would have to re do it and try another way. In reality we probably shouldn’t have listened because if only one person was complaining about how they didn’t like it, then oh well, you can’t please everyone. Especially not when there are 25 of you working on one project.

The filming process has involved a lot of out of school time, which I know for myself and a lot of people is challenging to do considering we all have a lot of extra curricular activities and homework from other challenging classes. We never had one day where everyone showed up and I don’t think we will have one day like that. However we have managed to work through these bumps slowly, (and with a lot of fighting). Currently our project has been reduced and we have plans to continue filming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all day. Here’s to hoping everything goes well and nobody else gets into any more fights!

On a better note, my job on this movie is costumes and makeup. I was in charge of designing all of the costumes to make sure they fit the roll of soldiers from WWII. Also I have had to do makeup for the actors. I transformed three people into dead civilians/ghosts. And what I find the most fun to do and what I have done most of is create fake gashes and cuts on people. Of course I didn’t do all of it alone. Maria was a big help and I’d say we both worked equally on making sure all of our actors looked beaten up enough.

The Macbeth movie project is still a work in progress and I will post again once the product has been completed. Hopefully that will be in the next week if we stay on top of all our work and filming days.

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Was Canada Really That Important?

June 6, 1944. The allied forces of England, America, and Canada stormed the five beaches of Normandy taking out the axis force of Germany on a day we call D-Day. Canada’s roll was key in this event. However I want to know, how might the events of d-day been different if the Canadian forces had not supported the allies?

The Canadian troops supported the allies by sending over 14000 men to fight as well as 110 ships, and 10000 sailors. England informed Canada that they would have to help and fight along side the other allies in order for them to successfully take back Normandy France. Canada’s job was to take over Juno beach which was located in between Sword and Gold beach. Those two beaches were where the England troops were located.

After a successful beginning to a mission, Canada was then supposed to help connect the three beaches so that all of the English troops could be grouped back together for the final part of the battle. The R.C.A.F. had helped prepare the invasion by bombing targets inland. Also on the day of D-Day the R.C.A.F had 15 fighter and fighter-bombing squadrons that helped to control the skies over Normandy and attacked the enemy targets. 

If the Canadian forces did not participate in this event then the outcome could have been much different. For example the English and American troops could have spread out along the five beached which could have lead to more casualties and the possibility of one of them not conquering one of the beaches. Or the allies might not have fought for all five beaches, maybe they would have left one out which again could have lead to the possibility of the battle not being successful.

The Canadians role in the battle of D-Day was key to the successful fight. Without them the English troops would not have been able to regroup as easily, there was always the possibility of more casualties, as well as without the bombings that were previously done by the R.C.A.F before there could have been more enemy troops to fight off. Overall every single one of those men were needed that day, whether they were Canadian or not. Each one of those men were important and without them we don’t know what the outcome could have been.

I can’t imagine the courage and strength those men had in them to storm the beaches knowing very well that this could be the last time they saw the light of day. My great grandad was apart of this. He stormed Sword beach on D-Day with the English Allies. He never talked much about what happened that day for him, so I don’t know what struggles he had to go through personally. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him after all the research on this day I did. There’s the possibility he could have been taken down, shot at, seen his own friends around him fall. Knowing that my great grandad could have faced all of that and still managed to live his life happily after the war shows how strong of a man he was. He was just 1 of 150000 men who stormed those beaches that day.

*Insert photo of my great grandad receiving a metal for fighting on the front lines on D-Day, (It’s too late at night currently to look for it)*

Sources I used to find out more information on D-Day and Canada’s role in the event:
WarMuseum.ca
Juno Beach – Wikipedia