Remembrance Day

Tuesday, November 10, 1998

Veteran sheds light on Canada's role in war

By KATE BARLOW -- The Spectator
Eli Consoli will watch bemedalled veterans taking part in Remembrance Day services with a new respect from now on.

The grade 8 student has always worn a poppy around Nov. 11, but until now the elderly men and women marching solemnly to the Cenotaph were, well, just elderly men and women.

"What they did is very honourable," Eli says.

His and other Ryerson Middle School students' new understanding comes from a meeting last Friday with Denis Whitaker, retired brigadier-general and highly-decorated wartime commander of the Rileys -- the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

The brigadier-general came at the school's invitation to talk about what he did in the Second World War with Eli, plus Elizabeth Lu, Sarah Patterson, Osai Sharif and Roy Blythe.

The seminar was videotaped and will be shown to the rest of the school.

The 83-year-old has long lamented Canadian youngsters' lack of knowledge about the war and its meaning for younger generations.

To help Canadians understand the sacrifices made during the Second World War, Whitaker and his wife have written three books on Canadian wartime exploits, including Dieppe, Tragedy To Triumph.

"We have a great country and great people living in it and kids like you, who are going to school, should know about it," he said. "You must remember the generation of those who took part. You wouldn't be here enjoying the good life you have today."

For Osai, the general's words had a special significance. War had been a reality for the 13-year-old and her family when she left her Afghanistan homeland five years ago.

"It was horrible. It was very different from peace. It was really scary," she said.

School principal Doris Boettger said the school had decided to hold the seminar to enable students to understand the kind of sacrifice veterans made during the two world wars.

"That's what we have to teach the next generation," she said.

In answer to the students' questions, Whitaker told how he came to Hamilton in the late '30s to play quarterback for the Hamilton Tigers and decided to join the reserves because of his Royal Military College training.

But war was soon declared and the Rileys mobilized.

Within three years, the young Captain Whitaker found himself commanding a carrier platoon during the 1942 doomed raid on Dieppe, France, where 900 Canadian soldiers were killed, including three of the Rileys' four majors, 2,000 taken prisoner and 1,500 wounded.

Whitaker was the only officer to land and make it to the town and back without being wounded.

"I was pretty lucky," he says.

Sarah wanted to know which of his many medals and awards Whitaker is most proud.

He told her it was the Distinguished Service Order for bravery at Dieppe -- and the bar to that medal he earned for valour during the 1944 Normandy invasion, the largest seaborne invasion in history that would be regarded as the beginning of the end of the war.

"You were scared stiff, but you didn't want to show it. You didn't want anyone else to see how scared you were," he recalled. "(At Dieppe) we landed men on the beach overlooked by German positions on both flanks. They were firing at us with machine guns, and dropping mortar bombs on the beach."

Whitaker related how he was injured during the Normandy invasion when a shell plummeted into the dugout in which he was sheltering.

When the war finished in 1945 he was just 28.

"You were very brave," said Eli.

Whitaker also went through a bag of military paraphernalia provided by RHLI Military Museum, explaining to students the photos of guns, including one of the German 88 guns "the most fearsome of the war," soldiers' equipment such as khaki pressure bandages and military helmets, one each from the Allied and German forces.

"It was pretty heavy to run around with that on your head," he said as he hefted the Allied helmet in his hands.

Recently, Whitaker returned to Belgium, where 54 years ago the Rileys and two other Canadian regiments, plus Belgium resistance fighters helped free the strategic port of Antwerp so allies could get troops and supplies quickly to the front line.

For his actions during the war, Whitaker was awarded one of Belgium's highest honours, Commander of the Order of the Crown. It's the Belgian equivalent of the Order of Canada, which he has also received.

In 1995, Whitaker was one of three former Canadian soldiers named officers of the Order of the Legion of Honour, France's most prestigious military honour, for his role in the liberation of France.