There was one trophy he never won. Instead of saying
something would happen when hell froze over, I would say when Gordie Howe wins
the Lady Bing Trophy. He was deadly in the corners. While elbowing is a penalty
call, it never bothered Howe. Only the brave or foolish went into a corner with
him and his elbow.
The story goes that once he went into the dressing room for
stitches and told the doctor not to leave as the other guy would be in shortly.
When Canadians say “Elbows Up”, they are channeling Gordie
Howe.
I quit reading Xitter long ago as it is only useful if you
wish to argue with idiots. I follow @Threads now and there are a few who have moved
over from Xitter that show up on occasion. Lately with Trump’s trade war with
Canada, and Trudeau telling Trump to Papa Foxtrot Oscar, there are comments
about America invading Canada militarily. I do not believe the US military
would invade but Trump could authorize some of his 3 Percenters, Proud Boys etc
as militia. Canadian response to those idiots is to remind them who contributed
to the Geneva Convention. Canadian soldiers in WWI were notorious for playing
dirty.
In one particularly cruel
episode, Canadians even exploited the trust of Germans who had apparently
become accustomed to fraternizing with allied units. Lieutenant Louis Keene
described the practice of lobbing tins of corned beef into a neighbouring German
trench. When the Canadians started hearing happy shouts of “More! Give us
more!” they then let loose with an armload of grenades.
Trench raids were the First
World War at its most brutal. Hand to hand fighting in crowded, darkened chaos.
Whole dugouts of sleeping Germans burned or buried alive by tossed grenades.
Terrified defenders mercilessly stabbed or machine-gunned as they fled for the
rear.
They wore thick rubber gloves
and blackened their faces for maximum stealth. They crafted homemade pipe bombs
and grenade catapults to increase their killing power. They continued raiding
even while other colonial units abandoned the practice.
As their skills grew, Canadian
trench raiders were eventually able to penetrate up to one kilometre behind
enemy lines, dealing surprise death to Germans who had every reason to believe
they were safe from enemy bayonets. In the days before the attack on Vimy
Ridge, trench raids of up to 900 men were hurled at enemy lines on a nightly
basis. These were essentially mini-battles, except instead of holding ground
attackers were merely expected to sow death, chaos and then disappear.
Note: The Canadians won
the Battle of Vimy Ridge, breaking through the German lines. The war could have
ended in 1917 but the British did not believe the Colonials could do it so
there was no follow up and the Canadians were driven back the next day. Pierre
Burton’s Vimy
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-forgotten-ferocity-of-canadas-soldiers-in-the-great-war
As many commenters noted, Canadians have not forgotten how.
