Elbows Up

Gordie Howe, 1928-2016, arguably the greatest hockey player of all time, played professional hockey from 1948 to 1980. He played 26 seasons in the NHL, 25 with Detroit and coming out of retirement 6 seasons in the WHA with the Houston Aeros with his two sons. He won the Stanley Cup four times and the Hart Trophy six times.

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.