Blog - Robert W. Mackay

The Korean War, looking back

February 23, 2021 by Robert Mackay Leave a Comment

Here’s how it all started:

Seventy-one years ago Kim Il Sung led North Korea. Kim had spent World War II outside his country in the Soviet army. Following the war, and with the sponsorship of his Russian masters, he returned to Korea with the rank of major in the Red Army, eventually taking charge of North Korea, that is, all of the Korean Peninsula north of the 38^th parallel.
In South Korea the government was led by Syngman Rhee, a man who, in a parallel story to Kim’s, had lived much of his life in the United States. He was autocratic and had been uncooperative with UN efforts to promote democratic reforms.
The Korea-wide free elections that the World War II allies hoped would lead to unification were never held, with the result that the two Koreas – North and South – Russian-influenced and US-leaning – followed ever-more divergent paths.
In the spring of 1950 the North had a population of nine million, contrasted to the South’s 21 million. North Korea, however, had a clear preponderance of military forces. Their army outnumbered that of the South and included thousands of veterans of the Red Army and the Red Chinese Army. In addition they featured modern tanks, aircraft, and weapons provided by the Soviets.
Guerrilla warfare raged in the south, with irregular communist fighters taking on the beleaguered Republic of Korea troops. The US’s 500-man KMAG—Korean Military Assistance Group—were probably more concerned about the upcoming baseball season back home than they were with keeping an eye on the north.
The stage was set for a surprise. Kim mustered his troops for a bid to amalgamate North and South by force.

Seventy Years Ago on the Korean Peninsula

February 14, 2021 by Robert Mackay 2 Comments

Seventy years ago this week, Canada’s Special Force entered the fray in Korea. At that time the only Canadian troops on the ground were the members of the 2^nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

When 2PPCLI had landed in Korea in December 1950, the American commander of UN forces on the ground was Lieutenant-General Walton Walker. One of his staff officers met with the Patricia’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel James R. Stone and ordered him to move his troops to the front. Big Jim, as his men referred to him, refused and insisted on meeting with General Walker himself. Fortunately Stone had with him a document giving him the authority to decide when his troops were ready to be committed to battle.

LCol Stone, flanked by Majors Henderson and Grant at Miryang. Photo courtesy US Army

A compromise was reached. Stone settled for another six weeks of training, as a result of which the battalion proceeded from Pusan, the port where they had landed, to Miryang, a village fifty miles north. Once settled into their tented camp the Canadians continued training and renewed their fitness levels by climbing up and down the surrounding hills, at times in pursuit of Communist guerrillas. Training at Miryang also featured familiarization with American small arms, including machine guns and mortars, with which the Canadians would be supplied.

In a quirk of fate, General Walker was killed in a motor vehicle accident only days after his meeting with LCol Stone, so he never saw the Canadians enter the fray.

On February 15th, 1951, Stone declared his troops ready. They clambered aboard American 6X6 trucks and headed north to join the 27^th Commonwealth Brigade. There they’d take their place in the battle zone in pursuit of the (for now) withdrawing Chinese.

The Battle of Moreuil Wood, 101 Years Later

March 24, 2019 by Robert Mackay Leave a Comment

March 30th, 2019, fast approaches. Time for a glance back at the centennial celebrations of a year ago. Here is a shot of the Lord Strathcona’s Mounted Troop forming up, preparing to re-enact Flowerdew’s Charge of a hundred years before. The scene is where Brigadier Seely led the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and from whence he detached Flowerdew’s Squadron of Lord Strathcona’s Horse to sweep around the end of the Wood. The regiment celebrates March 30th every year to mark the occasion with sports days, lunches, and dinners wherever Strathcona’s gather.

Among other notables at the 100th were Brough Scott (Seely’s grandson) at left with me and John Willoughby. John’s great uncle of the same name died at the scene, with his remains only discovered in 1986. Brough lives in the UK and, like his grandfather before him, continues to ride virtually daily, having made his living as a jockey and racing commentator.

In the two photos below are another Seely grandson, Patrick Seely, who is holding up a copy of a painting depicting the battle that raged in the Wood itself.

The last photo shows George and Andrew Flowerdew, flanking me at a reception staged by the village of Moreuil in honour of the occasion. I consider it a real privilege to have been able to meet the families of men who shared the terrible events of March 30th, 1918, with my father.

HMCS OKANAGAN, HMCS RAINBOW–50 and counting!

July 25, 2018 by Robert Mackay 1 Comment

It’s been 50 years since HMCS OKANAGAN, the third of Canada’s O-boats, sailed from Gosport for workups. And in November this year, the Submarine Association of Canada (West) will celebrate the anniversary of her commissioning in the Chatham Dockyard.

The occasion, November 2-4, will also mark HMCS RAINBOW’S 50th. More about her in a later post.

OKANAGAN went on to an illustrious career in the RCN, most of her operations taking place in the Atlantic out of Halifax. Along with her sister boats, OJIBWA and ONONDAGA, her life was extended by a major update of periscopes, sonar, torpedo tubes, etc in the late 1980s that kept her operating until the late ’90s.

One of OKANAGAN’S last tasks was the search for and locating of the flight recorders of Swissair 111 which sadly crashed off Peggy’s Cove in 1998.

Many of her crew, now known as “The Crunch Bunch,” will no doubt reminisce about an unhappy day in 1973 when the OKANAGAN had a run-in with the propellers of Royal Fleet Auxiliary Grey Rover.

HMCS OKANAGAN was paid off in 1998, and sold for scrap. Both her sister O-boats, though, are museum pieces in Ontario and Quebec. They can be toured by the public, and will give an idea of life in what some have called “the last and best” of the O-boats.

Willoughbys at Moreuil, 100 Years Later

May 7, 2018 by Robert Mackay 2 Comments

The Saga of John Willoughby

On March 30^th, 2018, a dozen members of the Willoughby family gathered in northern France to mark, among other events, the death of their Great-uncle Jack, who died a hundred years earlier. John James Willoughby, former mounted policeman, was one of hundreds of casualties of the Battle of Moreuil Wood, but long after his death his presence was felt.

(Left: Constable Willoughby)

French farmer Jean Paul Brunel worked his fields as normal in 1986, preparing them for the spring planting. Like prairie farmers who deal with rocks heaved up by the frost every spring, Jean Paul kept an eye out for debris on the surface of the land—often unexploded munitions dating back a hundred years. From his tractor seat he saw something different—the remnants of a boot. And in that boot was a skeletal foot, with other bones still intact. With the body were various metallic objects: a bayonet, brass buttons, a shoulder badge that read LSH(RC)—and identity tags. Two of them, meaning the body had not received a proper burial. But the hitherto unremarked remains of John James Willoughby were the catalyst that a hundred years later saw hundreds of soldiers and civilians alike on the spot where he perished. (Below: Jean Paul at the location he found J J Willoughbys remains)

Jean Paul became an unofficial guardian of the memory of Jack Willoughby and the long-ago events of March 30^th, 1918. On that date Brigadier-general “Galloper Jack” Seely led the Canadian Cavalry Brigade into its fiercest fight of the Great War at Moreuil Wood. Seely set up his post at the spot where Willoughby’s body was found, and directed the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the Strathcona’s, and the Fort Garrys into the battle. Willoughby was a member of C Squadron of the Strathcona’s, led by Lieutenant Gordon Flowerdew, late of Walhachin, British Columbia. (Below: “Galloper Jack”)

Flowerdew’s squadron was held in reserve when Seely committed the rest of the brigade to the fight in Moreuil Wood, eventually sending it around the south-east corner of the wood to engage what were anticipated to be Germans driven out by the Canadians. Flowerdew and his men were met with enemy rifles, machineguns, and artillery, but carried out a deadly charge. Roughly a third of the squadron were casualties, and Flowerdew himself died a day later.

Jack Willoughby may well have taken part in that charge. In any event, his body was buried, perhaps by an artillery shell, back where Seely had his headquarters, until it was discovered by Jean Paul Brunel sixty-eight years later.

Later research by a documentary film crew led the search for J J Willoughby’s descendants, if any. Researcher Judy Ruzylo turned up John James Willoughby, of Rocky Mountain House Alberta, J J’s great nephew.

In the meantime, Jean Paul Brunel was in closer contact over the years with the Strathcona’s. He would welcome descendants of the Moreuil Wood veterans, history buffs, and serving members when they sought out the site. A very dramatic moment occurred in 2008 when the younger John James Willoughby was introduced to Jean Paul, and escorted to a memorial set up by Jean Paul where he had discovered the remains of “Uncle Jack”. (Below: John Willoughby, at the memorial set up where his great uncle Jack’s body was located by M. Brunel)

Now an armoured regiment, Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) has always celebrated Moreuil Day to commemorate March 30^th 1918. Twenty-eighteen was to be particularly noteworthy, being the 100^th anniversary of the battle. Jean Paul Brunel’s determined and focussed efforts in France, and those of the regiment, culminated this year. Hundreds attended the anniversary, highlighted by the presence of the LSH(RC) Mounted Troop, descendants of veterans of the battle, and French citizens. The extended Strathcona’s family, including no fewer than a dozen Willoughbys, joined General Seely’s family and the English branch of the Flowerdews, taking part in a tight schedule of events highlighted by the re-enactment of the charge of Flowerdew’s Squadron.

(Above: Willoughbys and friends, Moreuil Wood, 2018)

Moreuil Wood, and why it matters

March 4, 2018 by Robert Mackay 1 Comment

My newsletter, “Forces With History” #107 went out concurrently with this blog post. I’ve reproduced it below. The advantage of also publishing it as a post is that I can add the photos you see here:

Here is a shot looking eastward over the Avre River valley and the village of Moreuil toward the Wood on the ridge. At the left hand edge is the location Brigadier Seely galloped to set up his command for the battle.

Gordon Flowerdew, VC, who led “C” Squadron of the Strathcona’s and didn’t survive his wounds.

The piper on the right helped find a missing Lancaster plane with its airmen. He was very proud of this and had been to Toronto to meet the airman's family.

March 30th, 2008, at the north-west corner of Moreuil Wood. Frenchman Jean-Paul Brunel, centre right, set up a memorial after the remains of a LSH(RC) trooper were found on the site.

Then-sergeant Tom Mackay, who did survive Moreuil, with the author c 1963. (Note the horseshoe hanging by the door!) I’ll be making an emotional journey to Moreuil at the end of the month. To read Tom’s story, see Soldier of the Horse, available from me or on Amazon or your favourite bookstore.

Here is “The Battle of Moreuil Wood–Why Does It Matter?” taken from Forces With History. To receive FWH straight off the press, just drop me an email: bob.mackay@hotmail.com

The battle at Moreuil Wood, March 30^th 1918, and the subsequent engagement at Rifle Wood two days later, came to define the role played by the Canadian cavalry in the Great War. The preceding months and years in the trenches and out of them, and the cavalry’s role in the Hundred Days that followed Moreuil and Rifle Wood, were brutal and costly. But for sheer bloodiness and loss of life, and as well as for significance to the Allied war effort, those two engagements stand out.

Lieutenant S. H. Williams, author of Stand to Your Horses, was there for both battles. He observed that after Rifle Wood the Strathcona’s were down to 98 officers and men, out of their normal complement of 350. Counting the other two regiments, the Dragoons and the Garrys, they mustered fewer than 300 able-bodied men between them.

The German Operation Michael onslaught made it no further than Moreuil and Rifle Woods. In fact, both sites were hard-won by the Canadians and British in the two battles, but were again later occupied by the enemy. As Williams noted on August 8, at the commencement of the Battle of Amiens, the German line stood right where “…we had held them up on March 30 at Moreuil Wood and on April 1 at Rifle Wood.”

One part of the fight at Moreuil Wood captured the imagination of the public shortly after, and is about to be commemorated on March 30^th, this year, its centennial. The charge of Lieutenant Gordon Flowerdew’s “C” Squadron, memorialized in a painting held in Ottawa, will be re-enacted by the Lord Strathcona’s Mounted Troop on that day. It will also be marked by dinners, lunches, and reunions all across Canada and in Europe. Courage shown by those troopers a hundred years ago continues to inspire Canadian troops today.

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