1941 dated C.L./C. flashed to the Winnipeg Grenadiers
Article about: The Winnipeg Grenadiers were first raised on April,1 ,1908 and were disbanded on February, 28 ,1965 during WW II they saw active service abroad were the Regiment was stationed in Jamaica and
1941 dated C.L./C. flashed to the Winnipeg Grenadiers
The Winnipeg Grenadiers were first raised on April,1 ,1908 and were disbanded on February, 28 ,1965 during WW II they saw active service abroad were the Regiment was stationed in Jamaica and Bermuda were they were assigned to garrison duty from May 1940 to October 1941.
On 27 October 1941 the Regiment embarked for Hong Kong, war with Japan at this time was not considered imminent and it was expected that the Regiment would again only see garrison (non-combat) duty.
Instead in December the Japanese military launched a series of attacks on Pearl Harbor, Northern Malaya, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and Hong Kong the Royal Rifles and the Winnipeg Grenadiers would find themselves engulfed in hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese 38th Division they had virtually no chance of victory, but refused to surrender until they were overrun by the enemy.
Those who survived the battle became prisoners of war POW's and many endured torture and starvation by their Japanese captors.
The defense of Hong Kong came with great human cost approximately 290 Canadian soldiers were killed in battle and while in captivity approximately 264 more died as POW's for a total death toll of 554.
In addition, almost 500 Canadians were wounded of the 1,975 Canadians who went to Hong Kong more than 1,050 were either killed or wounded. This was a casualty rate of more than 50% arguably one of the highest casualty rates of any Canadian theater of action in the Second World War.
I am quite pleased to be able to add this 1941 dated C.L./C. to my top shelf gents as Canadian helmets like these very rarely come up for sale in the market place it is sporting a VMC liner in a size 6 3/4 and has a heavy textured finish and has an excellent patina and has that been there done that look I like so much in my helmets it is of course sporting the Winnipeg Grenadiers Regimental flash on the left side of the helmet and has the owners name scratched on the underside of the rim ( CPL,G,PETERSON ) thanks for looking all comments are welcome.
Hi Aaron thanks for chiming in it was not only the flash and this particular Regiment that drew me to this helmet but I strongly suspect it was used in more than one theater of operations if you study the exterior paint there are some definite undertones of what appears to be a tan or tropical paint color under the darker green camo texture .
I have only had the opportunity to handle a couple of these type of camos and IMO they were very unit and or army group specific I have another Canadian tan colored camo in my collection these were thought to have been used in Italy,Sicily,S,W, Europe as to the darker textured camos I have seen period images of them used every were from N,E Europe right across the continent unfortunately there are very few images that I can find of Canadian Soldiers in the tropics and or Hong Kong to compare this example to.
Roger Lucy states in the book TinLids that this type of textured camo is quite rare and infrequently found.
Even though im not a commonwealth collector I have to like this Helmet,A because of the Regiment connection but like you said Mark it just has that look and wear about,well done on acquiring something that little bit special Bud,congrats.............
Thanks Mark, I could see the lighter colour showing through & thought it was the original factory finish.
Whenever & wherever it saw service, a hard to beat Mk2.
1941 dated C.L./C. flashed to the Winnipeg Grenadiers
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by tinlid
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