The New Hespeler Herald

Battle for Hill 355 November 1951

Hespeler Herald — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 06:15:26 +0000

Battle for Hill 355─Korea: 22-25 Nov 1951

On 21 November 1951, the 2nd Battalion, Le Royal 22e Régiment (the Van Doos) relieved the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. Days before, on 4 November, Private Speakman of the Shropshires had earned the Victoria Cross for his role in defending the position.

D Company of the Van Doos held ground on a low saddle between Hill 355, which was occupied by the Americans, on its right and Hill 277, which was unocuppied, on its left. At 3:00 p.m. on 22 November, the Chinese commenced an intense bombardment of Hill 355 and the position of the 2nd Battalion. The D Company trenches were under particularly heavy attack. Shells and rockets fell on the position throughout the night. Rain changed to snow, creating extremely difficult conditions for the engineers trying to keep the supply routes, mere dirt tracks, open into the beleaguered companies.

On 23 November, the bombardment of shells and rockets intensified, creating a situation that might be described as “hell on earth.” Late in the day, the Chinese launched an assault on Hill 355 and two companies assaulted D Company from the left flank. A fierce battle ensued. Platoons were forced to tighten in on each other, but, at the end of the day, they had held their ground. Hill 277, unoccupied, fell to the Chinese, and the Americans withdrew from Hill 355.

Carol Lombard Killed in Western Airlines Crash

Hespeler Herald — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:14:39 +0000

LOMBARD IS ONE OF THE VICTIMS – GABLE RUSHES TO SCENE OF FIERY CRASH

LOS ANGELES – 1/17/42 – - Army directed searchers on horseback, led by an Indian tracker, toiled over steep snow-packed trails of the Potosi Range in Nevada, seeking the spot were a Los Angeles bound TWA Skysleeper with 22 persons aboard, including film star Carole Lombard and 15 Army fliers, crashed in flames on Table Mountain.

Miss Lombard, returning from a defense bond campaign trip to Indiana, and others aboard the plane are believed to have perished. The searching party forced its way up the 8700-foot peak with little hope of finding anything by charred bodies and twisted wreckage.

At the foot of the mountain Clark Gable, actor husband of Miss Lombard, waited with the rescue squad of ambulances and motor cars marshaled in the faint hope that some of those on the plane may have survived.

The actor, who flew to the scene of the wreck last night immediately after learning of the crash, was reported badly broken up.

Guiding the posse of cowboys, Indians and soldiers under the direction of Major W.H. Anderson, executive officer of the Air Corps gunnery school at nearby McCarren Field, were accounts of workers at the Blue Diamond Mine near Arden, NV. They reported hearing last night a terrific explosion and seeing the Table Mountain shroud of snow suddenly lighted by the burst of flame shortly after the plane had passed over the mine.

Assisting in the search from the air were TWA officials who took off from Las Vegas at 7:30 AM today. A few hours after the plane was seen at the mine, Western Airlines Pilot Art Cheney, flying from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, sighted the flaming wreckage.

The plane was at first reported to have been off its usual course from Albuquerque to Los Angeles. Officials of the airline however, explained that, although it had previously followed the Kingman-Los Angeles beam without touching at Las Vegas, its schedule had been recently changed to include a stop at Las Vegas.

The plane had landed at Las Vegas at 6:30 last night, refueled, and took off at 7:07 PM.

The crash occurred about 7:30 PM, less than a half-hour after the Los Angeles bound airliner had taken off from Las Vegas.

CAROLE LOMBARD, 21 OTHERS DIE – MOTHER OF STAR WITH HER ON ILL-FATED AIRLINER

George Duthie Forbes

Hespeler Herald — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:32:07 +0000

Known affectionately as “The Chief”, Hespeler industrialist George Duthie Forbes was the son of Robert Forbes and Ann Duthie. He was born on a farm near Morriston Ontario in the township of Badenoch in 1860. He began to learn the textile trade in 1880 when he went to work in the worsted department of the Farr Alpaca plant in Holyoke Massachusetts. He returned to Hespeler in January 1882 and went to work in the family business the R. Forbes Co. Ltd. He became the company president in 1888. When his father died a few years later in 1895, George Forbes assumed full responsibility for the operations of the company. He led the company until 1928 when it was sold to Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Co. Ltd.

In addition to his interests in the R. Forbes Co., Mr Forbes was a director of Royal Trust Co.; the Lake Erie and Northern Railway; the Waterloo Trust and Savings Co. and the Hespeler Furniture Co. He was president of the C. Turnbull Co. of Galt; the Taylor-Forbes Co. of Guelph; the Guelph and Ontario Investment and Savings Society; the Guelph Trust Co. and Simplicity Products Ltd. of Hespeler. He was also the vice-president of the Canada Machinery Corporation of Galt, Galt Malleable Iron and the Dominion Life Assurance Co. of Waterloo.

He was also associated with the Kondu Co. of Preston and the Stamped and Enamelled Ware Co. of Hespeler. Mr Forbes was the first elected Mayor of the incorporated Town of Hespeler holding the office from 1901 to 1913. He was the president of the 1926 Hespeler Homecoming, was a consistent and generous supporter of Freeport Sanatorium, was active with the Red Cross and the Patriotic Society during World War I and, in 1915, donated Forbes Park in downtown Hespeler to the town. He died at his home in Hespeler on 27 Sep 1934 and is buried in New Hope Cemetery.

NewsReels

Hespeler Herald — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:23:42 +0000

In Line of Duty..October 20 1942

Hespeler Herald — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:14:11 +0000

In line of ordinary duty, eight Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen and an 80-ton auxiliary schooner made the first west-to-east water voyage through America’s cold, difficult, twisting Northwest Passage. Landing on the Atlantic coast last week, two and a quarter years after they left the Pacific, the men neither expected, asked for, nor got leave. Sergeant Henry Larsen, their leader, brushed off compliments on his extraordinary feat with the remark that other trips had been harder.

The crew of the St. Roch set out in June 1940 to: 1) take the schooner from Vancouver to Halifax for patrol duty in the Atlantic; 2) supply the permanent Mounted Police arctic posts along the way; 3) take the Eskimo census. Before they reached Sydney, N.S., the tough team and the tough ship had backtracked Explorer Roald Amundsen’s famous three-year east-to-west trip across America’s top. They had added valuable information to the world’s expandingly accurate geography, survived the Arctic’s most treacherous dangers, dutifully performed their assigned tasks.

After leaving Vancouver, the St. Roch rounded Alaska, entered Beaufort Sea, touched Baillie Island, went on to Cambridge Bay. She turned back to winter in Walker Bay, on the midwest coast of giant, icebound Victoria Island, went on in the spring.

In August 1941, the St. Roch and her crew nosed their indomitable way from Cambridge Bay into the unknown water wasteland of Pasley Bay. Dropping anchor in a storm to save themselves from reefs, they were caught for eleven months when open water turned suddenly to eight feet of ice. “We struck a very bad season,” said Sergeant Larsen, whose idea of a good season would frighten most men to death. The men blasted huge ice floes and icebergs threatening the uniquely tough hull of the St. Roch, which was copper sheathed and overlaid with ice-resisting Australian ironbark. The St. Roch stayed upright and whole when ice crashing by lifted her straight up out of the water.

But except for the vivid moments of danger, Pasley was dull. No liquor was drunk, no poker allowed. The men did the ship’s chores, studied Eskimo dialects, read. The library was ample, largely stories of tropic exploration to while away the dark, endlessly cold nights. Larsen mostly read his collection of all the printed books and papers of all the explorers who had tried to find the Northwest Passage.

Death Comes. One morning, after a tinned-food breakfast, Constable Albert Chartrand died of a heart attack. To give him a Catholic burial, Sergeant Larsen and Constable Pat Hunt, dogmaster over the ship’s twelve huskies, trekked 1,100 miles in two months to find a priest. Back with them to hold the funeral, over the vast distance where only six groups of white men had been in 110 years, came 37-year-old Father Gustav Henry of Brittany, a missionary to the Eskimos. Back, too, came scores of his converted Eskimos, to protect him from harm.

That summer the St. Roch weighed anchor, ran into the worst part of the trip. In Franklin Strait, said Skipper Larsen, “we drifted back & forth for nearly a month before we finally got clear. More than once we gave up hope of ever getting out.”

Plainer Sailing. For the rest, the trip was arctic normal.

The men found owl, gull, squirrel, seal, walrus, whale, caribou to eat.

They took turns on census treks, the longest of which was 61 days in weather never milder than 48 below.

They grew no beards or mustaches; they cut each other’s hair.

At Pond Inlet, they picked up Constable Jack Doyle to replace Chartrand.

In September 1942, the St. Roch, looking little the worse for wear, came down the coast past Labrador to Newfoundland. The crew had gained weight, and no man, except the dead Chartrand, had been ill of so much as a cold.

From Time Magazine

King Tut Found. January 1924

Hespeler Herald — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 21:25:58 +0000

1978: Sex Pistol Vicious on murder charge

Hespeler Herald — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:21:14 +0000

Punk Rocker Sid Vicious has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found in their New York hotel room.

The former Sex Pistol and Miss Spungen were staying in a room at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan.

Staff said Mr Vicious phoned room service to raise the alarm and then ran downstairs saying “something’s happened to my girl”.

Police called to the scene handcuffed Mr Vicious. As he was led away he shouted at a small crowd gathered to “sod off”.

A New York police department spokesman says he will face a murder charge under his real name, John Ritchie. If proven guilty he could face life imprisonment.

The controversial punk rock star met Miss Spungen in London last year and moved to New York to work on a career outside of the Sex Pistols.

The band effectively split in January after lead singer Johnny Rotten walked out at the end of their US tour.

‘Drugs paraphernalia’

Police say Miss Spungen was found in Room 100 dressed only in her underwear with stab wounds to her stomach. They also retrieved “drugs paraphernalia”.

The pair were in the spotlight earlier this year after being charged in London for possession of amphetamine. Friends say recently they had been visiting heroin addiction clinics.

Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious’ manager, is expected to fly out to New York on the first plane tomorrow.

He said: “I can’t believe he was involved in such a thing. Sid was set to marry Nancy in New York. He was very close to her and had quite a passionate affair with her.”

But the former bass player’s mother, Anne Beverley was critical of her son’s relationship with Miss Spungen:

“I didn’t like his girl. I called her Nauseating Nancy. She was a bad influence on my Sid.”

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/v3/masthead/bbc.gif

Downtown Hespeler 1900

Hespeler Herald — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:29:27 +0000

Great Toronto Fire of 1904

Hespeler Herald — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:12:48 +0000

Exactly how the fire started has never been solved. Early reports suggested that faulty electrical wiring was to blame. Others thought that a stove left burning at the end of the work day was the cause. Whatever the source, by the time a watchman saw flames and sounded the alarm at 8:04 pm on that icy night of April 19, 1904, the Wellington Street building in which it had started was already a loss, and the fire was spreading to its neighbours.
From its origins in the E. & S. Currie Building (on the north side of Wellington Street, west of Bay), the fire quickly spread north, south, and east. Soon, both sides of Wellington and Bay were aflame. By 9 pm, every fireman in the city was at the site. The mayor, Thomas Urquhart, sent the deputy fire chief a message, asking if he needed any assistance. The deputy’s response: “We need all the assistance we can get.”
While the mayor sent telegrams to other cities, urgently asking for help, the fire’s northward advance was stopped. But the fire continued south and east, and by 11 pm, it had reached Front Street. From there it swept south to the Esplanade, and east along Front towards Yonge Street.
Fire fighters and equipment from Toronto’s surrounding suburbs, and others arriving by special express trains from Hamilton and Buffalo, arrived in time to help Toronto’s exhausted fire fighters make a last stand just west of Yonge Street. Some on the ground, some climbing to the roofs of untouched buildings to get above the flames, for two hours they soaked the advancing edge of the fire. Finally, by 4:30 am, the fire was declared under control, though small fires continued to break out for the next few days, and the ruins smouldered for two weeks.
Miraculously, although many fire fighters suffered minor injuries, particularly temporary eye damage due to smoke and cinders, no one died in the fire. Financial losses were another story. Total estimated losses were $10,000,000—in 1904 dollars. Most businesses had insurance, but even so, some lost tens of thousands of dollars. Five thousand workers lost their jobs, temporarily or permanently. The insurance companies suffered serious losses, but earned no one’s sympathy when they raised all insurance premiums for businesses in the affected area by 75%—retroactive to the night of the fire.
Most of the burnt-out businesses quickly found temporary quarters and continued to operate. Many began to rebuild immediately, and City Council worked fast to pass a new building by-law, setting standards for fire-resistant (for the time) construction. On the first anniversary of the fire, TheGlobe would write, “The business interests of Toronto are safe in the hands of the men who within a year of such a staggering blow as the great fire of April last have made such wonderful progress in effacing its results.”
From the files of the Toronto Archives

Mourning ‘The Major’ of the Maple Leafs

Hespeler Herald — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:30:14 +0000

For more than five decades Conn Smythe’s name was synonymous with the kind of uncompromising, bare-knuckle hockey that he expected from his Toronto Maple Leafs. But he was also known as Hockey’s Great Architect, thanks to his founding of the Leafs and his unwavering vision for Maple Leaf Gardens. His reign came to an end on Nov. 18, 1980, when Smythe died at the age of 85. This As It Happens clip remembers the man one newspaper eulogized as having both “glaring faults and sturdy virtues.”

“If you can’t lick ‘em in the alley, you can’t beat ‘em on the ice.” That was the line most often attributed to Conn Smythe by both fans and journalists – despite the fact that he denied ever saying it. Regardless, Smythe is still fondly remembered for being a champion of the kind of down-and-dirty style of play that many hockey fans long for. A tough businessman and controversial public figure, in the end “The Major” was almost as well known for his cantankerous comments as he was for his business savvy.

See the Video

http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/11/18/