Nazi Flag
THE FOLLOWING (PARTIAL) ARTICLE WAS COPIED FROM THE SEXSMITH
SENTINEL, MARCH 2002 EDITION
WWII SOLDIERS BRING BACK RARE SYMBOL
The Sexsmith branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Sexsmith and
District Museum Society are now the proud displayers of a vanquished German
naval flag, bearing the swastika symbol, which once flew over their naval base
at the Boulogne, on the coast of France, during WWII. How, you may ask, did this
once hated and now very rare flag make its way to Sexsmith? The answer is - at
the insistence of the same brave soldiers who were victorious over the Germans
in 1945. They delivered us from the German war machine and, then, delivered the
flag to us as a symbol of that defeat. Thanks to Jack stalberg and some
persuasion from his cousin, Walter Paszkowski, followed by a blatant order from
his comrade-in-arms, Buster Brown, former mayor and Legionnaire, the flag has
found a new home in Sexsmith.
Jack Stalberg, son of Sexsmith pioneers, Peter and Jean Stalberg, joined up
on February 5, 1941, along with fellow Sexsmithites Ross Johnson, Inge Einarson,
Charlie Foote, Bill Murray and Cecil "Buster" Brown. They were stationed in
Edmonton for the first eight weeks, then moved on the Currie Barracks in Calgary
to "learn to march", as Jack told Walter recently. From here, they were sent
east to Camp Debert, near Truno, Nova Scotia, where they joined the 13th Field
Artillery - but, while the rest of the young men became part of the 76th
Battery, Jack went to the 44th Batter. He spent the next couple of years in
Britain and was overseas for 44 months total.
D-Day came, on June 6, 1944, and a few days later, Jack was sent from Britain
over to Europe - to a destination in France known as Corcell Submier, on Juneau
Beach. Here the Canadians gained more grouond and held it on the first day than
any previous soldiers had.
Caan was the first big city they captured, then on to Talaise Gap, which Jack
described as "the fight that really broke the Germans' back". Following this
victory, they had to come back and clean up the coastline. There was a port
called Boulogne, on the coast near Calais, which was very strategic, as it was
from here that the V1 and V2 rockets were being launched. It was vital to stop
that barrage of rockets. Once they had cleaned up the city they decided to do a
little sight-seeing. They found a German motorcycle - a BMW, at that. "Those
were the class of the motorcycle industry", chortled Jack. With Jack driving,
they went to the German Naval Headquarters, amongst the ruins - a much prized
symbol of the vanquishment just delivered to the Germans. They also grabbed a
lot of canned goods and other food stuff, as they "hadn't been eating to well
for a while", according to Jack, and because he "had a cook along" with him that
day.
That flag travalled with Jack as he helped to clear out the waterway entrance
into Antwerp, then west to Schdt, Belgium, where they rested for a few days
before leaving for Holland and throughout the rest of his tour of duty until he
"came marching home again to Sexsmith on November 11, 1945, very appropriately
on Armistice day. (Article copied with the permission of the writer, Jean
Rycroft.)
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