Soldier pulled from WWII foxhole to run troop newspaper
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Mediterranean battlefield was home to The Red Patch, Canada's news from the front lines
By Darcy Henton, edmontonjournal.com November 8, 2010
EDMONTON — Pte. Walter Migowsky was crouched in a foxhole during an enemy artillery attack in 1943 when he was unexpectedly summoned back to division headquarters. Migowsky, a wireless radio technician, was serving with the First Canadian Division, Central Mediterranean Force, in Sicily.
"It was pouring rain and I was soaking wet and shells were flying over when this guy said: 'We want you back at HQ,' " Migowsky recalled. "I remember telling him to go to hell. I wasn't budging."
When the shelling eventually subsided, 23-year-old Migowsky reported to headquarters, where he was assigned new duties for the remainder of the war. He was ordered to assemble the necessary equipment and staff to publish a newspaper to help boost the morale of Canadian troops. The soldiers, who were fighting rain, mud and fierce opposition, hadn't received mail from home in many weeks. The situation was dire.
Migowsky, who had experience laying out pages and running the presses at his local paper in Maple Creek, Sask., was ordered to scavenge the necessary tools and equipment.
The infantryman thought he had just won a ticket to a soft bed and the relative safety of a hotel well behind the front line, but he discovered to his chagrin that he would be sleeping under a truck near the battle front with artillery shells whizzing overhead.
"It was a mobile unit," Migowsky later lamented.
"As the army advanced, we advanced with them."
The newspaper was named The Red Patch in recognition of the crimson shoulder patch that Ca-Canadian soldiers wore on their uniforms to distinguish themselves from other Allied troops. The first few issues were mimeo graphed on the backs of captured enemy maps.
The editor was Cpl. Eric Wells. The army-trained machine-gunner, who went on to become the editor of the Winnipeg Tribune and a member of the Canadian News Hall of Fame, did most of the writing.
Author and war historian Barry Broadfoot remembers Wells, who died in 1993, as "probably the best newspaperman" he ever knew.
"They printed where they could, how they could, under bombardment, in the rain and cold and everything else," he said of the staff of The Red Patch.
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Article Link
Mediterranean battlefield was home to The Red Patch, Canada's news from the front lines
By Darcy Henton, edmontonjournal.com November 8, 2010
EDMONTON — Pte. Walter Migowsky was crouched in a foxhole during an enemy artillery attack in 1943 when he was unexpectedly summoned back to division headquarters. Migowsky, a wireless radio technician, was serving with the First Canadian Division, Central Mediterranean Force, in Sicily.
"It was pouring rain and I was soaking wet and shells were flying over when this guy said: 'We want you back at HQ,' " Migowsky recalled. "I remember telling him to go to hell. I wasn't budging."
When the shelling eventually subsided, 23-year-old Migowsky reported to headquarters, where he was assigned new duties for the remainder of the war. He was ordered to assemble the necessary equipment and staff to publish a newspaper to help boost the morale of Canadian troops. The soldiers, who were fighting rain, mud and fierce opposition, hadn't received mail from home in many weeks. The situation was dire.
Migowsky, who had experience laying out pages and running the presses at his local paper in Maple Creek, Sask., was ordered to scavenge the necessary tools and equipment.
The infantryman thought he had just won a ticket to a soft bed and the relative safety of a hotel well behind the front line, but he discovered to his chagrin that he would be sleeping under a truck near the battle front with artillery shells whizzing overhead.
"It was a mobile unit," Migowsky later lamented.
"As the army advanced, we advanced with them."
The newspaper was named The Red Patch in recognition of the crimson shoulder patch that Ca-Canadian soldiers wore on their uniforms to distinguish themselves from other Allied troops. The first few issues were mimeo graphed on the backs of captured enemy maps.
The editor was Cpl. Eric Wells. The army-trained machine-gunner, who went on to become the editor of the Winnipeg Tribune and a member of the Canadian News Hall of Fame, did most of the writing.
Author and war historian Barry Broadfoot remembers Wells, who died in 1993, as "probably the best newspaperman" he ever knew.
"They printed where they could, how they could, under bombardment, in the rain and cold and everything else," he said of the staff of The Red Patch.
More on link
