CBC War Recordings
By following Canadian soldiers to Europe, and into battle, CBC war correspondents forever changed Canadian radio. When the Second World War broke out, reporters hastily opened up CBC Radio's first foreign bureau in London in 1939 – three years before CBC Radio set up its own news service – to bring Canadians news from the front. Foreign correspondents including Marcel Ouimet, Frank Gillard, Matthew Halton, A.E. Powley, Warren Wilkes, Peter Stursberg and Bob Bowman broke new ground in radio reporting.
April 24: Spies and refugees in Allied territory
Broadcast Date: April 24, 1945
April 24, 1945: SOUTHERN GERMANY — It seemed like an innocent enough offer at the time. A friendly German civilian approached soldiers from the U.S. 7th Army, offering to help set up a civilian government. But he broke down after being questioned, admitting he was a spy bent on sabotage. The spy was executed, but that wasn't the end of trouble for the advancing U.S. army, says CBC correspondent Sam Ross, reporting on developments for the U.S. troops.Remaining pockets of German soldiers are now attempting to ambush the Americans. Nevertheless, the U.S. 7th has managed to take some prisoners from the German People's Army, the Nazis' last-ditch militia composed of very young and very old men. And there are other people to contend with on the roads behind Allied lines; German civilians are returning home after fleeing from war, and displaced persons freed from forced-labour camps are heading home on foot to Russia, Belgium, Poland and France.
April 24: Spies and refugees in Allied territory
• Both the Americans and the British used firing squads to execute criminals during the Second World War. Such criminals included foreign spies, as heard in this clip, or members of the military who killed fellow servicemen.• Servicemen accused of a crime such as murder or rape had to be convicted in a trial before they could be executed (usually by firing squad or hanging). Spies did not have to be convicted first.
• Members of the German People's Army (Volkssturm, literally "people storm" in German) were recruited in October 1944 from German men between the ages of 16 and 60 not already serving in the war.
• Adolf Hitler ordered that six million men be recruited for the militia.
• Most men serving in the Volkssturm already performed work on behalf of the war, whether it was producing weapons in a factory, volunteering during air raids or patrolling parts of their city in the Stadtwacht (City Guard).
• The militia was mostly meant to guard local areas, but members could be sent to the war front if necessary.
• Members of the Volkssturm had no uniform, just an armband. Their weapons were hunting rifles and an occasional anti-tank gun.
• The militia's slogan was "Save our women and children from the Red beasts!" — a reference to advancing Russians.
• Historians say the Volkssturm had no discernible effect on the war.
• To maintain secrecy for the Allies in wartime, war correspondents often couldn't or wouldn't reveal their locations. Reporter Sam Ross doesn't say where he is in this clip, but he must have been somewhere in southern Germany if he was travelling with the U.S. 7th Army.
• Five days after this report, on April 29, 1945, the U.S. 7th liberated the Dachau concentration camp.
• At the time of this clip, Ross was news director of Vancouver radio station CKWX. According to The Sound of War by Peter Stursberg, Ross went overseas in 1945 to cover the war on a trip sponsored by the army.
April 24: Spies and refugees in Allied territory
Medium: Radio
Program: CBC War Recordings
Broadcast Date: April 24, 1945
Guest(s):
Reporter: Sam Ross
Duration: 2:47
This clip has poor audio.
Photo: National Archives of Canada / PA-137462
Last updated:
March 11, 2008
April 24: Spies and refugees in Allied territory.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 11, 2008.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]