Ed. note: this is the final part of a five-part series published daily this week, the lead-up to Remembrance Day.

Democracy wins over dictatorship

The date was Sept. 1, 1939.

Adolf Hitler, a maniac at best, rose through the ranks of the political structure of Germany to become the supreme commander of the military and of the suppressed German people.

On that dreadful date in history, Hitler started his mad quest to conquer the world. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan joined Hitler’s campaign to rule the world and attacked Pearl Harbor.

On May 7, 1945, after six dreadful years of carnage, both on the Allied side as well as the axis, Germany signed the unconditional surrender.

On Sept. 2, 1945, Emperor Hirohito signed the unconditional surrender of Japan. It is estimated that the cost in civilian lives of men, women and children was close to 50 million.

The cost in military lives is estimated to be in the 30 millions.

Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with many of his top military men. Benito Mussolini was hung by Italian patriots.

The tragedy was that the freedom fighters of the world also died. Unlike the tyrants of the world, these men and women were our heroes.

The Second World War brought the world into atomic energy and to atomic bombs. Two of these bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Seconds after the bomb went off, close to one tenth of the residents of Hiroshima died instantly, Hundreds if not thousands later died of exposure to the fallout.

Another 30,000 people simply vanished from the face of the Earth.

Just three days later, a second atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki. Nagasaki simple disappeared, with it, more than 30,000 residents.

That was 69 years ago.

Science has advanced so far in those past 69 years that with the capability of bombs, rockets, etc., of this modern world, a conflict such as the Second World War could end life on this planet in a matter of seconds. What have we really learned, if anything?

To this, “We must remember – we must never forget.”

The world has seen many wars, including the Boer War, the Russian Revolution, the First World War, The Second World War, Korea, Vietnam and such peace missions as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the conflicts raging this very day.

The famous battles of the First Word War included Verdun, Syria, Somme’s, Amine, Dannenberg and Flanders – all at a cost of more than 10,000 lives and many more unaccounted for. It seems we learned very little from that conflict.

Then came the Second World War. Again, the battles were many – Dunkirk, Dieppe, Ardennes, Düsseldorf, Bastogne, the Battle of the Atlantic as well as the Battle of the Pacific.

When the call came, Canadians were fast to respond. More than 1,500,000 men and women served, and sadly, 100,000 brave men and women never returned.

Some died on the mud-soaked and frozen fields of Europe and Asia, from the chattering machine guns of the enemies.

Others were shot from the sky by anti-aircraft cannons, while others lost their lives in the storm-blown seas of the Atlantic after being torpedoed by enemy subs.

They gave their lives freely and with a dedication second to none.

Bleeding, soaking wet, sleepless and hungry as well as terrified, they faced the enemy.

They did this for our freedom and without question. For this, we must never forget.

For myself, who had yet to become a teenager, I can remember my mother leaving religiously each morning for her plug war plant job, where she and other ladies of the town worked making hand grenades.

I can well remember going to the movie theatre and seeing pictures of the actual bombing, and bodies on the shores of far-off countries where our military men and women were facing machine guns, mortars and bombs.

I also remember V.E. Day, as that was the day one of my brothers returned home after being shot down in Africa. Five other brothers had yet to return.

Many of those men and women returned from the ravage of war. Though they were physically not wounded, the scars of war would live with them for the rest of their lives.

For Canada, the price was high.

However, it left us with a country second to none, with the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom to travel around this exceptionally rare nations with freedoms second to none.

Each time we greet another day, we must remember these gallant souls.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We must remember – we must never forget.

Murray J. Martin is also the Star’s outdoors writer.