As the story so far have illustrated, for some reason Canadians went absolutely bananas in World War I. But why were they so angry?
正如迄今为止的故事所表明的那样,出于某种原因,加拿大人在第一次世界大战中完全疯了。但他们为什么如此愤怒呢?
Some historians have argued their ruthlessness was an emotional response to a battlefield rumor about the so-called crucified Canadian, an officer who was supposedly crucified to a barn door near Ypres.
一些历史学家认为,他们的冷酷无情是对战场上关于所谓的被钉在十字架上的加拿大人的谣言的情绪反应,据说这名军官被钉在伊普尔附近的谷仓门上。
Others have speculated their thirst for revenge drew from their traumatic experience at the harrowing 1915 Second Battle of Ypres, during which Canadians took the brunt of the first ever German poison gas attack of the war.
另一些人则猜测,他们的复仇欲望源自于1915年第二次伊普尔战役中的惨痛经历,在那场战役中,加拿大人遭受了德国首次毒气袭击。
The best explanation, however, may be the simple fact that Canadians were brutalized more than any others because they were always being placed in the first wave of attacks.
然而,最好的解释可能是一个简单的事实,即加拿大人比其他任何人都遭受了更残酷的对待,因为他们总是被置于第一波攻击中。
Juno Beach. By the close of the Great War, the Canadians had gone from a relatively unknown fighting force to one of the planet's most feared and respected military outfits.
到第一次世界大战结束时,加拿大人已经从一支相对不为人知的战斗力量发展成为地球上最令人恐惧和最受尊敬的军事组织之一。
It was with this hard-earned reputation that they would enter the killing fields of World War II to face off against a German Army reinforced by elite units with a strangely familiar name Stormtroopers.
正是凭借着这种来之不易的声誉,他们才得以进入二战的杀戮场,与一支由精锐部队增援的德国军队对峙,这支部队有一个熟悉而又陌生的名字——冲锋队。
On June 6th, 1944, the Canadians reminded everyone of their elite status when they pulled off what's considered one of the most tactically successful operations of D-Day.
1944年6月6日,加拿大人完成了诺曼底登陆战术上最成功的军事行动,让每个人都想起了他们的精英地位。
Their objective was to storm Juno Beach and then seized the cities of Caen and Bayeux with 14,000 soldiers and 1,000 paratroopers.
他们的目标是猛攻朱诺海滩,然后用14000名士兵和1000名伞兵占领卡昂和巴约等城市。
During the first wave, 3,000 lionhearted Canadians rushed towards German pillboxes, taking heavy casualties.
在第一波攻击中,3000名勇敢的加拿大人冲向德国碉堡,德军伤亡惨重。
They were then followed in by tanks, which obliterated most of the German beach defenses, allowing infantrymen to swarm in and begin close quarters fighting.
随后,坦克紧随其后,摧毁了大部分德军海滩防御工事,步兵蜂拥而至,开始近距离战斗。
Impressively, it took them less than 2 hours to secure their first route off the beach at the small town of Courseulles.
令人印象深刻的是,他们只用了不到2小时就确定了从小镇Courseulles离开朱诺海滩的第一条路线。
By the end of the day, Courseulles-sur-Mer, St. Aubin-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer had all fallen.
到当天结束时,Courseulles-sur-Mer、St. Aubin-sur-Mer和Colleville-sur-Mer都已沦陷。
And the tank regiment of the First Hussar were at the Caen-Bayeux highway intersection, making them the only Allied unit on D-Day to actually reach their final objective.
第一轻骑兵坦克团位于卡昂-巴约高速公路交叉口,成为诺曼底登陆日唯一真正达到最终目标的盟军部队。
The Devil's Brigade. In World War II, the Canadians distinguished themselves not only as dependable infantrymen,
在第二次世界大战中,加拿大人不仅是可靠的步兵,
but also as skilled commandos in a joint American-Canadian unit called the First Special Service Force, better known as the Devil's Brigade or the Black Devils.
而且是美加联合部队中技术娴熟的突击队员,该部队被称为第一特种部队,更广为人知的名字是魔鬼旅。
The Devil's Brigade was formed in June 1942 and had only accepted individuals into its ranks who were already well acquainted with survival and the outdoors.
魔鬼旅成立于1942年6月,只接受那些已经熟悉生存和户外活动的人加入。
As a result, former skiers, parachutists, hunters, lumberjacks, trappers and game wardens made up the majority of its personnel.
因此,滑雪者、跳伞者、猎人、伐木工、捕兽者和狩猎监督员占了其人员的大多数。
These hard and rugged men were transformed into killing machines via a brutal training regime that involved a 100 miles speed marches and specialist training with all sorts of weapons, explosives and vehicles.
这些坚韧不拔的士兵通过残酷的训练体制变成了杀人机器,其中包括100英里的快速行军和使用各种武器、炸药和车辆的专业训练。
To strike fear into their enemy hearts on the battlefield, they placed a calling card on the dead and blazoned with the phrase the worst is yet to come in German.
为了让战场上的敌人心生恐惧,他们在死者身上放了一张名片,上面用德语写着“最糟糕的事情还在后头”。
The Black Devils were assigned the most dangerous assignments, with one of their most iconic missions taking place in December of 1943 at the mountain peak of Monte la Difensa, southeast of Rome.
魔鬼旅完成最危险的任务,其中最具代表性的任务之一发生在1943年12月,地点是罗马东南部的迪芬萨山峰顶。
For about a month, multiple British Canadian and American assaults attempting to dislodge the Germans at the top had been wiped out one after the other.
大约一个月的时间里,英国、加拿大和美国多次进攻,试图将德军赶出山顶,但都被一次又一次地抵御住了。
By the time the Devil's Brigade arrived on the scene, Monte la Difensa had been battered with over 200,000 shells, earning it the nickname the Million Dollar Hill.
当魔鬼旅到达现场时,迪芬萨山已被超过20万发炮弹击中,因此获得了“百万美元山”的绰号。
At 1:30 a.m. on December 3rd carrying 60 pound rock sacks as well as knives, guns and bayonets and with charcoal blackened faces,
12月3日凌晨1:30,第一特种部队的600名士兵背着60磅重的石袋以及刀、枪和刺刀,脸上被炭黑,
600 men of the First Special Service Force began climbing up the near vertical cliff face as fog and swirling snow enveloped the mountain.
在雾气和飞雪笼罩山峰时,他们开始爬上几乎垂直的悬崖。
A little before 6:00 a.m. they reached the summit and began quietly slitting the throats of centuries.
早上6:00之前,他们到达了山顶,开始悄悄地割断数百年来的咽喉。
Then all of a sudden a rock slide gave away their position and the enemy opened fire.
突然间,一场岩石滑坡暴露了他们的位置,敌人开火了。
The fighting was intense and both sides suffered heavy losses but the battle hardened Germans were eventually expelled.
战斗非常激烈,双方都损失惨重,但久经沙场的德国人最终被驱逐了。
In a mere 2 hours, the month-long stand off had been ended by a force that was 10 times smaller than the combined allied force that had up until then failed to take Monte la Difensa.
仅仅两个小时,这场持续一个月的僵局就被魔鬼旅终结了,他们的兵力比此前未能攻下迪芬萨山的盟军总兵力少10倍。
With a little help from the Americans, they had shown that once again that to mess with a Canadian in wartime is to sign your own death warrant.
在美国人的帮助下,他们再次证明,在战时惹加拿大人就等于给自己签下死刑执行令。