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Opavsky, John

Opavsky, John

Rank	Captain
Unit #	RCAF

Born in 1904 in Poland. When the war brokeout John joined the Kent Regt. in Chatham, ON. Spent 14 months with the kents before he transferred to RCAF 310 Polish Sqd., as a navigator. He served in North Africa and the invasion of Sicily and Italy.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Sources

Carl Opavsky (son), CFF-FD44, IODE(P).

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Did You Know?

“Dogfight” is WWI term. Pilots turned off the engine periodically to prevent stalling on mid air turns; it sounded like dogs barking when restarted.

During WWI, trenches were infested with millions of rats, frogs and lice.

By 1918, the CK IODE Chapter had 348 members.

Herbert Hoover encouraged people to plant “Victory” or personal gardens. Over 20 million Americans planted gardens; US food consumption decreased by 15%.

During WWI, the first Khaki (Soldiers’) Club in No. 1 Military District was opened for enjoyment of the soldiers.

After WW II, the Chatham Chapters compiled the second Books of Remembrance, honouring WWII heroes.

A yew hedge and fence surrounding the CK Cenotaph was the 25th anniversary project, in 1938.

CK IODE lobbied local officials for mandatory TB testing of farm animals as many children suffered from bovine tuberculosis.

During the course of the World War I approx. 11% of France’s entire population was killed or wounded.

Over 500,000 pigeons carried messages during WW I. Trained pigeons were parachuted into occupied areas and kept there until soldiers had messages to send back.

In 1915, the Major George Smith Chapter was formed in honour of one of CK’s first casualties.

The primary IODE fundraiser started in 1980 was an Antique Show and Sale, held for 29 years at the Kinsmen Auditorium.

The French had what German soldiers called the Devil Gun. At 75 mm, the cannon was accurate to 4 miles. French commanders claimed their Devil Gun won the war.

The Battle of Verdun, 1916, resulted in over a million casualties in ten months.

During WWI, $200 was sent to the National Chapter to help equip a Hospital Ship.

The U.S. was in WWI in actual combat for only seven and a half months during which time 116,000 were killed and 204,000 were wounded.

58000 British soldiers were lost in the first day at the battle of the Somme.

The long-term effects of WWI include the formation of the League of Nations, which laid the groundwork for the United Nations and a worldwide arms race.

The huge scale of those who needed medical care in WWI helped teach physicians and nurses the advantages of specialization and professional management.

The Phoney War was the period in Europe following the German invasion of Poland in September, 1939 and before the Battle of France in May, 1940.

France’s René Fonck (1894-1953) was the Allies’ most successful fighter pilot, shooting down 75 enemy planes.

The US Army had more ships than the US Navy.

1917: WWI removed women from their corsets, as the metal required to make them was needed for munitions.

Originally, a Chapter President was called a Regent.

Germans were the first to use flamethrowers in WWI. Their flamethrowers could fire jets of flame as far as 130 feet.

Beet juice was used by homemakers in WW II as substitute for red food colouring, which was unavailable.

CK IODE donated $1000 toward the Cenotaph in Chatham, to honour the brave war dead from Chatham and Kent County, in 1922.

CK IODE joined other Chapters in 1919 to furnish a home, presented by the City, to the parents of Corporal Harry Miner for his bravery.

During WWI, the families of the soldiers were given a Christmas tree, supper and entertainment at the Armoury At Christmas.

The Treaty of Versailles left Germany humiliated and impoverished, which left the world vulnerable to another world war.

The total cost of WWI for the U.S. was more than $30 billion.

Major Leaders of the Axis were Adolf Hitler, Emperor Hirohito and Benito Mussolini.

Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

CK IODE’s flagpole was made from a ribs of the gunboat General Meyers built in Detroit, 1800.

CK IODE presented the 24th Kent Regiment with their Colours regimental flags in 1915 costing $400.

Regardind WWI, British poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote, “When all is done and said, the war was mainly a matter of holes and ditches.”

More than 65 million men from 30 countries fought in WWI. Nearly 10 million died.

80,000 British troops suffered from shell-shock during WWI.

During WWI 13,718 pairs of socks, many trench caps and mufflers were sent overseas.

Nearly 2/3 of military deaths in WWI were in battle. In previous conflicts, most deaths were due to disease.

Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War II to accidents.

The US entered World War I on April 6, 1917.

Over 200,000 men died in the trenches of WWI.

84 German Generals were executed by Hitler.

During WWI, British tanks were initially categorized into “males” and “females.” Male tanks had cannons, while females had heavy machine guns.

Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogan for his 2nd term: “He kept us out of war.“ About a month after he took office, the US declared war on Germany, in 1917.

During WWI, total cash donated for war work was $11,240.

Four empires collapsed after WWI: Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian.

During WWI, each soldier was given a full equipment kit as he left Chatham.

Layettes for newborns and knitted items are shipped through the IODE Provincial Chapter to northern Canada.

Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima August 6 and Nagasaki August 9, and Japan surrenders on August 14, 1945.

Germany lost 136 Generals, which averaged out to be one dead General every 2 weeks.

CK IODE dedicated the gates to Maple Leaf Cemetery in 1928 and placed plaques honouring WWI casualties.

During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, British officers objected to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer’s mess.

In 1930, Lorne Smith from Chatham was awarded the National War Memorial Fund scholarship.

Adolf Hitler fought in WW1 in the German Army.

WWI increased suspicions of minority groups. Outsiders were considered a threat, especially Jews, who were seen as sleek profiteers of the armaments industry.

During WWII, serving in Newfoundland was considered being overseas. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

After WW1 France suffered as most of the loans it had made to Czarist Russia were never repaid, inflation was rampant, and parts of the country were ruined.

The Maple Leaf Cemetery gates were refurbished and rededicated in 1993adding plaques for WW II, Korea and UN Peacekeepers.

Nearly 62 million people died during and leading up to the conflict of World War II Events.

During WWI, the Spanish flu caused about 1/3 of total military deaths.

The Russian army liberates Auschwitz and reaches Berlin. Adolf Hitler commits suicide on April 30, 1945 and Germany surrenders on May 7.

CK IODE donated $100 towards furnishing the Sergeant’s Mess in the Armoury.

The Assasination of Archduke Ferdinand has been blamed as the catalyst for WW1.

The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age.

World War I was also known as the Great War, the World War, the War of the Nations, and the War to End All Wars.

In 1961 the IODE membership dues were $3 for the year.

During WWI dogs were used as messengers to carry orders to the front lines in capsules attached to their bodies and to lay down telegraph wires.

Koreans were among the “Germans” captured at Normandy. They were forced to fight for Japanese, Russians and Germans, until captured by the US Army.

65 million troops were mobilized during WW1.

The WWI Books of Remembrance were completed, inspected and signed by Lord Byng then placed in the Armoury, in 1922.

In 2012, CK IODE revived the Antique Show and Sale, in partnership with Victoria Ave United Church.

Major Leaders of the Allies were Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over them).

CK IODE’s early projects included an isolation hospital, a school nurse, and a night school.

After WWI, Britain’s leadership in the world economy was gone forever. It had huge debts, high unemployment, and slow growth.

Germany’s indiscriminate submarine warfare was a primary reason the U.S. joined World War I.

World War II ended September 2, 1945.

WWI helped bring about the emancipation of African Americans. For example, Henry Ford recruited black people from the South to work in his factories.

Did you know? Germany designed the Messerschmidt Me-264 bomber to hit targets in North America from France. Thankfully, only three prototypes were constructed as the Luftwaffe prioritized short-range fighter construction.

There were over 35 million civilian and soldier casualties in WWI. Over 15 million died and 20 million were wounded.

Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe.

WW1 was the first known conflict in which chemical weapons were used (mustard gas).

During WWI, Mrs. Mary T. Bray was made the first life member of the Chapter in honour of her untiring war work.

WWI brought a new era of warfare. The most significant development was air power, which brought civilians in the line of fire.

There are 13 Books of Remembrance, which reside in the Chatham-Kent Museum today.

The Holocaust had already begun, but in 1942 the concentration camp at Auschwitz started the systematic murder of Jews.

WWI hastened medical advances, such as, better wound management and setting of bones. English doctor, Harold Gillies, pioneered skin graft surgery.

The Books of Remembrance were started in 1917.

In 1917, explosions beneath the German lines on Messines Ridge at Ypres in Belgium were heard in London 220 km (140 miles) away.

During WWI, the CK IODE met every Friday due to the volume of work required.

Russia mobilized 12 million troops during WWI, making it the largest army in the war. More than 3/4 were killed, wounded, or went MIA.

The Treaty of Versailles imposed severe sanctions on Germany, which drove the country into a deep recession, setting the groundwork for WWII.

40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned.

D Day: June 6, 1944, marks the date when the Allies invaded France and Paris was subsequently liberated.

Other names for WW1 include ‘The War to End All Wars’.

The migration of African Americans from the South to the North during WWI was one of the most significant population shifts in the 20th century.

The world’s last passenger pigeon died on September 1, 1914.

German trenches were built to last furnished with bunk beds, cupboards, water tanks with faucets, electric lights, and doorbells.

Tanks were initially called landships. Hoping to disguise them as water storage tanks rather than as weapons, the British decided to code-name them tanks.

WWI transformed the United Stated into the largest military power in the world.

Between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs which was about 27,700 tons of bombs each month.

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war on Germany.

WWI helped bring about the emancipation of women. Women took over many traditionally male jobs and showed that they could perform them just as well as men.

The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 bought the US into WW1.

THE CK IODE motto “Unto the Last Ditch” is the same as the 24th Kent Regiment.

12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2.

By D-Day, 35% of all German soldiers had been wounded at least once, 11% twice, 6% three times, 2% four times, and 2% more than 4 times.

There were 433 Medals of Honour awarded during WW2. 219 of them were given after the recipient’s death.

After WWI, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland emerged as independent nations.

In 1918, most women over the age of 30 were given the vote in British parliamentary elections. Two years later, American women gained the vote.

A room in the memorial wing of the Public General Hospital was furnished and $25 a year was given for its upkeep by the CK IODE.

The trench network of WW I stretched approximately 25,000 miles (40,200 km) from the English Channel to Switzerland. The area was known as the Western Front.

The first military submarine (named the Turtle) was first used by the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Submarines made a large impact during WWI when Germany launched its fleet of U-boats. Generally, submarines submerged only to attack ships using torpedoes.

France, not Germany, was the first country to use gas against enemy troops in WWI. In April 1915, the Germans were the first to use poisonous chlorine gas.

During WWI, the total value of IODE war work was $58,080.

$1000 was donated to the National War Memorial Fund for the education of children of fallen heroes of the Great War.

A Japanese method of destroying tanks was to bury an artillery shell with the nose exposed. When a tank came near a soldier would hit the shell with a hammer.

Kent Regiment Chapter was the first IODE Chapter in Chatham-Kent.

By the end of World War I there were 250,000 wounded British soldiers who suffered total or partial amputation.

During WWI, $200 was donated to equip a field kitchen for the 186th Overseas Battalion.

WW2 covered territories of Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa.

WWI was the catalyst that transformed Russia into the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).

Rittmeister von Richthofen (1892-1918) shot down 80 planes, more than any other WWI pilot. He died after being shot down near Amiens.

Germany’s power grid was more vulnerable than realized. If just 1% of the bombs had been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed.

Millions of soldiers suffered “shell shock,” or post-traumatic stress disorder, due to the horrors of trench warfare.

8 million troops died and 21 million troops were wounded in World War I.

In 1914, German troops shot 150 civilians at Aerschot as part of policy known as Schrecklichkeit (“frightfulness”), to terrify civilians in occupied areas.

The United Sates joined WWI during the final year and half of fighting.

For the span of WWI, from 1914-1918, 274 German U-boats sank 6,596 ships. Most of these were sunk near the coast, particularly in the English Channel.

WWI helped strengthen the power of central government in the US and Europe. A chief legacy of the war is the lasting power of the state over its citizens.

An estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews were murdered at Auschwitz.

In WWI, Germans released about 68,000 tons of gas; the British and French released 51,000 tons. 1,200,000 soldiers were gassed; 91,198 died horrible deaths.

1913: CO Lt. Col Smith invited the ladies to share the newly completed Armoury with the Regiment, a tradition that continues today.

“Little Willie” was the first prototype tank in WWI. Built in 1915, it carried a crew of three and could travel as fast as 3 mph (4.8 km/h).

In 1916, 6000 copies of a Patriotic Edition of the Chatham News were sold on the occasion of King George V’s birthday to raise funds for war work.

CK IODE has supported 5 adopted schools in the north. Their current school is a Grade 4-6 class in Port Hope-Simpson, Labrador.

Even though the U.S. government didn’t grant Native Americans citizenship until 1924, nearly 13,000 of them served in WWI.

From 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 the Allies had 200,000 dead and 550,000 wounded in Europe.

CK IODE’s original name was The 24th Kent Regiment Chapter IODE, changed in 1936 as numbered regiments were discontinued.

Regimental Flags were deposited at Christ Church Chatham in 1940 for safekeeping, remaining there today.

When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.

The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times.

During WWI, money was raised by holding flag and tag days, cooking sales, needlework sales, quilting and packing bees.

CK IODE awards a trophy to the best NCO of the 59 Legion Highlander Cadet Corps at their annual inspection.

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