{"id":5581,"date":"2022-11-30T20:04:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T01:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=5581"},"modified":"2022-12-06T20:43:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T01:43:24","slug":"behalte-mich-in-erinnerung","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=5581","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBehalte mich in Erinnerung\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cBehalte mich in Erinnerung!\u201d<\/h3>\n

by Barry S. Wolfe<\/p>\n

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a <\/em>bacon scrapin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hubert Ditner was huddled silently with his fellows in a roadside ditch along the Hitler Line in Italy, very probably on the night of May 23rd<\/sup>, 1944. They were trying to catch a few hours’ sleep. He awoke to hear soft German voices nearby. They were panzer grenadiers from the 44th<\/sup> Hoch and Deutschmeister Division who had also settled, unknowingly, into the same ditch during the night. Hubert understood their every word.<\/p>\n

Hubert Laurence Ditner was born on July 3rd<\/sup>, 1921. In September 1942 Hubert chose to join the 4th<\/sup> Princess Louise Dragoon Guards, R.C.I.C. He became known as number A104433. When Hubert decided to enlist in the army, he was 5 minutes away, but 80 years ago, from where I sit and remember today.<\/p>\n

He was the son of Simon and Christina Ditner of Petersburg. They were a farming family. He had 4 brothers, Walter, Clarence, Simon and Stanley, and 4 sisters Anna, Leona, Edna and Rosalia. His father was the newly-elected warden of Waterloo County.<\/p>\n

They had prospects, hopes, and aspirations. They had roots in the community of Petersburg, attended services in St. Agatha, and had a commitment to service for the public good. Hubert\u2019s service took him to Italy.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Petersburg Hubert was fluent in English and German, and thus he understood every soft word from the ditch nearby. He spoke fluently to the panzer crew and his fellows managed to get all ten to surrender without firing a shot. That was May 1944.<\/p>\n

It was now the beginning of January 1945. Hubert and the 4th<\/sup> Princess Louis Dragoons were just northwest of Mezzano, near Ravenna, along the Adriatic coast of Italy. The last few days had been \u2018relatively\u2019 quiet. There was some light shelling and mortaring. An enemy raiding party had been captured. There was some vehicle movement on the enemy side of the river which had been harassed by artillery.<\/p>\n

On the 3rd<\/sup> there had been some \u201cspasmodic mortar fire from the enemy falling on our right flank<\/em>\u201d. Overnight, into the morning of the 4th<\/sup>, the 8th<\/sup> troop engaged in \u201cgrenade tossing with an enemy who had infiltrated to the far side of our dyke<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Things escalated during the day of the 4th<\/sup> of January with \u201cenemy slit trenches on the opposite bank engaged with 2\u201d mortars.\u201d \u201cAt 2030 hrs. a raiding party came in on 12Tp. At 2055 hrs 8Tp reported enemy attacking their posn. and asked for help at 2112 hrs. The C.O. ordered the Arty fire<\/span> to fire D.F. 65 along the left flank, and the P.L.P. machine guns to fire the two tasks covering our left flank.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

On January 4th<\/sup>, 1945, Sergeant Hubert L. Ditner, age 23, of Petersburg, Ontario, Canada, was wounded. He died the next day. He is buried in the Argenta Gap War Cemetery, Italy.<\/p>\n

If you happen to read the names engraved on a local cenotaph, or study the names and faces of the veterans portrayed on the banners placed by the local Royal Canadian Legion along our roadways, you might consider how to support the ongoing efforts of these volunteers who are the \u201cKeepers of the Flame\u201d in our communities.<\/p>\n

I invite you to imagine all these engraved names and banner faces as being neighbours, who once had daily family lives that they postponed or ultimately sacrificed as their individual commitment to a future for us today. Every one of them has a personal story.<\/p>\n

Maybe all that Sgt. Hubert Ditner and his fellows ask of us, is \u201cBehalte mich in Erinnerung!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember me!\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTE: Characters\u2019 names in the Bacon Scrapins tales are usually fictional. Hubert L. Ditner and his fellow veterans live on in our memories. Quotations are from the Canadian War Diaries.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To read more about Sgt. Hubert L. Ditner\u2019s story, go to <\/em><\/strong>https:\/\/rememberourvets.ca\/index.php\/wilmot-township-veterans\/dinner-hubert-l\/<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>You may send appropriate email comments to the writer at thisiswilmot@gmail.co<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins \u2013 \u201cBehalte mich in Erinnerung!\u201d by Barry S. Wolfe Bacon Scrapins are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a bacon scrapin. Hubert Ditner was huddled silently with his fellows in a roadside ditch along the Hitler Line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4072,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5581","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5581"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5603,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5581\/revisions\/5603"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}