Eagle was teaching tool
Second World War veteran found souvenir in German barracks
The interesting and important backstory of a large wooden eagle is something Doug McLean used to share frequently.
With the anniversary of VE Day approaching, the veteran of the Second World War decided it was time to talk about it again.
VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, marks the anniversary of the liberation of Europe from Germany, on May 8, 1945.
McLean’s eagle was likely the property of a German solider when the member of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiment discovered it in an empty German camp in March 1945.
“When we entered the building many army cots were still there — some had mattresses, others did not,” the 97-year-old recalled.
“I chose one with a mattress and sat down on it only to discover under it was a large wooden Germany eagle.”
With a wingspan of three feet, it was too big to add to the endless pieces of equipment an infantryman had to carry so he sent it home to his father in Sydney. Surprisingly, Canadian army mail service successfully guided the newfound item across the sea unharmed so that it could become quite the conversation piece back home.
Though the eagle is wooden, it wasn’t hand-carved, so McLean suspects it was mass produced. Its original purpose was likely part of the seemingly endless pieces of propaganda used by the Nazis during the Second World War.
A similar, but larger, eagle is on display at the Cape Breton Highlanders barracks in Sydney.
The Highlanders obtained their eagle, according to McLean, during operations in Holland in May 1945 as the war was coming to a close. While searching for German prisoners in an officer’s mess they noticed a large wooden German eagle hanging on a wall and laid claim to it.
Besides size, there’s one noticeable difference between McLean’s eagle and the one the Highlanders display.
“When I found it in the German barracks, whoever owned it had cut the swastika off,” McLean said of his eagle.
“I don’t know the reason. At the time I supposed they did not want it to be identified as connected to Germany.”
While his eagle was becoming a lively conversation piece back home, McLean’s military service and that of his unit continued Doug McLean holds up the eagle he brought back from Holland after the Second World War. McLean found the eagle in a former barracks for the German army.
on for a time to include a role in the eventual liberation of Camp Westerbork in April 1945.
Opened by the Dutch government in 1939 to receive Jewish refugees from Germany, Westerbork was taken over by German authorities in 1942 and became a transit camp for Jews being sent to concentration camps.
Years after McLean returned to Canada from the war, he and his friends would use the eagle he
found as a teaching tool, of sorts, for more than 23 years.
During that time, he joined Tosh MacAulay and Stan McDougall as they visited area schools with other souvenirs to speak to students about their war experiences.
His eagle and other souvenirs are now in the safe keeping of his nephew.