A car on the road to Winnipeg Beach sounds its horn in a distinct pattern- three times quickly and once a bit longer. Several cars hear this and respond in the same way.
If you were to express it in Morse Code, it would be three dots followed by a short line.
That is the letter V. During the Second World War, to the Allies, this meant V for Victory.
In July 1941, V Sign Catches On, reports the Winnipeg Tribune, noting that motorists were doing the same in London, England and people in parts of occupied Europe were “tapping out the same signal in any way they could”.
Winnipeg’s City Hall adds a V for Victory sign. St. Boniface City Hall adds a V on its grounds between the French flag and the Union Jack. The same day the paper reports V for Victory Symbol to Shine on City Hall, the letter, the Morse Code, and the first notes of a familiar tune also appear on the front page.
Dah nah nah naaaaah.
Bethoven’s Fifth Symphony begins with three short notes followed by one long note.
The notes start the BBC’s war broadcasts.
The gesture may be more familiar to a modern audience. Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, famously held up his first two fingers to make this sign.
Of course, young people in the day who made the gesture with a turn of their wrist expressed a different sentiment, one of contempt. Up yours. And in later years, the V for Victory gesture was turned around again to be made in the original V for Victory way, and embraced as a sign of peace.
Today, a casual text may include “v” for very, or “vvv” for cute, but 80 years ago, it was Victory with a capital V- Victory in Europe (VE Day) in May and Victory in Japan (VJ Day) in August. Only then was Second World War truly over.
Shortly after, Labour Day weekend 1945 was bittersweet. Six years after many Canadians had signed up to serve at the start of the war, it was finally over. Many would never return. Some survivors were waiting to be repatriated. Among them was Earl Dickie, one of the Dickies From Gunton: Canadian Brothers in Two World Wars, and his fellow Prisoners of War.