Jean Hubbard joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC) on the day she turned eighteen. Wearing her red and white polka-dotted dress, she is likely the only recruit ever welcomed into the armed forces with a birthday cake!
For your reading enjoyment, here’s a collection of five strange wartime stories — starting with this delightful picture of Samantha Kot, who re-enacted an old photo she discovered here on my website! Wartime Stories: Aviation Fan Recreates Photo Samantha Kot of Orangeville, Ontario comes from an aviation-mad family that restores old aircraft and takes them […]
Canadian Army veteran Russell Thompson of Seeley’s Bay, Ontario, who will turn 99 in a few months, is one of the reasons they call his The Greatest Generation. The sons of Russell Thompson, Earle and Steve, collaborated to prepare this blog post about their father, a role model whom they love and respect. They describe […]
Thousands of lumberjacks, members of the Canadian Forestry Corps, logged the forests of Scotland during the Second World War to produce desperately needed lumber for the war effort. Among them were Carl and Jack Jones, two brothers from Invermere, British Columbia. Canadian Forestry Corps In a world filled with manmade materials, it is easy to […]
Eight Indigenous brothers from Battleford, Saskatchewan served in the Canadian Army during World War Two, following in their father’s footsteps. One brother married and fathered a son while stationed in England, but returned to Canada without ever seeing the boy. The marriage ended, and Ben Ballendine died without knowing that both his British son Colin, […]
Seven decades after German artillery fire blew up one of the Canadian tanks that Stan Stachera was riding in, the folding leather cribbage board he made during his hospital recovery remains his family’s favourite link to his wartime past. (This guest blog was written by my friend Kelsey Verboom, writer and photographer, who recently researched […]
Nobody remembered the fascinating history of a humble brass pitcher owned by this Canadian family, until Brenda Blair of Calgary discovered that it was once a prized wartime souvenir of Holland’s liberation by the Canadians.
Hank Herzberg of Chicago learned what had happened to his boyhood friend from Hanover, Germany, by reading my post called The German Jew Who Bombed Berlin. And his own story as a Ritchie Boy is also extraordinary!
August 19, 2014 marked the 72nd anniversary of the Dieppe disaster, a bloody fiasco in which thousands of Canadians were killed, wounded or captured. Journalist and historian Rob Alexander of Calgary, Alberta has provided this gripping description of his grandfather’s experience on that terrible occasion, based on journals and letters. Pictured here is Rob’s grandfather […]
Read these World War One letters written by my great-uncle Robert Burns Florence in 1916, and you will remark on the dramatic change between a young man shortly after his arrival in France, and the same young man just one month later, after doing battle at The Somme. In honour of the World War One […]
