An RCAF logbook belonging to Jim Milne has yielded some very amusing cartoons related to life in the Royal Canadian Air Force! When a case of mistaken identity thwarted Jim Milne’s plans to fly against the enemy, he spent the war in Canada serving as a navigation instructor instead. When not on duty, he spent […]
Ben Scaman of Banff, Alberta, was flying Spitfires with the Royal Canadian Air Force when the V-1 flying bombs, often called doodlebugs, began to rain down on England in 1944. Remarkably, Ben pioneered the technique in which a skilled pilot could tip one of these murderous missiles off balance, causing it to crash harmlessly into the countryside. […]
Canadian prime minister William Mackenzie King, also known as Weird Willie, gazed into his crystal ball, communed with his dead dogs, and saw images in his shaving cream. Yet many historians believe that he was our greatest prime minister ever. Mackenzie King proved that you don’t need personal charisma to be an effective leader. In fact, […]
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 […]
A treasure trove of photographs has fallen into my hands, showing RCAF women, members of the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division, performing their wartime duties. Although women weren’t allowed to fly or to engage in combat, they filled many other valuable roles. “WE SERVE THAT MEN MAY FLY” was the motto of the Women’s […]
Former naval pilot Ted Davis of Toronto never forgot the night of March 17, 1945, when his minesweeper HMCS Guysborough was torpedoed twice by a German submarine. Tony Davis is a former classmate of mine from the Journalism Program at Carleton University in Ottawa. When I learned that his father Ted Davis was still living at […]
The Christmas season was especially lonely for the homesick men and women serving overseas in wartime, as well as their families on the home front. Here are a few examples of the many thousands of Christmas cards and letters that winged their way between loved ones in both world wars.
Sixty-eight years ago this month, a German submarine torpedoed the SS Caribou, a ferry travelling from Canada to Newfoundland. Within five minutes, the ferry sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. Margaret Brooke valiantly tried to save her friend Agnes Wilkie, who became the only Canadian nursing sister to die from enemy action in World War Two. […]
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, […]
When Manitoba farm girl Merle Taylor joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, she proved to be such a whiz at Morse Code that she was assigned to instruct the air crews.
