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 […]
Because my focus is on women in wartime, I’m always delighted to unearth little-known stories about their adventures. Here are four of the best. Women in Wartime MARGARET HERMESTON One of the unusual women in wartime was this petite photographer, who achieved monumental significance by becoming the first female Canadian army photographer. Her name was […]
This year, 2016, marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the writing of one of the most beautiful poems ever composed, “High Flight,” by John Gillespie Magee Junior.
Bud Abbott was just twenty-three years old when he strapped himself into his cockpit, took off from the deck of an aircraft carrier, and headed into aerial combat for the very first time. His target: the Tirpitz, one of the deadliest German battleships ever built.
For hundreds of thousands of families around the world, Christmas 1945 marked the first holiday celebrated together after the long and lonely years of war.
Violet Milstead of Toronto was a ferry pilot, one of the elite few Canadian women who served with the Air Transport Auxiliary in Great Britain during the Second World War. She flew forty-seven different types of aircraft, including fighters and bombers, from factories to airfields.
Thousands of wartime animals performed valuable work during the global conflict, while others provided love and comfort to servicemen who were far from home.
There’s a reason why it’s called The Greatest Generation – and former RCAF photographer Yvonne Valleau Wildman of Kindersley, Saskatchewan is a shining example.
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.
Fred Sutherland of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, is now Canada’s last surviving Dambuster — one of only two left in the world. He’s also a member of my extended family, because he was married to my mother’s cousin Margaret.
