Bomber crews who flew toward the end of the war, when there were fewer German fighters in the air, were sometimes considered to have an easier ride. But not always, as told in this hair-raising excerpt from Leo Richer’s own memoir.
IF Day was a fake Nazi invasion of Winnipeg that took place in 1942, designed to frighten Canadians into buying more war bonds. At some point during the six long years of the Second World War, probably every Canadian secretly feared an invasion by the enemy. On February 19, 1942, they didn’t have to speculate […]
A career in photography was the goal of Lou Marr, who called herself “the original turnip who fell off the back of the truck” when she joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division.
Bomb girls in Canada were represented by Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl. She was just one of one million Canadian women who worked in factories during the Second World War. Bomb Girls Around the World When World War Two began, British women trooped into factories in full force. They were desperately needed there, as Britain […]
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 […]
My godfather Colin Greener served in the Canadian Cavalry in the First World War. He stood five foot three in his boots, but he had the heart of a lion. He fought in the trenches, was wounded twice, and decorated for bravery. He always joked that if he had been taller he wouldn’t have survived. […]
Almost 11,000 Canadian conscientious objectors refused, mainly for religious reasons, to perform military duties during World War Two. So the government required them to do “alternate service” in work camps, many of them in Western Canada’s national parks. Ray Crook was not a conscientious objector. He was rejected from military service because of a heart murmur. […]
How were children on the home front protected from the horrors of a world at war? The short answer: they weren’t. Kids were fully involved in the war effort, doing whatever their little hearts and hands could manage. Many children who grew up during the war were too young to fight, but they still wanted to do […]
Canada’s greatest living fighter pilot, Stocky Edwards, is a legend in aviation circles. But when I visited him and his wife Toni at their home in Comox, British Columbia, this humble gentleman still attributed much of his success to simple luck, and prayer.
