My wartime novel Bird’s Eye View is fact-based fiction about a prairie farm girl named Rose who becomes an aerial photo interpreter, inspired in part by the brilliant, beautiful Constance Babington Smith.
Royal Canadian Air Force veteran Dot Proulx was so modest about her wartime service that she wouldn’t allow me to publish this until after her death. She passed away on November 20, 2022 at the age of ninety-nine, and I am honoured to share her story at last.
These ten wonderful wartime women, four of them still living, volunteered to serve their countries in World War Two. Please read their stories and remember our veterans, today and always.
Willa Walker rose rapidly through the ranks in 1941 to become head of the newly-formed Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division. Only 28 years old, grieving the recent death of her baby son, her husband locked away in a German prison camp, Willa rose to the challenge with courage and dignity, breaking down barriers for future generations of women […]
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 […]
When I discovered this photograph online, I was struck with the lovely elegance of RCAF Women’s Division member and mapmaker Dorothy Garen. I was thrilled to find that Dorothy, now aged 95, is living not far from me in Canmore, Alberta, where I was able to thank her in person for her service to our […]
After a bullet from a Japanese machine gun tore through her body, Australian nurse Vivian Bullwinkel floated face down in the sea and feigned death. She was the sole survivor of the 1942 Bangka Island Massacre, in which 22 nurses were forced to wade into the ocean at gunpoint and then shot in the back. It’s […]
Plucky Iris Porter of the WAAF, the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, slept in a tent for two long years, swam in the Mediterranean Sea, rode camels, and visited the pyramids – all while serving her country in the burning Egyptian desert during World War Two.
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 […]
