Three ports in Canada and Northern Ireland were connected in common purpose during the Second World War, handling hundreds of convoys carrying millions of tonnes of food, raw materials, war materiel and troops to relieve and support beleaguered Britain.| Legion Magazine
A battered and bullet-riddled white utility vehicle on display at the Canadian War Museum is testament to the time when the world began to understand that peacekeeping is not a peaceful profession.| Legion Magazine
The centrepiece of a ceremony in Gander, N.L., marking the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, will be a piece of steel recovered from the wreckage.| Legion Magazine
The jeeps Canadian troops used in the Korean War were all-round workhorses.| Legion Magazine
As far as war monuments go, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial is widely regarded to be among the most magnificent, if not the most. It is set on the ridge where all four Canadian divisions—100,000 troops—fought together for the first time, won a great victory, and thus staked their country’s place at the table and … The post Vimy today: A photoessay appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
Retired corporal Kate MacEachern understands the true meaning of service. To the Ballantynes Cove, N.S., native, it meant joining the Canadian Armed Forces in 2005, training as a tanker with Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) until an accident left her with critical head and spinal cord injuries that transformed her military career. Her service, however, … The post Canadian veteran talks service at home and in Ukraine appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
Manitoba became a province of Canada in 1870, though at the time it didn’t extend much past the Red River Valley (it wasn’t until 1912 that it expanded to its current boundaries). In 1871, B.C. became a province. Between them, was a vast area then known as the North-West Territories. The West was rapidly changing; … The post The nation grows appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
Why Canada shouldn’t give up on its security arrangements with the U.S. The post Shared defence appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
Has the 150-plus year friendly relationship between Canada and the U.S. really come to an end? The post It’s over now? appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
“What is a war—and what does Canada consider a war?” Such questions, and many more, come from former serviceman Mike McGlennon. Rhetorical though they might appear, they’re nevertheless questions that the vice-president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada Association expects the federal government to address—and soon. Already, he adds, answers are well “past due.” … The post Persian Gulf War veterans’ fight for “past due” recognition appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
Time has softened the First World War battlefields of France and Belgium. The grey-brown mud and deep red blood have surrendered to shades of green and gold, the fields of battle now verdant forests, placid pastures, and crops of corn and grain. The trenches and craters of 1914-1918 have long since turned to undulating, grass-covered … The post 60 pictures: Battle sites, cemeteries and monuments of WW I appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
How Canada’s Second World War rationing was done by the book| Legion Magazine
A co-author of a groundbreaking study that pinpointed Viking activity in North America to the summer of 1021 AD says Norse explorers likely arrived at the Newfoundland site years before they cut the wood on which the finding was based.| Legion Magazine
Russian forces invading Ukraine have resorted to a rarely used First World War-era weapon known for its indiscriminate nature, adding to a controversial arsenal that has included cluster munitions, chemical weapons and oxygen-sucking bombs.| Legion Magazine
With U.S. forces out and Taliban insurgents advancing across much of Afghanistan, Sean Maloney’s post on the Canadian Afghanistan War Veterans Association Facebook page was discouraging. “Cell service in Kandahar is apparently down, not just intermittent,” wrote Maloney, who chronicled the war as the Canadian Army’s official historian across more than a decade of fighting …| Legion Magazine
They were dark and uncertain times in 1943 when two American composers, Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, wrote a hopeful little song that would become an all-time hit of musical cinema—and of the ever-expanding Christmas season. Crafted for the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, in which it was first sung by Judy Garland, …| Legion Magazine
Canadian Paul J. Tomelin’s photograph of a young private waiting for medical aid after battle stands among the Korean War’s most compelling photographs.| Legion Magazine
American troops had barely begun their withdrawal from Afghanistan in August when Russia’s military began flexing its muscles near the country’s border, ostensibly in attempts to discourage the spread of terrorism.| Legion Magazine
Jill Heinerth has made more than 7,800 dives deep into oceans all over the world, spanning both polar regions, tropical paradises and many places in between.She’s famous for her cave dives, including inside an Antarctic iceberg the size of Jamaica. But some of the most poignant adventures the Mississauga, Ont., native has undertaken may be to wartime wrecks off Newfoundland and in the faraway wonder once known as Truk Atoll.| Legion Magazine
The crew of the Tudor warship Mary Rose was a diverse bunch, hailing from as far away as continental Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, says new research that reinforces Britain’s long history as a society of mixed origins and ethnicities.| Legion Magazine
Sometimes, the little things make a big difference. Sometimes the little things add up. And sometimes the little things are all you have. It might be wise to remember this as Canadian troops ramp up their peace operations in Mali, where they are conducting medical evacuations on behalf of United Nations forces trying to intervene …| Legion Magazine
Eighteen years of alliance operations in Afghanistan were doomed by mission creep, as allied nations poured undue effort and resources into helping rebuild the country rather than focusing on their core objective of defeating terrorism, said the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently said that NATO went into Afghanistan to …| Legion Magazine
The original sat in a musty filing cabinet in the Halifax office of The Canadian Press for years: a sheaf of rice paper, its first page scrawled with the words “Passed by Censor 1942” across the top, just above the typed “BULLETIN.” It was dated Oct. 16 out of Sydney, N.S., the first news report …| Legion Magazine
Story by Marc Milner Photography by Stephen J. Thorne The word comes in late in the evening: the president and the provisional government of “West Isles” are surrounded by a rebel force in the capital city of “Blue Mountain.” They need to be saved from the rebels if the peace-support mission in the region is …| Legion Magazine
To celebrate 150 years of Canadian history, Canada’s Ultimate Story and Legion Magazine present a powerful video essay on the history of our home and native land called O Canada | Our Journey to 150. The video is narrated by Canadian comedian and actor Mike Myers, who recently published Canada, a 300-page hilarious and heartfelt love letter to his beloved …| Legion Magazine
Lord Frederick Stanley of Preston, Canada’s Governor General from 1888 to 1893, saw his first hockey game on Feb. 4, 1889, and like so many of us, he was hooked.| Legion Magazine
When Newfoundland Joined Confederation 11:59 p.m., March 31, 1949 They were the last to join the party, and not everyone wanted to join. A narrow majority—52 per cent—voted to become the 10th province of Canada. On April 1, Newfoundlanders woke up as Canadians and Joey Smallwood declared himself the last Father of Confederation. [Credit: HeritageHockeyHSC] …| Legion Magazine
Canada was formed by a combination of hope and fear; hope that something great could be created in the wilderness, and fear of American imperialism and Fenian raiders. At 150, we are no longer young, but compared to our aging parents (England is 1,146 years old, if you count Alfred the Great as its first …| Legion Magazine
The legacy of Robert Hampton Gray The post A Formidable Pilot appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
The Naval Museum of Halifax is a story unto itself. It’s a tale that arguably begins in 1818, upon completion of the Georgian-style structure as part of the city’s renowned dockyard. Rather than a home for artifacts at the time, however, it was the official summer residence for the admiral of the Royal Navy’s North … The post An armchair tour of the Naval Museum of Halifax appeared first on Legion Magazine.| Legion Magazine
In December 1942, a group of scientists led by Enrico Fermi demonstrated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in an abandoned squash court at the University of Chicago. The race to build the first atomic bomb had begun. One of the first items the Manhattan Project, as the initiative was known, needed was a supply …| Legion Magazine
In the summer of 1941, Nazi Germany launched a surprise attack against the Soviet Union, despite a non-aggression pact signed by the two countries in 1939.| Legion Magazine
Their ancestors fought beside the British in the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution and the War of 1812. In 1885, they navigated Africa’s Nile River on a British military rescue mission and volunteered for Canada’s first international expeditionary force at the dawn of the 20th century, fighting with the British in the Second Boer War in South Africa.| Legion Magazine
Just after 7:30 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day in 1945, survivors of the minesweeper HMCS Guysborough were in frigid Atlantic waters awaiting rescue. About half of them wouldn’t make it. Guysborough was about 300 kilometres off the coast of France in the Bay of Biscay en route from Lunenburg, N.S., to England when it …| Legion Magazine
Planned and executed with precision, the attack on Vimy Ridge redefined the Canadian Corps as an elite formation. The victory at Vimy Ridge in April 1917 is the one military story that most Canadians know. Some of our best writers—journalists and historians alike, from Pierre Berton to Tim Cook—have written books on Vimy and the event …| Legion Magazine
Capital punishment was abolished for the public in Canada in 1976, but it would take a little longer for military members.| Legion Magazine
On Dec. 28, 1945, Major-General Kurt Meyer was found guilty of war crimes for the massacre of 18 Canadians at Abbaye D’Ardenne in Normandy, France, shortly after D-Day in 1944.| Legion Magazine
In June 1942, Canadian troops arrived for six weeks combined operations training on the Isle of Wight in England in preparation for the raid on Dieppe.| Legion Magazine
“Forbes said, ‘Stand to,’” wrote Sergeant Anthony James Stacey in his diary. “The rest followed him. ”In his entries, Stacey reflected not only on his time with the Newfoundland Regiment, but also serving under the renowned Lieutenant-Colonel James Forbes-Robertson, who was one of nine other men who stood guard of the French village of Monchy-Le-Peux in April 1917. They would later be known as the Monchy Ten, with Forbes-Robertson commanding the victory during the larger Battle of...| Legion Magazine
Legion Magazine offers a blend of military heritage and Canadian history with articles by noted historians and journalists.| Legion Magazine
With the U.S. president threatening to economically bludgeon Canada into submission as the 51st state, just under half of surveyed Canadians (49 per cent) say they would go to war for their country. Those most willing to lay it on the line, 55 per cent of whom said they were willing to fight, were over …| Legion Magazine
20 years ago, Canada joined the international fight against Islamic State militants.| Legion Magazine
Ask a veteran of virtually any wartime infantry what piece of kit is valued most, and chances are they’ll say their shovel. Yes, the lowly shovel, known in military parlance as the entrenching, or intrenching, tool, also called a trenching tool, or simply e-tool—any way you call it, the shovel, or spade, has provided shelter, …| Legion Magazine
It takes only a cursory glance at recent headlines to see that the Russian bear has not only awoken, but is angry, quite possibly rabid. Not content to merely create chaos in rewriting the map of Eastern Europe, or to panic its neighbours farther afield with constant bomber flights across their flanks, the Russians have also recently turned their sights to the far north.| Legion Magazine
In news from Canada’s shooting war, it turns out that the mission to advise and assist Kurdish forces in northern Iraq had a much more rigorous amount of assisting involved than was initially made clear.| Legion Magazine
With the chaos in Syria continuing to spill out across the world, it’s quite easy to overlook Russia’s recent behaviour, the unusual and worrying aggression it has displayed not only against its neighbouring countries but elsewhere. While the world’s attention may have shifted to Syria, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization coalition is still tracking President …| Legion Magazine
The battlefields of Europe were thousands of kilometres away, but Newfoundland and Labrador were definitely in a war zone during the Second World War.| Legion Magazine
In May 2007, on the green and peaceful banks of the Una River in Bihac, Bosnia-Herzegovina, a memorial was dedicated to members of the Canadian Armed Forces who served and died in the wars that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia in 1991.| Legion Magazine
A conflict brews in the Far NorthGiven Russia’s flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and its use of force in a conflict that few countries view as legitimate, how will any negotiations between Canada and Russia, let alone Denmark, lead to a peaceful resolution of the rival interests in the Arctic Ocean seabed?| Legion Magazine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24 will alter world affairs as profoundly as the invasion of South Korea by North Korea in June of 1950. Declaring Ukraine to be an artificial nation—despite Russian recognition of Ukraine as a sovereign country in 1991—Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed some 175,000 troops, backed by his country’s air force and weaponry might, to conquer Ukraine and remove its democratic government.| Legion Magazine
Last fall, the Royal Navy offered to help Canada guard our strategic interests in the Arctic. The offer was not noticed much by Canadian newspapers focused on the COVID crisis, the federal election, the subsequent leadership manoeuvrings of our political parties and the AUKUS security pact—a new submarine-sharing agreement between the United States, United Kingdom …| Legion Magazine
Like its navy, now the largest in the world in terms of sheer number of ships, China is rapidly expanding its influence in the Indo-Pacific. In the face of this, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia set out to grow their naval presences in the region.In September 2021, the countries announced a trilateral treaty, awkwardly dubbed AUKUS, aimed at tying the nations closer together and to provide Australia with the technical knowledge to speed up its acquisition of nuclear-powered...| Legion Magazine
I have been writing this column for Legion Magazine for more than 15 years and I have written columns for other magazines and newspapers for even longer. Until now, I have never written a personal column. Why now? Because I want to express my view about gender discrimination and sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces.| Legion Magazine
The fall of Afghanistan prompts a tough question: “Was it worth it?” The Afghanistan government of Ashraf Ghani collapsed in mid-August and the Taliban, which harboured the 9/11 terrorists, now reigns supreme over the troubled country. The 9/11 attacks led directly to the invocation of NATO’s Article 5—the collective security clause—which led Canada directly …| Legion Magazine
David Borys, a Canadian military historian and faculty member at Vancouver’s Langara College, has released a new book entitled Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867. The tome charts the evolution of the Canadian armed forces from the country’s first post-Confederation conflicts to the world wars and beyond. Renowned historian J.L. …| Legion Magazine
Alberta’s Military Museums, in partnership with the University of Calgary, have unveiled two temporary exhibitions with an evocative focus on war art. Housed at the Founders’ Gallery until Feb. 17, 2025, the first collection is entitled “Witness: Histories of Conflict in the War Art of Bill MacDonnell.” Meanwhile, the second showcases a renowned regiment in …| Legion Magazine
Albert Goodwin, known as “Ginger,” due to his red hair, emigrated to Canada in 1906 and began working in a mine on Vancouver Island.The company Goodwin worked for paid white miners about $4 a day, support workers less and Chinese workers a fraction of that.| Legion Magazine
In October 1918, about 1,000 Canadians a day were dying of the Spanish flu.| Legion Magazine
Excerpts from a memoir written by First World War veteran Charles Henry Savage, born in 1892 in Eastman, Que., who served in Messines, Belgium, in 1915-16.| Legion Magazine
This year marks 80 years since Canada’s leading role in the liberation of the Netherlands. In recognition of the anniversary, the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa has unveiled an exhibit highlighting the bitter struggles that delivered freedom to the Dutch populace in the last months of the Second World War. The thought-provoking “Liberation! Canada and …| Legion Magazine
In October 2024, award-winning author Ted Barris released his 22nd book, Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour. Detailing the 113 days in 1940 that became a turning point of the Second World War, Barris brings to life the experiences of some 300 Canadian airmen and groundcrew who, against all odds, contributed to …| Legion Magazine
The Canada-U.S. First Special Service Force earns its stripes—and its moniker| Legion Magazine
With overwhelming odds against returning safely from a mission, Second World War Bomber Command aircrews resorted to superstition and ritual| Legion Magazine
Recollections from a reconnaissance man in the Italian Campaign| Legion Magazine
In late April, the Russian military carried out a joint exercise on Franz Josef Land in the High Arctic that began with a parachute drop from an IL-76 transport| Legion Magazine
A harder line against China is needed| Legion Magazine
After occupying Cambrai, France, Canadian troops continued the Hundred Days Offensive, engaging in the attack on Iwuy, eight kilometres to the northeast, on Oct| Legion Magazine
On Oct. 3, 1916, dozens of people flocked to a farmer’s field just north of London at a place called Potters Bar to see the grisly spectacle of the crash site| Legion Magazine
Hill 355, about 40 kilometres south of Seoul, South Korea, was so named by the United Nations military coalition during the Korean War because it was 355 metres| Legion Magazine
After five years of intrepid war service, HMCS Skeena came to an ironically tragic end on anti-submarine patrol, sunk not by enemy torpedoes, but by the most re| Legion Magazine
Looking back at Canada’s role in the little-known Aleutian Islands Campaign| Legion Magazine
The 20-year war to eliminate the Taliban that had sheltered and assisted Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorist organization he led has come to an end.| Legion Magazine
