Archive for January, 1997

Standing atop White Rock, overlooking the town of Bonavista, Nfld., on a blustery, bone-chilling, January morning, it is hard to imagine why fishing people settled here. It is the most easterly town in North America, sitting at the narrow tip of the Bonavista [...]

This article kicks off a new series we’ve titled Celebrating Canada. The concept spun from the notion that we often take too much for granted. Thus, in words and photos, we will explore the nature of this grand land–its people and places, its business and industry. We don’t mean to be pretentious, but our ambition is to help make Canada better known to Canadians.–The Editor. From the Pacific Ocean, Canada’s western mountain ranges rise and roll inland like a tidal wave of petrified rock. At their eastern brink, these stone monoliths plunge thousands of metres to meet sparse prairie grassland. This [...]

by Ray Dick There was a storm raging on the North Atlantic when crew members of HMCS Calgary got the call. The Greek-registered bulk carrier ship Mount Olympus was foundering and in danger of sinking in heavy seas approximately 2,000 kilometres southeast of Halifax. The 30-man crew, most of them Romanians, wanted off. Among those preparing for the rescue mission as the Canadian ship raced to within helicopter range of the stricken vessel was United States Navy Lieutenant-Commander Bill Erhardt. The American was on the ship because he was participating in a Canadian Forces program that few Canadians have heard anything about. [...]

World War II was fought on many strange battlefields, but none was more unusual than North Africa. Fighting began there because Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, surprised by the rapid collapse of the French army, decided he needed a “few thousand corpses” or Italy would not have a place at an early peace conference. The Italian army first attacked France and then began operations against the British in East Africa and Egypt.The story of the Italian advance and the Commonwealth counter-offensive is well known. British Lieutenant-General Sir Richard O’Connor employed the 7th Armoured and the 4th Indian divisions in a campaign [...]