Archive for January, 1998

The Yukon Territory is widely known as the Home of the Klondike, the centre of one of the most frantic and exciting gold rushes in modern history. However, while the Klondike gold rush was an important event, its romantic record often overshadows a far more important development that continues today. In the early days of European contact in the Yukon, white newcomers generally mingled easily and freely with First Nation people. However, this relationship was set aside during the first half of the 20th century when [...]

Vimy Ridge. Beaumont Hamel. For the two dominions of Canada and Newfoundland, these were the two most significant battles and battle sites of WW I. Since the joining of the two dominions under the banner of Canada in 1949, Vimy and Beaumont Hamel have remained prominent among the 13 battlefield memorials in France and Belgium commemorating the exploits of Canadians and Newfoundlanders in WW I. In April 1997, Canada gave equal and unique distinction to Vimy and Beaumont Hamel with the announcement that the two sites in northern France had been designated national historic sites, the first such sites outside the country [...]

by Mac Johnston On Nov. 10, 1997, in Geraardsbergen, Belgium, a nurse from Chilliwack, B.C., went to the funeral of an uncle she had never met. As a tribute, Maureen Thom wore on her coat the WW II wings of Pilot Officer Wilbur Bentz who died four years before she was born. Wib Bentz was a pilot in 426 (Thunderbird) Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force based at Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire, England. His plane, Halifax bomber LW682, M for Mother, was part of a 120-bomber raid on the railway yards in German-held Louvain, Belgium. On the flight home, LW682 was shot [...]

Wrapped in woollies, nibbling Beavertail pastries or sipping steaming cups of cocoa, we make our merry way to winter carnivals from coast to coast. Whether it’s Nova Scotia’s Springhill Chilly Willy winter carnival, Ottawa’s Winterlude or Winnipeg’s Le Festival du Voyageur, carnivals offer communities a chance to actually celebrate snow and ditch post-Christmas psychological and retail blues. This year, more than two million men, women, children–and even pets–will gather for frolics in the snow. We thrill with the chills of carnivals because they really do have physical, social and emotional benefits to fight midwinter melancholy, says one psychological counsellor. “Winter often [...]

Cullen’s war art includes from top to bottom: Bombing Area, Seaford; Domart, 1918; Cite Ste. Catherine. Maurice Cullen painted with a gentle and very Canadian love of nature. At first glance it seems as though his [...]

by Tom MacGregor A bitter chill blew off the Detroit River as Legionnaires prepared to march to the Essex County War Memorial for the annual ceremony of remembrance in Windsor, Ont. The place where the Legionnaires gathered was Dieppe Gardens, a narrow waterfront park in the city’s downtown, across from the Detroit skyline. “Dieppe means a lot to Windsor,” says Ontario Command’s Zone A-1 Commander Bill Smith while driving between various remembrance events in the zone. “It was our boys who got the worst of it.” The reference is to the Essex Scottish, the Windsor-area militia unit now known as the Essex and [...]

When 1st Canadian Division veterans recall the Italian campaign, memories of Ortona and the winter that followed are never far from the surface. The battles of December 1943 produced casualties on a scale that reminded men of the western front in 1916. One month of combat cost 1st Div. 176 officers and 2,163 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. A further 1,617 all ranks were admitted to hospitals as sick, including more than 500 men diagnosed as suffering from battle exhaustion. These losses were concentrated in the rifle companies of the nine infantry battalions and as 1944 began most companies [...]