Archive for September, 2010

One of the first duties the Queen had while visiting Halifax to celebrate the centennial of Canada’s navy was to unveil a new $1 circulating coin featuring the image of a Halifax-class frigate. The image of the new loonie was unveiled June 29 by the Queen and Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Wardroom at Canadian Forces Base Halifax at a luncheon for about 300 invited guests. Following the luncheon, the Queen, Prince Philip and Harper toured the International Fleet Review of 28 Canadian and allied warships stationed in the Bedford Basin as part of the celebrations. The Wardroom is in the [...]

On Freddy’s starboard side: toes over edge of deck; eyes staring between feet at swirling water, 6 1⁄2 metres below; brain suddenly more cognizant of how the side of the massive grey warship—the freeboard—angles in and down, and how the 7 1⁄2 -metre-long rope ladder—called the “jumping ladder”—swings freely until its lower wooden rungs are held against side of moving ship by two crewmen who—at this moment—are balancing like surfers in the bottom of a small boat riding the swells to keep pace with the 134-metre-long frigate.

09/28/1942

A Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft flown by Squadron Leader K.A. Boomer destroys a

On Nov. 9, 2008, when Nathan Lehr attended the charter presentation for Newfoundland and Labrador Command’s newest branch, Pasadena No. 68, he was carrying on a family tradition. His father, also named Nathan Lehr, was a charter member of the province’s last new branch, Gambo No. 67, when it was established in 1976. Although 375 kilometres and a generation separate the two events, they are a testament to how memorial and commemoration serve as strong motivation for Legionnaires throughout the generations and across the land. In November 2007, after the dedication of Pasadena’s Peace Memorial, a few citizens with military experience began [...]

Rear-Admiral Paul Maddison could not help noticing it as an echo from the darkest days of the Second World War. There, after all, was Halifax’s Bedford Basin, filled with warships ready for whatever task may fall to them. Behind him were 28 ships from Canada and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, all lined up as if ready to go off to war. “Some of these allies were our bitterest enemies at a different time,” said Maddison, referring to the presence of two German navy ships, the FGS Karlsruhe and the FGS Spessart.

Here are the answers to our Readers’ Quiz in the November/December 2010 issue. The last aircraft carrier in the Royal Canadian Navy was Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Bonaventure, fondly known as the “Bonnie”. HMS Investigator set sail in 1850 to find missing Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. The St. Julien Memorial pays tribute to the Canadian who died in the first gas attacks in the First World War. Canadian soldiers were shot and buried in the garden of the Abbaye d’Ardenne shortly after D-Day. A meeting of elders in Afghanistan is called a Shura.

09/20/1943

While on escort duty His Majesty’s Canadian Ship St. Croix is torpedoed and sunk south of

A ceremonial route honouring Canada’s fallen has been inaugurated in Toronto after a determined three-year campaign by The Royal Canadian Legion.

Robert Cote is 74 now, retired and living in east end Montreal, the city where he was born, raised and worked most of his life. He is a former city councillor, Montreal police officer and Canadian soldier who served on peacekeeping missions in Europe in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War. In the course of a long conversation about his varied and colourful career, Cote rhymes off certain dates with an ease and familiarity that suggests he is talking about the birthdays of his children or perhaps nieces and nephews: May 7, 1963; May 5, 1966; Nov. 18, 1969; July 12, 1970. But the dates have nothing to do with such pleasant events. On those occasions, the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) planted homemade bombs in various parts of Montreal.

09/15/1916

Canadian troops participate in a major attack against Flers-Courcelette on the Somme battlefield in France. The attack marks the first occasion when tanks are