Posts Tagged ‘Military History’

May 1, 1961: 415 Maritime Patrol Squadron is formed. Based at Summerside, P.E.I., the squadron flies Argus anti-submarine/marine patrol aircraft. May 2, 1885: At the Battle of Cut Knife Hill in Saskatchewan, Lieutenant-Colonel William Otter and 500 troops attack Chief Poundmaker’s Cree camp, one of three main centres of resistance during the Northwest Rebellion.

It has been a milestone year for Canada’s navy. Coast to coast to coast, events were held to celebrate the navy’s 100th anniversary. Since January, we’ve presented a selection of stories that examine the navy’s past and present, including features on the service’s wartime and peacetime contributions as well as last June’s colourful International Fleet Review in Halifax. We thought it would be fitting to finish the centennial year with a photo salute representing a cross-section of ships that have served Canada so well. The biggest salute though goes to the men and women who have manned these and the [...]

1 NOVEMBER 1939 Daily coast-to-coast flights launched by Trans-Canada Air Lines. PHOTO: BJORN LARSSON Trans-Canada Air Lines brochure. 2 NOVEMBER 1971 Eight Canadian Forces crew members die when a Dakota aircraft crashes near Cape Perry, N.W.T. 3 NOVEMBER 1972 No. 444 Squadron is established at Lahr, West Germany. 4 NOVEMBER 1942 Germany’s Afrika Korps begins its retreat from El Alamein, North Africa. 5 NOVEMBER 1966 Canada’s first and only military hydrofoil, Bras d’Or (2nd), is damaged by fire while under construction in Quebec. PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA Salisbury Plain. 6 NOVEMBER 1914 1st Canadian Division settles into a routine training schedule on England’s Salisbury Plain. It will be a difficult winter for Canadian [...]

MAY 1, 1945 As part of the Pacific Fleet, His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Uganda and elements of Task Force 57 place themselves to intercept Japanese air strikes headed for the island of Okinawa south of Japan. Uganda, along with other cruisers and battleships, bombards air bases on the Shakashima Islands and comes under attack by two kamikazes. Two support British aircraft cruisers are hit. PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Uganda. MAY 2, 1945 The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps begins transporting relief supplies by truck convoy to the hungry people of the western Netherlands. MAY 3, 1917 Robert Grierson Combe earns the [...]

Of all the expressions known to humankind, nothing captures the essence of remembrance more than a prolonged period of silence. When the First World War ended 90 years ago on Nov. 11, 1918, it wasn’t a loud celebration that erupted from the trenches; it was the rise of pale silence. The true nature of that silence cannot be completely understood by those who weren’t there and didn’t experience the unspeakable horrors of a war that killed approximately 10 million people and maimed millions more. Among those who did serve in the war, only a tiny number remain, including Canada’s Jack Babcock, [...]

Canada is on the razor’s edge of lived memory. At the time of writing this story, there is only one Canadian veteran left alive from the First World War. In fact, there are only a handful of these veterans still alive from around the world, with France, Turkey, and Australia’s last Great War veterans having passed away in recent years to join their millions of comrades who had already marched into history. While we totter from memory to history, the war remains a poignant event that continues to resonate across the divide of more than 90 years. The Great War for [...]