Since 2003, some 300 members of The Royal Canadian Legion from coast to coast to coast have answered the call and interviewed veterans in long-term
They knew there would be bombs buried in the dirt. They knew their metal detectors probably wouldn’t detect the bombs’ wooden pressure plates. They knew that after the bombs they would be ambushed and the air would zing with high-velocity metal.
The Canadians knew they were advancing to detonation, that some of them were going down, that it was unlikely they’d all make it back to base.
They knew there would be mayhem and nightmare explosions and the dirty fear of dying.
They went anyway.
They walked across the field and into the war, and everything that they knew, happened.
Colonel Jean-Philippe Bonnet’s patio atop the bunker at his seaside home affords an excellent view of the beach at Puys, east of Dieppe. The illustration
For the first time, Canadians commemorated Remembrance Day without a Canadian First World War veteran. With the passing of John Babcock, Canada’s last surviving soldier of the Great War, so passed the live memories of those who served in uniform during that time. Yet Canadians do not forget; at the National War Memorial, more than 30,000 came to honour the service and sacrifice of all the generations of servicemen and servicewomen who have fought to win, preserve or maintain peace. It was the same story elsewhere across Canada, where huge crowds paid their respects in big cities and small towns.
Veterans form up in front of the cenotaph. PHOTO: TOM MacGREGOR Growing up in Sutton, England, a young Joyce Paynter heard people talking about the
1 JANUARY 1916
Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden promises to field an army of half a million men, and decides to commit two more army divisions to
the Western Front.
2 JANUARY 1908
The Royal Mint of Ottawa opens, later known as the Royal Canadian Mint.
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An informative primer on Canada’s crucial role in the Normandy landing, June 6, 1944.
