January 1, 2007 - Legion Magazine

1Jan 2007

By John Boileau15 Comments

O Canada

The Lady Boats

PHOTOS: CSTMC/CN COLLECTION—CN003133; CSTMC/CN COLLECTION—CN005243; CSTMC/CN COLLECTION—CN001565; CSTMC/CN COLLECTION—CN001679 From top: Lady Rodney arrives in Montreal; fine furniture and white linen add elegance to the Lady Boat dining rooms; Lady Hawkins at Halifax; Lady Nelson, as a WW II hospital ship. From 1928 to 1952, interrupted only by World War II, Canadian National Steamships operated a fleet of five luxury liners, sailing from eastern Canadian ports to Bermuda, the West Indies, British Honduras and British Guyana, carrying thousands of passengers and millions of tons of freight. These immaculate white steamships offered a standard of service rarely experienced today...

1Jan 2007

By Tom MacGregorNo Comments

Remembrance

In The Name Of Valour

PHOTOS: DAN BLACK AND ADAM DAY Clockwise from top: Valour Bridge was officially named in a ceremony on Dec. 1; serving members of the Canadian Forces and veterans participated in the unveiling; Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, Mayor Larry O'Brien and Dominion President Jack Frost at the ceremony. It didn't take long for The Royal Canadian Legion to establish its presence in the community of Kanata in the western suburbs of Ottawa. Legion House--the organization's brand new national headquarters--officially opened its doors in September, and then on Dec. 1 traffic was stopped along one of the busier arteries for a ceremony dedicating the newly named Valour Bridge. Valour Bridge is a handsome...

1Jan 2007

By Terry CoppNo Comments

Army

Clearing The Gully: Army, Part 68

PHOTO: FREDERICK G. WHITCOMBE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA107933 Canadians and their vehicles advance towards the Moro River in Italy on Dec. 10, 1943. Historians have tended to treat the battle for the Moro River--fought in Italy between Dec. 6 and 10, 1943--as a prelude to the better known struggle in the streets of Ortona. However, at the time, the battle for the Moro was seen as an important victory opening the way to 8th Army's real objective: Pescara. When the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division reported it could no longer contain the Canadians in the bridgehead, the German commanders ordered a rigorous defence of the approaches to To...

1Jan 2007

By Marc MilnerNo Comments

Navy

On A War Footing: Navy, Part 19

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA104322 Captain E.S. Brand (third left) disembarks from a destroyer in 1940. It is conventional wisdom that the Allies entered into World War II unprepared. There is a kernel of truth in that: things might have been better. Certainly the strength of the Royal Canadian Navy at the time was not what the navy or the government wished. But the Canadian coast was not undefended in 1939, even if many thought the fleet should have been much larger than it was. Equally important, a great deal had been done ashore to ensure the basic organization of Canada's maritime defence--the staffs, methods, communications, pl...

1Jan 2007

By Hugh A. HallidayNo Comments

Air Force

Air Transport Lifts Off: Air Force, Part 19

PHOTO: J. McNULTY, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA065566 A Lockheed Lodestar transport aircraft on a journey in May 1945. A look around the globe confirms that systematic and scheduled air transport in this country lagged far behind that of other countries. The United States had a network of transcontinental airlines by 1932. Notwithstanding the establishment of Trans-Canada Airlines in 1937, Canada had no comparable air service until 1940. Geography was one factor, but another was the excellent railway system that rendered southern air transport services redundant. If Canada as a whole was slow to develop a national air service for civili...

1Jan 2007

By John M. RobertsonNo Comments

Memoirs

Chilled By The Cold War

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID BADOUR "If disaster be inevitable, make the best of it, is what Confucius is popularly supposed to have advised. No doubt Confucius said nothing of the sort, but during the Cold War that sentiment seemed, to many of us, to be the guiding principle behind the federal government's defence policy. Nuclear war was on the horizon, a very close horizon, but few of us understood quite how close. And since much of my time and interest was involved with a federal government organization known as Emergency Measures, I quickly learned that the "measures" had little to do with protection in the event of a nuclear at...

Day: January 1, 2007

The Lady Boats

In The Name Of Valour

Clearing The Gully: Army, Part 68

On A War Footing: Navy, Part 19

Air Transport Lifts Off: Air Force, Part 19

Chilled By The Cold War

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