March 2007 - Legion Magazine

1Mar 2007

By Chris BalickiNo Comments

O Canada

The Colonel's Canal

PHOTOS: JAMES BALLANTYNE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA133871; W.A. CURRENT, PARKS CANADA—H.06.338.08.10(7); F. CATTROLL, PARKS CANADA—H.06.338.08.10(04); P. MORIN, PARKS CANADA—H.06.40.06.14(07) From top: An early depiction of the locks at the Ottawa end of the Rideau Canal; an aerial view of Jones Falls; many of the locks are still hand operated, like this gate at Jones Falls; a tour boat cruises the canal in Ottawa. Stretching 202 kilometres from Kingston, Ont., to Ottawa, the Rideau Canal is one of North America's most scenic waterways. It is also a National Historic Site, a Canadian Heritage River and might very well be declared--sometime soon--a World Heritage Site, the highest global designation any si...

1Mar 2007

By Terry Copp4 Comments

Army

Into Ortona: Army, Part 69

PHOTOS: LT. TERRY ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116852; TERRY ROWE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114030 Clockwise from top: Canadian infantry advance into Ortona, Italy, in December 1943; Canadian soldiers in Ortona; jeeps destroyed by enemy fire. When Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar--a veteran of World War I--arrived in Italy to take command of 1st Canadian Corps, he was introduced to the battlefields of the Moro River and The Gully (Clearing The Gully, January/February). Strome Galloway, who was in temporary command of the Royal Canadian Regiment, recalled the visit in his memoirs: "Crerar stood in the frozen mud. Behind him was the shattered farmhouse which served...

1Mar 2007

By Hugh A. Halliday1 Comment

Air Force

Bridging The Ocean: Air Force, Part 20

PHOTOS: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA116061; FREDERICK G. WHITCOMBE, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA140094; NICHOLAS MORANT, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA160861 Clockwise from top: Firemen soak down the wreckage of a Liberator after it crashed in downtown Montreal in April 1944; airmail is unloaded in Italy; Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill as Ferry Command's first commander. Royal Canadian Air Force transport came of age during World War II. That war also witnessed a revolution in transoceanic flying. Although the RCAF broke little new ground in this field, it was an active participant through the Royal Air Force's Ferry Command, No. 168 (Heavy Transport) Squadron, and the thousands of...

1Mar 2007

By Marc MilnerNo Comments

Navy

The First Convoys: Navy, Part 20

PHOTOS: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA104030; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA095712 Clockwise from top: HMCS Skeena arrives at Plymouth, England, in May 1940; Commander E.R. Mainguy was assigned to HMCS Ottawa after he was commander of HMCS Assiniboine; HMCS St. Laurent also helped escort transatlantic convoys. As in 1914, the main threat to Canada at the start of WW II came from surface raiders, and the best protection against these ships was still the cruisers of the Royal Navy. In the western Atlantic in 1939, however, British forces could now be supported by a small but highly efficient flotilla of Royal Canadian Navy destroyers: a class of vessel that the RN's Amer...

1Mar 2007

By James CarelessNo Comments

O Canada

Full Steam Ahead

PHOTOS: HCW STEAM TRAIN Clockwise from top left: The HCW Steam Train chugs towards Wakefield, Que.; tour guide Maxime Fortin greets passengers; locomotive No. 909 steams along the Gatineau River. Imagine a perfect day trip on a real train--on a train pulled by a working steam engine. One with old coach seats swaying back and forth; the relentless sharp percussion of the wheels serving as soundtrack to the vistas streaming past the old-fashioned big windows. In short, a train like you see in the movies--and remember from your childhood. Until recently, I thought such things were nothing more than the stuff of memory. But then my family and I took a ride on th...

1Mar 2007

By David J. BercusonNo Comments

Defence Today

Maintaining Our Air Power

PHOTO: LOCKHEED MARTIN Technicians are assembling the first F-35 fighter aircraft, now called the Lightning II, in Fort Worth, Texas. The story out of Ottawa in December that Canada had agreed to put an additional half billion dollars into the new stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft program caused barely a ripple in the media and was ignored on Parliament Hill. But it was a momentous step nonetheless. The commitment has put Canada on track to purchase 80 of the new aircraft, assuring that the air force's ability to deploy modern fighter and attack aircraft will last well into the current century. Given the shrinkage of the current CF-18 fleet, ...

Month: March 2007

The Colonel's Canal

Into Ortona: Army, Part 69

Bridging The Ocean: Air Force, Part 20

The First Convoys: Navy, Part 20

Full Steam Ahead

Maintaining Our Air Power

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