August 2018 - Legion Magazine

30Aug 2018

By Sharon AdamsNo Comments

Artifacts

Battlefield Bots

Legion Magazine sat down with the Canadian War Museum’s Second World War historian Dr. Jeff Noakes to learn more about the German’s Goliath Tracked Mine from the Second World War and its impact on the development of future remote-controlled devices. The seeds of today’s military robolution were sown a century ago in the muck and mire of the front line, where soldiers fought to overcome battlefield barriers—trenches, barbed wire, shell craters—amid enemy bullets and bombs. What if a machine could do the dirty and dangerous work? Remote-controlled weapons—tracked land torpedoes, pilotless aerial torpedoes, unmanned explosive motorboats linked to controllers by cables up to 20 kilometres long (before wireless controls were developed)—started to appear in the First World War, bu...

29Aug 2018

By Stephen J. Thorne1 Comment

Front Lines

Steaming up the track

Some 650 young athletes, including 317 sponsored by local legions across Canada, met in a steaming hot Brandon, Man., for the 42nd annual National Youth Track and Field Championships from Aug.10-12. Weekend temperatures hit 40℃ as under-16 and under-18 youth competed for 333 medals in 87 events. They were supported by 300 volunteers, 124 coaches and 60 officials. Here are some pictures. – Photography by Stephen J. Thorne –

22Aug 2018

By Stephen J. ThorneNo Comments

Front Lines

The bombing of East Grinstead

Seventy-five years ago, on July 9, 1943, a Dornier Do 217E became separated from the rest of its 10-plane Luftwaffe flight as it entered a cloudbank on its way to bomb London. Likely based near the town of Toulouse, France, close to the Spanish border, the German bombers had crossed the English coast at Hastings on one of hundreds of raids that dropped tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs over the course of the Second World War, killing some 60,000 British civilians and injuring 80,000 more—most of them Londoners. The market town of East Grinstead in West Sussex lay below. Situated about 15 kilometres as the Spitfire flies from RAF Redhill (where my father was based at the time with 401 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force), it had always been a potential target for Germa...

21Aug 2018

By Terry FallisNo Comments

Humour Hunt

Yes, we really thought it would fly

I had a youthful fascination with planes, rockets, gliders, helicopters and just about everything else that flew. Books helped fuel this interest, including Pilot Jack Knight and Reach for the Sky, Paul Brickhill’s biography of Douglas Bader. He was the English First World War pilot who lost both legs in a crash, yet still served in the Battle of Britain as a fighter pilot. What I may not have mentioned before was that my obsession with flight actually extended a little beyond paper airplanes and 50-cent balsa wood gliders. Back in the 1970s, the fledgling sport of hang-gliding was dominated by the familiar, triangular gull-winged glider. Never quite content with the conventional, at the tender age of 12 a classmate and I decided we should shake up hang-gliding with a new model. Yes,...

Alex Trebek narrates Military Moments | The Dieppe Raid

17Aug 2018

By Legion Magazine1 Comment

News

Alex Trebek narrates Military Moments | The Dieppe Raid

In memory of Alex Trebek. Ahead of the 76th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, Legion Magazine and Canada’s Ultimate Story present Military Moments | The Dieppe Raid. Narrated by legendary Canadian television host Alex Trebek of Jeopardy, the video explores the disastrous Dieppe Raid of Aug. 19, 1942, which is most commonly remembered by a grim statistic—the greatest one-day losses sustained by the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Of the almost 5,000 Canadian soldiers who took part in this ill-fated raid on occupied France, more than half became casualties. In all, Canadian casualties totaled 3,367, including 907 dead and 1,874 captured. It was the Canadian Army’s costliest day of the war, and one that will forever be remembered with infamy and regret. Narrated by A...

Spitfire documentary soars with nostalgia

15Aug 2018

By Stephen J. Thorne1 Comment

Front Lines

Spitfire documentary soars with nostalgia

For its aerial cinematography alone, airplane geeks and war history buffs alike will love the new documentary Spitfire: The Plane That Saved the World. Under the image direction of renowned aviation photographer John Dibbs, the aerial footage—set against dramatic cloudscapes, the pastoral English countryside, the English Channel and, of course, the white cliffs of Dover—is beyond compare. In honour of the Royal Air Force’s 100th anniversary and the plane’s 80th, co-directors David Fairhead and Anthony Palmer set out to craft a tribute to what is probably the most beloved flying machine ever built, if not the most beautiful. The evocative original score, written by Chris Roe, soars with the warbird it is meant to exalt. Narrated by English actor, screenwriter and director Charles D...

Month: August 2018

Battlefield Bots

Steaming up the track

The bombing of East Grinstead

Yes, we really thought it would fly

Alex Trebek narrates Military Moments | The Dieppe Raid

Spitfire documentary soars with nostalgia

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