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For thousands of years, men on horseback were an essential part of warfare. Mounted soldiers—cavalry—were scouts, reserves or attack forces, used when speed, shock action or long distances were involved. The cavalry was a proven and necessary component of most armies. The face of warfare... -
In the lead-up to Operation Market Garden—the Allied military operation to encircle Germany’s industrial Ruhr district in September 1944—British Army Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. Eisenhower took a calculated risk and assigned First Canadian Army to open... -
The year is 1917 and the place is northern France. The meticulously prepared Canadians sweep up the commanding heights in the face of determined German resistance and win the day. Sound familiar? No, it’s not Vimy Ridge, Canada’s most celebrated battle, but rather the attack on... -
They are among the most iconic images of the Second World War—blurred, grainy and, the best of them, as stirring and in-the-moment as any battlefield photographs ever taken. There are only 11 pictures—and nine surviving negatives—from that early morning of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, on... -
At the first strains of the anthem, backs straightened and shoulders squared. For a few brief minutes the white hair and canes were forgotten and eyes shone bright with dignity and pride. This was Holland, 1995, and these were the Canadian veterans who gave their... -
WAR SHAPED CANADA. Those three words do not often occur to Canadians living in our peaceable kingdom, but they are surely true. The future of British North America was decided on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and confirmed during the War of 1812 in which...
Opening the Estuary
Britain’s XXX Corps closed in on Antwerp on Aug. 30, 1944, General Bernard Montgomery decided it was unnecessary to open the Belgian city’s massive port to Allied shipping. So, despite the liberation of the city on Sept. 2, no advance north of the Albert Canal was attempted. This left the 80-kilometre estuary—at the tidal...
