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MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH In the chill dawn of Nov. 8, 1918, Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces Marshal Ferdinand Foch waited in rail carriage #2419 for the arrival of a German delegation. Having been given command of all Allied forces on March 26, Foch had fought the... -
JOHN FLETCHER In May 17, 1689, King William’s War between England and France formalized three previous years of open conflict over strategic fur-trade posts on Hudson Bay and James Bay. Control of these forts see-sawed back and forth. York Factory, situated as it was between... -
When placed in command, take charge.” This was more than just a catchy quote by General Norman Schwarzkopf. The four-star general was 56 when United States President George H.W. Bush appointed him to command the multinational coalition responding to Iraq’s forced annexation of Kuwait in... -
On the morning of June 2, 1866, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Booker led about 850 Canadians, mostly men of the 13th Battalion (today’s Royal Hamilton Light Infantry) and Toronto’s Queen’s Own Rifles, from the village of Ridgeway in Canada West toward a Fenian force that had seized... -
On Dec. 24, 1993, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations Protection Force’s director of political affairs in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, summoned his new military aide, Canadian Major John Russell, to his office. “John, we’re going to break the siege,” the diplomat declared. “I want you to... -
On Aug. 7, 1950, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent addressed the nation by radio. The subject was North Korea’s attack on South Korea and the response by the United Nations and Canada. “Our objective is not to make war. We are…doing our best to prevent...
Heroes And Villains
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Heroes and Villains: MacGill & Messerschmitt
ELIZABETH (ELSIE) MacGILL In 1939, Britain and the Commonwealth lacked a fighter plane to match the German Bf-109. In aerial combat over northwestern Europe in 1940, the 109, created by German aircraft designer Wilhelm (Willy) Messerschmitt, easily outfought existing Royal Air Force fighters. In its pursuit of a competitive fighter plane, the RAF sent...
