1 FEBRUARY 1945
PoW Sgt. Jean Louis Warren escapes from a boxcar headed for Germany and evades capture to war’s end.
Edmonton Regiment soldiers use walkie-talkie during advance in Ortona, Italy, 21 December 1943. Carrying it is Lance Corporal W. D. Smith. Talking into it is Private W. L. Waske. [CWM]
Christmas parcels finally reach 1st Canadian Corps troops fighting near Ortona, Italy.
Royal Canadia Air Force Women’s Division (WD) recruiting poster. Title: She serves that men may fly : Enlist today in the R.C.A.F. [Public Domain, Ted Harris – McGill university]
The Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force is renamed the RCAF (Women’s Division).
The Western Front 1917. [United States Military Academy’s Department of History]
The Germans withdraw to the Hindenburg Line.
5 FEBRUARY 1944
A German mortar kills 19 members of the Perth Regiment near Ortona, Italy, as they line up for supper.
6 FEBRUARY 1919
The last Canadian troops withdraw from the Army of Occupation in Belgium.
7 FEBRUARY 1813
U.S. riflemen attack Brockville, free prisoners, seize stores and take 52 hostages.
Sergeant Tommy Prince (R), M.M., 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, with his brother, Private Morris Prince, at an investiture at Buckingham Palace, 12 Feb 1945. [DND]
Near Littoria, Italy, Tommy Prince, disguised as a farmer, fixes a broken communication wire right under enemy noses.
1 Canadian Infantry Division patch.
9-11 FEBRUARY 1915
1st Canadian Division crosses to France from England.
HMCS Spikenard- Flower class corvette. [Naval Museum of Manitoba]
A U-boat torpedoes and sinks HMCS Spikenard on convoy duty in the North Atlantic.
High Mckenzie VC.
12 FEBRUARY 1918
The London Gazette announces Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery at Passchendaele.
Captain Matt Aggus (left) and Lieut. Matiullah (Shumps) discuss their route through Adamzai. [Adam Day]
Defence Minister Bill Graham announces a doubling of the 600 Canadian Forces personnel in Afghanistan.
14 FEBRUARY 1940
No. 110 Army Cooperation Squadron sails from Halifax for Britain.
Naval Ensign of Canada, and previously the naval jack from 1968-2013. [Her Majesty the Queen’s, Public Domain]
The navy lowers the white and blue ensigns for the last time on ships and shore, replacing it with the new Canadian Maple Leaf.
Major Charles Hoey VC. [Sharif Tarabay]
In Burma, a wounded Major Charles Hoey leads his company under heavy machine-gun fire to capture a vital position; he is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. [LAC]
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, former prime minister, dies.
John Babcock at the age of 20. Babcock (July 23, 1900 – February 18, 2010) was, at age 109, the last known surviving veteran of the Canadian military to have served in the First World War and, since the death of Harry Patch, the conflict’s oldest surviving participant. [Reproduction of image credited to Canadian Press/Larry MacDougal, Public Domain]
John Babcock, last known Canadian First World War veteran, dies.
19 FEBRUARY 1915
The Allies begin a naval attack on the Dardanelles.
Habibullah Khan was the Emir of Afghanistan from 1901 until his assassination in 1919. He was born in Tashkent, the eldest son of the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, whom he succeeded by right of primogeniture in October 1901. [Wikimedia Commons]
The Amir of Afghanistan is assassinated for supporting neutrality during the First World War.
French trench at Côte 304, Verdun. [public domain]
The Battle of Verdun begins.
HMCS Weyburn, circa 1942-1943. [Canadian Navy Heritage website]
HMCS Weyburn hits a mine and sinks near Gibraltar.
23 FEBRUARY 1909
Canada’s first controlled heavier-than-air machine flight takes off in Baddeck Bay, N.S.
River class frigate HMCS Wakesiu. [Naval Museum of Manitoba]
HMCS Waskesiu sinks U-257 in the North Atlantic.
25 FEBRUARY 1916
The 224th Canadian Forestry Battalion is authorized by the Department of Militia.
[Public Domain]
Robert Nelson gathers 600 volunteers in Vermont aiming to free Lower Canada to join the U.S.; invades; and is repelled.
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