Search for ""

48th Highlanders of Canada. Toronto militia regiment formed in 1891, and with a distinguished record of active service in both world wars.

The CF-100 Canuck, manufactured by A.V. Roe Canada (Avro), was the first jet fighter designed and built entirely in Canada. It flew in front-line air defence from 1953 until the early 1960s.

See ARMED FORCES; ARMY.

The Crimean War, 1854-56, interrupted a half-century of peace between the European great powers.

The Army Benevolent Fund Board was established under the Army Benevolent Fund Act (1947) to administer funds in special accounts existing in the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Wartime Prices and Trade Board, est 3 Sept 1939 by the Canadian government immediately before the onset of WORLD WAR II, and initially responsible to the Dept of Labour. Its creation reflected the government's concern that WWI conditions of inflation and social unrest should not return.

During the Second World War, on 19 August 1942, the Allies launched a major raid on the French coastal port of Dieppe. Operation Jubilee was the first Canadian Army engagement in the European theatre of the war, designed to test the Allies' ability to launch amphibious assaults against Adolf Hitler's "Fortress Europe." The raid was a disaster: More than 900 Canadian soldiers were killed, and thousands more were wounded and taken prisoner. Despite the bloodshed, the raid provided valuable lessons for subsequent Allied amphibious assaults on Africa, Italy and Normandy.

Military recruiting is the practice of enlisting people to serve in the armed forces.

The Navy League of Canada is a volunteer organization founded in 1918 under federal charter, but tracing its origins to branches of the British Empire Navy League established in Canada from 1895.

Fort Michilimackinac (Michigan) refers to three distinct military posts at the Straits of Mackinac between lakes Huron and Michigan. French explorers arrived by 1634, establishing a mission on the north mainland in 1671 and a fort in 1690 (St Ignace, Mich).

The Québec City Armoury, in Place Georges V, dates back to 1884 when architect Eugène-Étienne Taché drew up the building plans alternately with those for the Québec National Assembly and the old Palais de justice.

Boyd's troops were doggedly pursued by a significantly smaller British force led by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Wanton Morrison. After constant pressure from Canadian Voltigeurs and Tyendinaga Mohawks under Morrison's command, Boyd finally turned his army to confront them.

The Battle of Queenston Heights was fought during the War of 1812 on 13 October 1812. One of the most famous battles of the war, the Battle of Queenston Heights was the struggle for a portion of the Niagara escarpment overlooking Queenston, where more than 1,000 American soldiers crossed into Upper Canada. Part of the American force reached the top, circled the British artillery position and forced the British from the Heights. General Isaac Brock, one of the most respected British military leaders of his day, was killed leading a counter-attack. Mohawk chiefs John Norton and John Brant and about 80 Haudenosaunee and Delaware warriors held back the Americans for hours — long enough for reinforcements to arrive so that the British could retain the crucial outpost.

​As the only combatant unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) whose official language was French, the 22nd (French Canadian) Infantry Battalion, commonly referred to as the “Van Doos” (from vingt-deux, meaning twenty-two in French), was subject to more scrutiny than most Canadian units in the First World War.

One of the worst war crimes in Canadian history occurred in June, 1944, during the Battle of Normandy, following the D-Day landings of the Second World War. As many as 156 Canadian soldiers, taken prisoner by German forces, were executed by their captors during various incidents in the Normandy countryside.

Canada helped develop the world’s first nuclear reactors and nuclear arms. During the Second World War, Canada participated in British research to create an atomic weapon. In 1943, the British nuclear weapons program merged with its American equivalent, the Manhattan Project. Canada’s main contribution was the Montreal Laboratory, which later became the Chalk River Laboratory. (See Nuclear Research Establishments). This Allied war effort produced the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. It also led to the development of Canada’s nuclear energy industry.

Click here for definitions of key terms used in this article.

The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was fought during the First World War from 31 July to 10 November 1917. The battle took place on the Ypres salient on the Western Front, in Belgium, where German and Allied armies had been deadlocked for three years. On 31 July, the British began a new offensive, attempting to break through German lines by capturing a ridge near the ruined village of Passchendaele. After British, Australian and New Zealand troops launched failed assaults, the Canadian Corps joined the battle on 26 October. The Canadians captured the ridge on 6 November, despite heavy rain and shelling that turned the battlefield into a quagmire. Nearly 16,000 Canadians were killed or wounded. The Battle of Passchendaele did nothing to help the Allied effort and became a symbol of the senseless slaughter of the First World War.