Browse "Wars"

It was June 12, 1944, and the D-Day invasion of Normandy was less than a week old. Waves of Allied bombers were pounding German positions, but on this afternoon Flying Officer Patrick Brophy, 22, from Port Arthur, Ont., was feeling uneasy.

The Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) were a series of wars between France and shifting alliances between other European powers.

The National War Labour Board was established in 1941 with 5 regional boards to enforce the Canadian government's program of wage stabilization in the volatile wartime economy. The first chairman was Humphrey MITCHELL, later minister of labour.

As early as 1909 the Conservative Party believed that Canada should contribute "emergency" funds to help the Royal Navy maintain its superiority over the German navy. In March 1912 the RN required more "dreadnought" battleships.

On 6 June 1944, Canadian forces took part in the greatest amphibious operation in military history. Over 10,000 Canadian sailors in 110 warships, 15 RCAF squadrons and 14,000 soldiers took part in D-Day.

​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.

The North Shore (NB) Regiment (NS(NB)R) is a bilingual, primary reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is part of the 5th Canadian Division, 37th Canadian Brigade Group. The regimental headquarters is located in Bathurst, New Brunswick. Regimental battle honours include Passchendaele, Ypres 1917 and Hill 70 (First World War); the Normandy Landing and the Battle of the Scheldt (Second World War).

The Battle of Paardeberg was the first time men in Canadian uniform, fighting in a Canadian unit, made war overseas. It also inspired one of the first remembrance ceremonies in Canada: from 1900 until the end of the First World War, Canadians gathered not on November 11, but on February 27 — Paardeberg Day — to commemorate the country’s war dead and its achievements in South Africa (see also Remembrance Day in Canada).

How does memory speak to us? Each November, over 13 million poppies blossom on the jackets, dresses and hats of Canadians.

FROM HIS hilltop perch overlooking the fertile Lalandar Valley, Shaheen is prepared for war. Or perhaps, in his mind, the conflicts that have swept through the mountains around Kabul have not ended.

The Permanent Joint Board on Defence is a Canadian-American advisory body established at Ogdensburg, NY, 18 August 1940, by PM Mackenzie King and US President F.D. Roosevelt.

​In 1991, Canada joined an international military coalition to confront Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait. It was the first time Canada sent women to war in combat roles.

A Pinky Schooner was an ancient type of vessel adapted to a primitive sloop or schooner rig in the British North American colonies and widely used in the Maritime provinces until the early 1900s. Often less than 14 m long, they were cheap to build and ideally suited for fishing.

Privateering refers to government licensing of private vessels to wage war. In Canada, privateering dated back to Samuel Argall's attack in 1613 on PORT-ROYAL, Acadia. From 1756 to 1815 British privateers sailed from Halifax, Liverpool and other Atlantic ports, cruising as far south as Venezuela.

Rainbow, a light cruiser serving in the Royal Navy from 1891 until 1910, when the Canadian government purchased the ship for the new Royal Canadian Navy. After its arrival at Esquimalt, BC, 7 Nov 1910, its duties included training and fisheries patrol.

Members of the Women’s Division (WD) of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) were wartime pioneers. Thousands of young Canadian women volunteered to serve at home and abroad during the Second World War as part of the air force.

RCAF Blackouts. Entertainment troupe, one of several organized during World War II by air force personnel.

On 6 June 1944, Canadian Forces landed on Juno Beach. D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion of all time and marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War. In 2019, Historica Canada released a Heritage Minute telling the story of 47-year-old Major Archie MacNaughton, a First World War veteran and leader of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment’s A Company. In this article, Anthony Wilson-Smith, president of Historica Canada, reflects on the making of the D-Day Minute.

While they may not have had access to the battlefields, a number of Canadian women artists made their mark on the visual culture of the First World War by representing the home front. First among these were the women affiliated with the Canadian War Memorials Fund, Canada’s first official war art program. Founded in 1916, the stated goal of the Fund was to provide “suitable Memorials in the form of Tablets, Oil-Paintings, etc. […], to the Canadian Heroes and Heroines in the War.” Expatriates Florence Carlyle and Caroline Armington participated in the program while overseas. Artists Henrietta Mabel May, Dorothy Stevens, Frances Loringand Florence Wyle were commissioned by the Fund to visually document the war effort in Canada.

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed on 13 April 1912 to satisfy Britain's need for a military presence in the expanding field of aviation.