The Briefing Archives - Legion Magazine

Chaplain historian highlights Canadian padres of WW II

Alex Bowers — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:52:21 +0000

“What makes a man go to war without a weapon to serve on the front line in some of the harshest situations, sometimes giving up his freedom willingly, and in other times, making the ultimate sacrifice?” wondered author Ian Pegg about chaplains in the Second World War. His curiosity for the answer led him to …

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Veterans’ post-WW II experience examined in new Canadian War Museum exhibit

Alex Bowers — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:37:37 +0000

It’s no secret that the widely known “greatest generation” is fast disappearing. In August 1995, there were said to be 501,690 living Second World War veterans in Canada. In 2010, that number had decreased to around 163,000. As recently as 2023, combined figures for WW II and the Korean War indicated that little more than …

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Toronto’s Little Canada unveils Dutch liberation miniature

Alex Bowers — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:43:08 +0000

Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer was “only supposed to come to Canada for two years.” It’s now been 26, explains the proud Canadian. Originally from the Netherlands, one of his fondest childhood memories is being enamoured by Madurodam in The Hague, a miniature park and tourist attraction hosting tiny scale models of Dutch landmarks. Such was its …

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British-born French resident honours locally buried Canadian airmen

Alex Bowers — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 17:51:45 +0000

In Méharicourt Communal Cemetery, about 45 minutes from Courcelette, France, lies WW II Canadian Victoria Cross recipient Andrew Mynarski. Etched into the white—if weathered—gravestone is the symbol of the Commonwealth’s highest military honour, earned on June 13, 1944, when the Royal Canadian Air Force airman attempted to save a trapped member of his crew while …

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“The Samurai in Our Closet”: New podcast highlights Japanese-Canadian WW II service and civilian internment

Alex Bowers — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 17:45:13 +0000

Mandy Shintani remembers the samurai sword in her family closet. Just a child at the time, the third-generation Japanese-Canadian—or Sansei—had little understanding of where, exactly, the sword came from and why it was there. It belonged to her father, that much she knew, but the reason it stayed hidden away and how it had come …

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Remembering a Canadian downed by U.K. friendly fire in WW II.

Alex Bowers — Wed, 28 May 2025 17:42:11 +0000

Craig McKie of Fraser Valley, B.C., never met his father. He was just two months old on May 29, 1944, when Flying Officer Donald Galloway Watt McKie of Toronto, piloting the Wellington bomber LN443, lost his life, along with all five other crew members, following a friendly fire incident near the rural English village of …

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Phil Craig confronts colonialism in new book

Alex Bowers — Wed, 21 May 2025 18:04:51 +0000

British author and filmmaker Phil Craig has long anticipated completing his book trilogy on the Second World War. First came Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain in 1999, co-written with Tim Clayton. In 2002, a second collaborative effort—again with Clayton—produced End of the Beginning, retracing the desperate days from May to November 1942 to coincide …

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Author Amy Fish Talks Canadian Altruism for a Holocaust survivor

Alex Bowers — Wed, 14 May 2025 14:28:13 +0000

Canadian author Amy Fish is first to acknowledge “I usually write funny books,” from The Art of Complaining Effectively to I Wanted Fries with That. Her latest tome, however, is seemingly anything but humorous, charting the exploits of a Holocaust survivor as she finally learns the truth behind her lost familial roots. The newly released …

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Documentary highlights Canada’s WW II farmerettes

Alex Bowers — Wed, 07 May 2025 18:00:28 +0000

For Bonnie Sitter, it began with an old photo; for Colin Field, a banjo. After her husband passed away in 2016, Sitter had been sifting through items when she unearthed a black-and-white image of three girls. Scrawled on the back of each was “Farmerettes,” the name bestowed upon Canadian teenagers who, throughout much of the …

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Combat videographer Alison MacLean talks new WW II documentary Op Faust: Hunger Winter ’45

Alex Bowers — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 18:12:25 +0000

Alison MacLean is no stranger to war. During numerous tours in Afghanistan, the Canadian-documentarian bore witness to some of the best of humanity, while also possibly experiencing some of the worst. It was during one of her four media embeds with a NATO country force when the latter played out and the Taliban tried to …

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