WW2¶
Posts tagged with WW2.
Posts¶
Retrospective of 100 posts. Post Date 2026-08-18
History of Gdansk where the First Shots of the Second World War Were Fired. Post Date 2026-08-02
Post Date 2026-07-23
During my recent visit to Normandy, I traced the path of my Uncle Les Allen, a Corporal in the Mortar Platoon of the Royal Regiment of Canada. They landed on Juno Beach a month after D-Day and fought their way south in several operations leading up to Operation Tractable 8-10 Aug 1944.
Post Date 2026-07-07
During my previous trips to Normandy, I had visited all of the D-Day beaches except Sword Beach, and I wanted to correct that oversight. Sword is the easternmost beach and probably the least explored.
Post Date 2026-06-18
I had visited Normandy several times, so this time, I concentrated on major German Defensive installations along the Normandy coast that I had not pre...
Post Date 2026-06-08
My good friend Sandy Cyr’s grandfather Jan (John) Scholte served in the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade in WW2. The Irenes briefly served under the Secon...
Post Date 2026-04-29
An interactive map of the Hussars’ journey is available here....
Post Date 2026-04-22
This Easter, Rachel and I visited Italy, spending the week in the beach town of Rimini. Throughout our travels we have reached an exchange rate of com...
Post Date 2025-12-12
November 5th, 2024, was an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day in the US Military Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. I visited the cemetery to pa...
Post Date 2025-11-10
The Canadian Liberation March from Hoofdplaat to Knokke-Heist commemorates the 1944 liberation of Belgium and parts of the Netherlands by Canadian for...
Post Date 2025-07-04
During my visit to the Channel Ports, I stopped at a number of Atlantic Wall fortifications and visited Dunkirk, the site of the great retreat of the ...
Post Date 2025-06-29
One of this spring’s tours was to follow the Canadians as they fought their way north from Normandy to clear the channel ports to reduce the logistic ...
Post Date 2025-06-12
As part of my tour tracing the paths of Uncles Norm Kightley 8th Hussars and George Johnston, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada through the ...
Post Date 2025-06-04
Rachel’s buddies Janaya and Beth were visiting for the weekend, so I took the opportunity to follow my Uncle Norm of the 8th Hussars of the 5th Armour...
Post Date 2025-04-12
Norm Kightley was my uncle on my mother’s side of the family. He and his wife Marj were frequent visitors to our family, and I knew him better than an...
Post Date 2025-02-10
During our tour of Malta, we went to the Lascaris War Rooms, where the British controlled the air defence of Malta. The same location was used for the...
Post Date 2025-01-27
Malta was the most heavily bombed country in the Second World War. The history of Malta is fascinating and the struggles the island and its people wen...
Post Date 2024-11-30
I was looking for something else and came across a number of RCAF aircrew who are buried in the Maastricht General Cemetery, very close to Rachel’s pl...
Post Date 2024-11-26
Percy Ivan Mervyn was born on February 20, 1925, to Albert Mervyn and Dorothy Mittie Dickson in Sault Ste Marie. He was their second son. His older br...
Post Date 2024-11-10
This year was the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belgium and the Netherlands and the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Liberation March....
Post Date 2024-10-30
My next stop on the D-Day tour was Gold Beach, the British Beach in the centre of the D-Day landings. Gold Beach had 4 sectors, but due to the cliffs ...
Post Date 2024-10-27
As I continued on my Normandy Tour, I took a one-day Canadian Beaches and inland tour. I had been to Juno beach before but felt since the tour was goi...
Post Date 2024-10-24
I hadn’t visited any US D-Day beaches during my previous visit to Normandy, so I decided to take a one-day tour of the beaches. Most of my research ha...
Post Date 2024-10-11
During a recent visit to Normandy, I visited a number of locations associated with Flight Lieutenant Robert McKenzie, a Typhoon Pilot who was tragical...
Post Date 2024-10-10
The exploration of the Battle of the Scheldt continued, looking at the Action on the Northern Bank. Fortunately, I did not have to sleep in a slit tre...
Post Date 2024-10-08
Thanks to a teacher girls’ weekend in Milan, Rachel’s car and I got to spend some time exploring the Battle of the Scheldt, a major Canadian battle to...
Post Date 2024-09-26
As part of the 80th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden there was a demonstration of the parachute drop at Eerde, just north of Eindhoven, original...
Post Date 2024-09-25
I was fortunate to arrive back in the Netherlands in time for celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Limburg region of the Neth...
Post Date 2024-04-13
Adjacent to the Sea War Museum was the Thyboron Fortress, a portion of Germany’s World War Two Atlantic Wall. The Atlantic Wall contains over 8000 co...
Post Date 2023-11-07
Every year, in order to honour the Liberation of Belgium and the Netherlands, the Canadian Liberation March from Hoofdplaat, Netherlands to Knokke-Hei...
Post Date 2023-10-31
After a week off to explore some of the cultural aspects of Europe, Rachel and I visited the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael, just 10 km from Maastricht. The ...
Post Date 2023-10-20
During my trek through Germany and the Netherlands, I stopped at the Overloon Museum. The museum was founded in 1946 and became the first museum dedic...
Post Date 2023-10-19
Leslie William Joseph McKenna was born on 28 Dec 1924 in Stonecliffe, ON son of William McKenna and Margret Ellen Conway. They lived in North Bay when...
Post Date 2023-10-19
Steve McKenna has been a buddy of mine since grade nine. We went through high school together, signed up for RMC together, and spent most of our caree...
Post Date 2023-09-29
The Canada Museum was founded in 1994, and the Polish section was opened in 2004 by Gilbert Van Landschoot as a tribute to the Canadian and Polish lib...
Post Date 2023-09-28
During my trip to the Atlantic Wall, I was recommended twice to visit the Private Museum For Freedom in Knokke–Heist, the final region to be liberated...
Post Date 2023-09-27
Private Joseph Christopher Raymond Cadeau B/119256...
Post Date 2023-09-25
Adegem Canadian War Cemetery...
Post Date 2023-09-23
With Rachel in Dublin on a girl’s trip, her car and I decided to storm the Atlantic Wall....
Post Date 2023-09-19
Operation Market Garden was Gen Montgomery’s bold plan to take the bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem, by dropping the British 1st Para Division at Arn...
Post Date 2023-09-19
George is in the 3rd row, second from the right....
Post Date 2023-09-18
The Canadians were given the task of clearing the Scheldt Estuary, so that the liberated port of Antwerp could be used to supply the Allied Advance, a...
Post Date 2023-09-13
In 1942 the Allies were under pressure to open up a second front against the Germans. They did not have the resources for a full scale invasion, so it...
Post Date 2023-09-12
There were 2 man-made harbours code named Mulberry Harbours, one on the US sector at Omaha Beach, and on in the British Sector at Gold Beach. Work on ...
Post Date 2023-09-11
Today’s tour focused on the battles following the D-Day invasion. Despite the initial successes of D-Day, the Canadians had not met all their objectiv...
Post Date 2023-09-11
Thomas Leonard Easton was born on February 17, 1915, in Sudbury to Harry James Easton and Florence Elizabeth Adcock. Harry and Elizabeth were both bor...
Post Date 2023-09-10
The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and tanks of the 2nd Armoured Division were selected to attack a 10 km stretch of coastline known as Juno Beach....
Post Date 2023-09-10
On our first real day of touring we hit Juno beach, and it hit back hard. I had written a Juno Beach story before seeing it in person, and that blog w...