Just out, this issue of Canada’s History Magazine commemorates the 100th anniversary of the formation of the RCAF.
In “The Darkest Nights”, by Joel Ralph, The Battle of Berlin, where Allied bombers relentlessly attacked the German capital and other important targets, is recalled through the story of Canadian aircrew, bomb aimer Joe Halloran, navigator Sid Philp, and pilot Roger Coulombe. The missions, over heavily defended cities like Berlin, Magdeburg, and Leipzig, saw them facing the threat of anti-aircraft fire, searchlights, and deadly night fighters. Aircrews like Halloran, Philp, and Coulombe were products of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Their stories are commemorated at museums such as Bomber Command Museum in Nanton, Alberta.
Planes of the RCAF, by Joel Ralph, is a quick look at five iconic aircraft, from the First World War to the 1980s. They are the Sopwith Camel, Vickers Vedette, Hawker Hurricane, F-86 Sabre and C-100 Canuck
Men against the Desert, by Dawn Martens, is the story of two downed airmen, Canadian Flight Sergeant Robert Leslie Spemce and Australian Air Gunner Sergeant John Wood’s 560 km trek through enemy territory to freedom when their plan was forced down.
The 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO on 4 April 1949 is not forgotten.
Books reviewed are:
Blood on the Coal: The True Story of the Great
Springhill Mine Disaster, by Ken Cuthbertson
Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada, by Stephen R. Bown
New World Dreams: Canadian Pacific Railway and the Golden Northwest, by David Laurence Jones
The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson, and the Making
of Modern Canada, by John Ibbitson
Trees Against the Wind: The Birth of Prairie Shelterbelts, by William R. Schroeder
Oak Island Odyssey: A Masonic Quest
by Scott Clarke
There’s a lot more too!