RCAF’s first Distinguished Flying Cross

An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Landmine removal efforts lagging
in Afghanistan as casualties mount

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Old landmines, unexploded ordnance and abandoned munitions claimed more than 20,000 casualties in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2018, the vast majority of them civilian, says a new report that serves as a damning indictment of coalition pledges to clean up the detritus of four decades of war in the beleaguered country.

RCAF’s first Distinguished Flying Cross

Story by Sharon Adams

On Oct. 22, 1940, Squadron Leader Ernest McNab of Saskatoon was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the first member of the Royal Canadian Air Force to be decorated (excluding those Canadians serving with the Royal Air Force).

Commanding officer of Canada’s first fighter squadron, McNab was also the first to see combat. He shot down a German Dornier bomber on his first foray with the RAF during the Battle of Britain on Aug. 15, 1940, during a training mission to gain battle experience.