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Heavy ice forces new Russian icebreaker on long southerly voyage

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Russia’s newest icebreaker—an 82-metre, 4,000-ton naval vessel—has joined its Pacific fleet off the Kamchatka peninsula, just across the Bering Sea from Alaska.

But the route the Yevpatii Kolovrat navigated in mid-May has raised some eyebrows.

Instead of traversing Arctic waters from the St. Petersburg shipyard where it was built, the ship sailed out into the Atlantic and south to the Mediterranean Sea. It then passed through the Suez Canal and crossed the Indian Ocean into the Philippine Sea before it arrived at its home port in Petropavlovsk in the North Pacific. The route is easily twice as long as the northern passage to Kamchatka.

Why would Russia’s newest icebreaker not sail the Arctic waters for which it was intended? The answer: heavy ice.

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Wikipedia

North America’s Unknown WW II Campaign

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

Alaska’s Aleutian Islands have a violent beauty to them, crowned with steep cliffs, 2,000-metre-plus-high mountains and active volcanoes, all protected by the white horses of ocean waves. Cold and brooding, the islands stand in hushed resistance between life and death.

Many don’t know, however, that this archipelago to the southeast of the Bering Sea had a place in the memories of some Second World War veterans.

The Aleutian Islands Campaign took place from June 1942 to August 1943. It was a challenging campaign, not only because of the enemy force, but because of the geography. It was also the only action fought on North American soil during the war. Canada’s contribution was its army’s second largest in the Pacific theatre. One of its battles, the Battle of Attu, marked its 80th anniversary on May 11, but still, the campaign is considered a “Forgotten Battle.”

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THE RCMP GUIDON

STORY BY GRAHAM MUIR

There’s much to be written about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police guidon with the organization celebrating its 150th anniversary. This year, the force will consecrate, present and parade a new regimental colour, and lay up its old guidon.

As such, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the RCMP’s storied past, particularly to edify the many Canadians who aren’t aware of the force’s service abroad to Crown and country.

The history told through honours received and carried on the force’s guidon is exclusive to its actions in theatres of war. The RCMP’s extraordinary contributions to international peace operations and United Nations peacekeeping is not included, though that’s not to say it doesn’t matter—rather that it’s not war per se. Anyone who has offered themselves in the service of peace during internecine civil strife and violence knows better.

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