U.S. Army Specialist Peter Lemon, a native of Toronto, earned a Medal of Honor during a North Vietnamese attack on his firebase in South Vietnam on April 1, 1970. He was 19. (PETER C. LEMON)

The teenager who became Canada’s last Medal of Honor recipient

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

On April 1, 1970, U.S. Army Specialist Peter Charles Lemon was on the perimeter of Firebase Illingworth, five kilometres from the Cambodian border in southwest Vietnam, fighting for his life as more than 400 North Vietnamese troops attacked.

It was 2:17 on a Wednesday morning and the Americans of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, knew the enemy were coming. Ground surveillance radar had found them stacked up and swarming at the tree line.

READ MORE

More from Front Lines

• Hitler’s Showcase: The 1936 Olympic Games
• Take no prisoners: Canadians and battlefield executions
• The badass bagpipers of the 16th Battalion

HMCS Esquimalt. (Wikipedia)

The U-Boat Menace Returns: HMCS Esquimalt Sunk in Canadian Waters

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The dim lights of Halifax—no longer in total blackout since the war’s tide had turned in the Allies’ favour—were visible from HMCS Esquimalt in the early hours of April 16, 1945. Situated around 32 kilometres offshore, the minesweeper had joined HMCS Sarnia in searching for U-boats that were, according to Allied intelligence, operating off the coast.

Gone were the days of Die Glückliche Zeit—or ‘The Happy Time,’ as the German Kriegsmarine’s initial success in the Atlantic had once been known. The Battle of the St. Lawrence, while not quite a distant memory, had never posed the same existential threat as it had back in 1942. Indeed, over the years since, the so-called wolf-pack hunters had largely become the hunted.

READ MORE

More from Military Milestones

• Canada and the Spanish Civil War
• Canada’s First American Victoria Cross
• A Canadian connection to WW II’s Great Escape

Member Benefit Partner

Learn more