Monthly Archives: July 2024

Leaders condemn latest Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared this image of a young hospital patient wounded in Monday’s Russian missile attack.(ZELENSKYY/X)

Leaders condemn latest Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Moscow came under renewed condemnation this week after a series of Russian missile strikes killed at least 39 people in Ukraine, including a pediatrician and another adult at the country’s largest children’s hospital.

About 20 children were being treated in the ward hit Monday at Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. Pictures showed young children, some with IV drips, sitting outside as the hospital was evacuated.

“One part of the hospital was destroyed and there was a fire in another,” said Dr. Lesia Lysytsia. “It’s really very damaged—maybe 60-70 per cent of the hospital.”

Major David Currie.(WIKIMEDIA)

Remembering David Currie, V.C.

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Major David Currie remembered it being around 5 o’clock on a Wednesday when he first heard the news of having earned the Victoria Cross.

“I was staggered,” recalled The South Alberta Regiment tanker in a CBC radio interview recorded in the Netherlands. “I sat down, had a cigarette, and thought it over.”

Currie, born July 8, 1912, was 32-years-old when he displayed actions worthy of the military’s highest honour. Although a native of Sunderland, Sask., he grew up in Moose Jaw where his family lived between 1913 and 1939. It was there that he went to school, eventually pursuing a career as a vehicle mechanic and welder.

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Close shaves on land and sea: Wayne Arnold’s war

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Captains Albert Johnson and Gordon of the 1st Battalion, The Canadian Scottish Regiment, take part in a house-clearing training exercise in England on April 22, 1944. (KENNETH H. HAND/DND/LAC/PA-162246)

Close shaves on land and sea:

Wayne Arnold’s war

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Wayne Arnold’s war started on an early autumn day in 1943 somewhere on the North Atlantic, much sooner than he might have expected.

The Empress, Alta., native and thousands of other recruits were enjoying the summer-like warmth aboard the requisitioned Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth, four years out of the shipyards of Clydebank, Scotland, and three days out from Pier 21 in Halifax, when the ship’s alarm sounded.

It was 2:30 p.m. and Arnold, a corporal destined for the ranks of The Canadian Scottish Regiment, was on the sundeck basking in the company of about 200 nurses.

SS Jasper Park 1943 (WIKIMEDIA)

SS Jasper Park sunk: A Canadian Merchant Navy tale

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Seaman Jack Sharkey had seen something strange on the water.

Sailing aboard SS Jasper Park—a 7,129-ton Canadian Merchant Navy vessel launched in 1942—the young sailor remained at his lookout until he was relieved at 4 p.m., whereupon he reported his sighting to the watch officer.

In his superior’s presence that July 5, 1943, he explained the appearance of a vessel on a steady bearing, hull down on the port bow, making intermittent small puffs of smoke. Having witnessed it from the crow’s nest—as clear of a view as he could get—Sharkey was certain a U-boat was on the hunt.

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Liberty Cemetery Time Capsule Dedication Ceremony 2024

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Earlier today, the dedication ceremony for the Liberty Cemetery Time Capsule was held at Liberty Cemetery in Petaluma. Comrades Michael Barbour, Christopher Hogue, and Lisa Barbour were in attendance at the event. Branch 25’s contribution to the time capsule was one of each of its two challenge coins, as well as the general challenge coin from the Royal Canadian Legion. Additionally, we added an old branch pin that was created sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s, and – of course – a poppy.