James Prinsep Beadle’s painting “Piper James Richardson, VC, Canadian Scottish, Regina Trench, 8.10.1916” hangs in the officers’ mess of the Royal Scots Regiment in Edinburgh. Lance Corporal Richardson is one of four members of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish Regiment) awarded the Victoria Cross during WWI. (BAGPIPE NEWS)

The badass bagpipers of the 16th Battalion

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

It was Oct. 8, 1916, and the Battle of the Somme had been raging for more than three months. Allied forces were making their final push against fierce German defences dug in at Regina Trench on the heights overlooking the Ancre river valley.

The 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish Regiment) was crossing more than 600 metres of no man’s land to their objective in the pre-dawn hour, advancing in “long, snake-like lines…by the light of the bursting shells,” as one officer described it, when they were stopped dead in their tracks.

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Steve McQueen (left) with Wally Floody, who was a technical advisor in production of the 1963 film The Great Escape. [Wikipedia]

The Canadian connection to Victoria Cross recipient Edmund De Wind

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

When Wally Floody was commissioned as a pilot officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, he didn’t realize he was going to earn the moniker “The Tunnel King.” Formerly working in the northern Ontario gold mines, Floody’s mining skills were tested when he was taken prisoner and sent to the infamous German Stalag Luft III. There, he became an architect of the Great Escape, one of history’s more iconic prison breaks, in which 76 Allied airmen fleed the facility 80 years ago.

Born in Chatham, Ont., in 1918, Floody enlisted in the RCAF at the outset of the Second World War and was put on the waiting list for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. After some persuading—since the RCAF was looking for single men and Floody was married—he was ordered to report to No. 2 Manning Depot in Brandon, Man., on Thanksgiving weekend 1940.

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Lieutenant Francis Henry (Frank) Hemsley, a Prince Albert, Sask., farmer born in England, was killed in 1917 at the Battle of Hill 70. [DND]

Soldier’s remains identified 107 years after he was killed at Hill 70

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Back in August 2012, a bomb disposal unit clearing unexploded WW I ordnance at a construction site in the French village of Vendin-le-Vieil unearthed human remains and a few telltale artifacts.

There were fragments of a gas mask and a helmet, a pair of badly damaged boots and, most important, several buttons clearly marked “16th Battalion, Canadian Scottish Regiment.”

The 16th fought a few kilometres away at Hill 70 in August 1917. The remains of multiple Canadians killed in the battle have been discovered at Vendin-le-Vieil and identified in recent years, including other members of the 16th.

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Second Lieutenant Edmund De Wind. [Wikipedia]

The Canadian connection to Victoria Cross recipient Edmund De Wind

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

During the German-led Operation Michael on March 21, 1918, Lieutenant-Colonel C.G. Cole-Hamilton recognized one person’s “great courage and magnificent fighting at the head of his platoon:” Second Lieutenant Edmund De Wind. More than a century ago, a wounded De Wind held a critical post near Grugies, France, for seven hours before being killed.

Born in Comber, Northern Island, in 1883, De Wind immigrated to Canada and was working at the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Edmonton when the First World War started. De Wind enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and arrived in France with the 2nd Division in 1915. He went on to fight at the Somme, St. Eloi, Ypres and Vimy Ridge.

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